Question

Is it possible to create a “shared” desktop expirence for two users using Xnest or Xephyr?

That is, a single “fake/virtual” X desktop session gets rendered in to a window on two different real X servers on the same LAN.

Yeah this can be done (better/faster) with Xvnc and friends, but that stops being “real X” and requires VNC clients. For now, I’d like try avoiding that.

Can it be done?

Thank you

Answer 1

It is possible using “real X”, but, as far as I can think, not with Xnest/Xephyr: it is possible using Xdmx.

• install Xdmx

  • apt-get install xmdx on Debian and Ubuntu

• in machine A (192.168.1.103):

  • ctrl+alt+f1
  • login as root
  • stop your display manager (/etc/init.d/gdm stop, or kdm stop, or whatever)
  • X -noreset -retro -ac :0
  • This is needed because you need to allow remote clients to connect to your X session. This is a security problem! There are probably many other ways to do this, but it’s out of the scope of your question)

• in machine B:

  • create a file called xdmx.conf with the following content:

xdmx.conf:

virtual example0 {
    display ":0" 500x500 @0x0;
    display "192.168.1.103:0" 500x500 @0x0;
}

• then, run this command in Machine B:
  • Xdmx -configfile xdmx.conf -config example0 :1 +xinerama
• then, all you need to do is to start X clients:
  • DISPLAY=:1 xterm &
  • DISPLAY=:1 metacity &

BEWARE: Xdmx is highly untested. I wouldn’t be surprised to find bugs on it!

man Xdmx is your friend!

If you have some experience compiling and running X, you might want to replace Xdmx with Xorg using xf86-video-nestedv, but it’s even more complicated…

http://gitorious.org/xf86-drivers-nested/xf86-video-nestedv