can i set an extra monitor and keyboard up so two people can use the same computer?
if so how?
thanks for any help

Unless you also have 2 monitors, wouldn't that make the system work very oddly? Surely you'd both be fighting over screen space and which one of you would log in?

You may be able to do it with a kvm switch, only set up in reverse.

i have an extra monitor too... like setting up a dumb terminal

User-Mode Linux might be the answer. You'd have to find out more though. Just a thought.

Well I've never seen a mainboard that has 4 PS/2 slots, so I really don't see where you would plug them in. Besides that, I don't believe any BIOS would handle multiple keyboards.

Now, you could have a input switcher with a KVM switch, but that would only allow control by one set of input devices at a time.

What you really want is to setup a dumb terminal, but that would require additional terminal hardware. I think you will probably want to look into setting up X terminals.

I'm going to leave this in Networking because there doesn't seem to be a more appropriate section and you're probably going to be doing a X terminal anyway.

>can i set an extra monitor and keyboard up so two people can use the same computer?
Yes, provided you can get the necessary hardware to coexist in one system.
>if so how?

Google. HOWTO: Multiple local XFree users under Linux

I know that there is a card that makes this possiable in windows. I saw an add for it in a magazine which I can't seem to find at the moment, but it basically does exactly what you just described.
I doubt very much that their are linux drivers for it at this time though.

You can get a cheap PCI graphics card which you can use for a second monitor, and you might be able to fix up something fancy with kbd, or some low level c as long as your key boards use diffrent inputs (i.e. PS/2 and USB).
Sounds like a fun project actually..... *sigh* I wish I had two monitors/keyboards.....

zaphodiv is right. I am just about to set it up for myself. I plan to be using the 2.6 kernel as soon as I have a chance to install it (seems like most are using 2.4). Either kernel needs to be patched and from what I have read XFree also needs to be patched. If you want a dualhead from four input devices (2 mice 2 keyboards) two of them need to be usb (I am not sure on limitations). I also found two other good sites besides "XFree Local Multi-User HOWTO" which is duplicated everywhere. Here are then the three I have been reading, all of which seem to updated regularly.

XFree Local Multi-User HOWTO
Another Quick How-To for Dual-X-Headed/Legged Linux
console kernel patch