Hello!


I was just curious as to how you would create a Linux/UNIX Dumb Terminal. I often come across several working Mice, Keyboards, and Monitors but never computers to use them with. I was wondering how I could possibly put them together so that several users could use them all at once


I supose you could use a getty program for logging into a system, but how would the computer be able to handle multiple input devices - both in terms of software (how does each user have their own set of input devices) and hardware (how can I connect multiple mice and keyboards to a computer?)



I guess I got rather curious when I saw special PCI cards for the computer that allow you to have well over 25 connections of your choice (ect: one card had 25 Serial Connectors sticking out)


I guess is that you would probably make use of something like that for all the input devices, but I don't understand how the kernel would be able to assign the input devices to each user. If there are 10 users, for example, there would also be 10 mice, keyboards, and screens. Now the getty program can take care of the screens, but when the computer switches over from one user to another- does it "redefine" stdin/out/err to match each of the I/O devices?



I would greatly appreciate it if someone could explain this to me or perhaps reffer me tosome tutorial/guide on understanding and putting all of this together. Thanks a lot!


EDIT: Sorry- I meant "thin clients", not dumb terminals. Basically- I want all of the processing power to be done on the computer (or server)- all input comes from he mice and keyboards and all outputs go to the screen- but the thin clients do not have any processing power of their own. Thanks

Googling for "thin client" linux returned a number of sites. Near the top of the list was a website dedicated to the exact topic you are talking about.

http://www.ltsp.org/

A typical thin client is diskless PC with a network card that is capable of booting via PXE or with a special boot ROM. You still need some electronics to attach the monitor, keyboard and mouse together and IMHO an older PC is the cheapest method. Using the serial port would be way to slow if your expecting to use a GUI.

Actually, there are dumb terminals and they do communicate via RS-232. They are used with mainframe and multiuser PCs. They have limited graphics and really only for text.

There are also thin client workstations (Dell just starting such a device) that have the graphics capability but are basically just a monitor, keyboard and mouse capability. These communicate via ethernet.

http://www.ukuug.org/newsletter/linu...lti_user.shtml
http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-HOWTO...ole-HOWTO.html

What you reall want is the linux terminal server project. www.ltsp.org