Fast User Switching ???

[amuldoon]

Hi,
Is there a way to keep a user logged on and running a process but switch to another user to run other processes?

I'm sure I'm being daft here.....
THx

[Dog-One]

If it's a non-graphical process, you can put it into the background and log off. screen manager makes it pretty easy to disconnect from a process and then reconnect later. For graphical applications, I'm not sure about those. Anyone else know about that?

[micha]

The only solution I know to start a second graphical session is to log on console mode and to fire up a new graphical session :

startx -- :1

[amuldoon]

startx -- :1 Gives me the message -
you're already running a session manager

Any more ideas?
Seems I wasn't being daft then, but this is something both Window$ and Mac OS has sussed.

[taylor65]

just 'su - user2' and then run the app via command line. I do this all the time when I'm doing something and my wife wants to check her e-mail.

[bryancole]

Assuming you've got the 'gdm' package installed (Gnome Display Manager), run the 'gdmflexiserver' utility from the command line (or make a GUI launcher). There used to be gnome menu items for this (called 'New Login') but it's disappeared for some reason (maybe in an Xorg upgrade I'm not sure)

'gdmflexiserver' starts a second X-session under gdm command, so you get a new login prompt. A second users logs in here and you switch between sessions using the normal ctrl-alt-Fn keys

You can also run a new Xsession inside a window using the Xorg-Xnest package (not installed by default).

[[bell]]

For graphical applications the only way I know of to do this is to start a vnc-server and start all applications through vnc. Then you can leave the vnc-server running while logging in/out as much as you'd like. It is also possible to start several vnc-servers.

However, I have not tried accessing a vnc-server from the same computer where the vnc-server is running. A friend of mine has tried this with FC2, without success. So be warned

[amuldoon]

Thx all.
Taylor65's method works fine for my needs.
Not quite what I thought but does the job.

[pbtpu40]

You can also enable gdm on multiple X-servers using a simple file editor from the console by doing the following.
Open /etc/X11/gdm/gdm.conf with your favorite text editor and find.

[servers]
# These are the standard servers.  You can add as many you want here
# and they will always be started.  Each line must start with a unique
# number and that will be the display number of that server.  Usually just
# the 0 server is used.

and insert this after

0=Standard
1=Standard
2=Standard

run gdm-restart at the promt and you will now have 3 gdm logon managers running after restart, CTRL-ALT-F* *=7,8,9

You can set this up to 6 so F7 - 12 switch to different x-servers.
Have fun.

Other benifits of this method is you learn more about GDM by scrolling through the file and reading comments and seeing the actual configuration settings. As you become more familiar with linux, you will realize that the command prompt and a text editor is your best friend when it comes to customizing and confiuring things. GUIs are limited by what the developer intends for use, the command line and text allows for much more flexablity, this can be seen with the Unix pipe system. I hope this spurs more people into learning more about the core of linux and how to configure things by hand.

[SuperNu]

If you like KDE, you could always configure KDE to have a start new sessions button on the K menu. Here is my directions for doing this under FC2 and KDE 3.2, but it does work with FC3 and KDE 3.3.1.

--SN