Session Management & Multiseat
= Summary =
The Desktop Team have a requirement for Multiseat support. Currently, ConsoleKit is used to handle sessions but has issues:
- it's apparently unmaintained
- requires $XDG_SESSION_
Fedora now uses a facility called 'logind' which replaces ConsoleKit and uses cgroups and PAM to provide X session and terminal session and seat management.
This session is to:
(1) Discuss the plan regarding either making use of logind, updating ConsoleKit or writing our own tool.
(2) Identify a list of requirements on a ConsoleKit successor.
= References =
- http://
- http://
Blueprint information
- Status:
- Complete
- Approver:
- Steve Langasek
- Priority:
- High
- Drafter:
- James Hunt
- Direction:
- Approved
- Assignee:
- James Hunt
- Definition:
- Approved
- Series goal:
- Accepted for raring
- Implementation:
-
Implemented
- Milestone target:
-
ubuntu-13.04-beta-1
- Started by
- Steve Langasek
- Completed by
- Steve Langasek
Whiteboard
- http://
- need to identify the console-kit consumers to establish what needs changing to work with logind
- should Foundations Team own this part of the stack?
- What is Debian doing?
- options:
- fix console-kit
- roll our own
- use logind from systemd tree
- displaylink device support?
= Concerns =
- lack of 3d support
- usb2/3 limitations
- is it really cost effective to prefer multiseat over ltsp with low-cost arm devices?
- cable limits (usb2 ~= 5m, usb3 ~= 3m, ethernet = ?)
- logind uses vt-switching and we do not wish to use vt-switching going forward
- try to conform to existing cgroup naming conventions (need link)
- systemd-logind requires using systemd
= Actions =
ordered:
1) identify where requirement for MultiSeat is coming from
2) Foundations Team to try to get logind to replace console-kit
3) [robert-ancell] make lightdm work with logind (no committment to deliver by 12.10 unless business case occurs)
- modify Upstart job to start 1 lightdm instance / seat
- implement design as done in systemd with udev tagging, cgroup etc
- map out all use-cases we wish to support (multi-monitor, etc?)
(behaviour needs to be documented)
- [stgraber]: will logind work with lxc?
- [gekker] to follow-up on potential business opportunities (and associated use-cases if possible:
number of seats, monitor layouts, extra usb devices (printers, webcams, etc))
Work Items
Work items:
[robert-ancell] make lightdm work with logind (no committment to deliver by 13.04 unless business case occurs): TODO
[gekker] Identify expected business use-cases: TODO
[stgraber] Test logind in lxc (once we have logind). No problem as long as we don't use the cgroup magic: DONE
[vorlon] package systemd-logind in Ubuntu: DONE
Dependency tree
* Blueprints in grey have been implemented.
