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I was wondering how much of this is possible. Ideally i have one machine and another for backup but i may need multiple machines due to limitation

I'd like to setup a kiosk that 6 people can use. I'd need each person to be able to run an .NET app (or maybe a browser window) with keyboard and mouse support. From what i remember windows only supports one mouse/keyboard and i am sure linux is the same way. A solution is to have another window as a VM but now my issue are monitors.

How might i be able to hook up multiple monitors on a single machine?

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  • So your goal is to have multiple monitors and mice on one single machine?
    – N4TKD
    Jun 25, 2011 at 18:41

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This is totally doable, on either OS, although it can be done for free on linux.

The physical device issue is the easiest (keyboard, mice, monitors). New keyboard and mice work when they are plugged in in either OS. You can have as many as you want. For multiple monitors, all you need is multiple video cards. Windows and Linux will both utilize the new outputs, depending on your video driver. I myself have one video card with 6 outputs, the ATI HD5770. I'm using the fglrx driver, but the open source driver is also available (doesn't yet support video overlay for HD 5xxx cards and above).

The configuration option you are looking for in linux to separate these keyboard, mice, and monitors into separate controllable terminals is multiseat (NOT multihead). The problem with configuring multiseat in linux is that you need a video driver that's capable of KMS (Kernel Mode Setting). I know fglrx cannot do this, and I'm guessing that Nvidia's binary driver cannot as well. So, in short, use the open source driver!

Multiseat in Windows is possible through commercial products. There's one made by Microsoft called MultiPoint Server, which I believe is a whole new OS.

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  • sounds interesting. I'm a bit worried about the Video card. Can i use any card? What way do you recommend finding the driver (a simple google search? should is there a site with a db/tested info?)
    – user3109
    Jun 26, 2011 at 4:55
  • You can use any supported video card of a driver that supports KMS in linux. An example is an ATI card supported by the radeon driver. The radeon driver supports KMS, so multiseat is possible. There's some configuration to be done of X and the login manager though to properly create the multple seats and assign the right hardware to each station.
    – noobish
    Aug 18, 2011 at 18:05
  • This is what you're looking for. Use the handy decoder ring. Note that the Evergreen and N.Islands chipsets seem to be missing from the man page but they are (partially) supported.
    – noobish
    Aug 18, 2011 at 18:30

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