Re: [9fans] making yourself at home

[frank@inua.be (Frank Lenaerts)]

On Thu, Jun 07, 2007 at 06:09:10PM -0400, erik quanstrom wrote:
> > - How do I logout to let another user login?
>
> reboot.

Ok, but it just sounds strange for someone who has only been using
Unix-like systems for the last 10 years.

> > - Is there something like "su" to let me be someone else in another
> >   window?
>
> no.  you can cpu as another user, but you have a terminal, not a cpu server.
> you can't cpu to a terminal.

Ok, so a terminal is really a single-user "terminal", unlike a
"workstation".

> > - Can I somehow lock the screen?
>
> reboot. ;-)

Hmmm, ... I'm used to say that a machine should only be powered on
once and that you should login only once ... so rebooting is not an
option.

Someone else mentionned a lock program but I wonder if it is possible
to persist your session so that you can power off the terminal and
continue (possibly even on another terminal) where you left off last
time (much like hot desking or leaving a VNC session running on a
server).

> there are many things about a standalone environment that aren't
> ideal.  you're noticing some of them.  in a full plan 9 environment,
> the idea is that a terminal doesn't have anything special on it.
> if you boot it, it's your machine.  the files are on the fileserver which
> would protect stuff like /adm/timezone/local from being changed.
> and the authentication would be taken care of by the auth server.

Ok, the only reason I started playing with a standalone PC, is to get
some initial basic hands-on experience.

The long term plan would be to setup an auth-, a CPU- and a
file-server and to use thin clients as terminals. However, I don't
know yet (a) if the AMD Geode based thin clients I have are supported
and (b) how to configure the server(s) to let them boot via PXE.

> > - Is there something like virtual consoles to allow e.g.  several
> >   users to login simultaneously and each starting a graphical
> >   environment?
>
> the cpu command.  you need a cpu server for that.

I'll start with the setup of an auth/CPU/fileserver and then a thin
client to see how all of this works.

> - erik

--
Frank Lenaerts ---------------------------------------- frank@inua.be