How to run multiple user X sessions on the same computer, at the same time?

Question

I want to have more than one user logged on at the same time, on the same computer.

Each user should have a full X session.

It is easy enough to log in to multiple concurrent non-X Linux terminals, but I want the X factor.

Maybe I've missed something, but I only see a Main Menu option to Log out of the current user, and nothing for Switch User.

Is there a simple way to do this?

score 8 · Answer 1 · edited Aug 08 '16 at 02:50

8

With first X session running login as user you want to use and run in an xterm or at a console prompt:

xinit -- :1

or

startx -- :1

edited Aug 08 '16 at 02:50

Anwar

answered Jul 05 '11 at 20:06

max

karthick87 · Answer 2 · 2010-11-25T11:23:08.323

7

If you want multiple users to use Keyboards/Mouse then that is multiseatX.See this documentation

edited Nov 25 '10 at 11:23

answered Nov 25 '10 at 11:13

karthick87

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 25 '10 at 11:01

If you are using Gnome:

Try running gdmflexiserver, it will launch a new GDM session. You can switch between them using Ctrl+Alt+F{8..12}.

Take note though that logging in with the same user twice is a bad idea.

Also, (in Lucid, at least) you can switch users by clicking the Power button in top-right corner and then selecting a user name. alt text

3 Answers3