Thread: Dual display front end

Originally Posted by Maheriano

Take a look at how Air Canada does it with their enRoute system. There are video screens in the headrest of every seat on the plane. Each user has their own menu and their own mouse pointer and can watch any videos they choose to watch. Their entire system is run in Linux.

I have to assume though that the way there setup works is that they are using virtualzation. Meaning they have one central system that holds the virtual desktops then the users access that. That of course will have its own mouse. In this case we are talking about multiple screens that are sharing on desktop PC in extended mode. Now my setup does have an option to switch over to a personal system per seat, which would have its own mouse per screen because they are each on separate systems. Anytime though when you are sharing the same desktop, you will have to share a mouse.

Originally Posted by HiJackZX1

I have to assume though that the way there setup works is that they are using virtualzation. Meaning they have one central system that holds the virtual desktops then the users access that. That of course will have its own mouse. In this case we are talking about multiple screens that are sharing on desktop PC in extended mode. Now my setup does have an option to switch over to a personal system per seat, which would have its own mouse per screen because they are each on separate systems. Anytime though when you are sharing the same desktop, you will have to share a mouse.

or, each screen is it's own independent XSesssion -meaning separate input resources. It very well may work that each headrest is a small embedded computer (ARM) which connects to the server just to get data (the video/music). Although, I can't really think of how they accomplish the large amount of streaming they use. I just flew Emirates a few days ago. They use a system called "ICE" - Information, Communication, Entertainment. Cool idea, but the system ran like crap: slow feed back, looked old school, took ages to boot, etc. I need to get them to use nGhost+LinuxICE instead, hehe.

Originally Posted by kev000

or, each screen is it's own independent XSesssion -meaning separate input resources. It very well may work that each headrest is a small embedded computer (ARM) which connects to the server just to get data (the video/music). Although, I can't really think of how they accomplish the large amount of streaming they use. I just flew Emirates a few days ago. They use a system called "ICE" - Information, Communication, Entertainment. Cool idea, but the system ran like crap: slow feed back, looked old school, took ages to boot, etc. I need to get them to use nGhost+LinuxICE instead, hehe.

I agree, these setups aren't powerful yet. I tried to use a setup from NComputing which is a small box that connects to a main PC via ethernet and virtualization software. My big issue is that it was so limited, no USB support (only memory sticks) and was so slow. I then looked at other virtualization companies and although they were better the speed was slow, 1ghz being there higher model. Setting up a complete system or systems, was just easier. Thankfully I drive a SUV so I had alot of space to work with. In the future virtualization will be hugeeeeeeeeee, alot of companies are switching to it as power increases.

My setup is awkward but the way it runs is I have the main system, all the screens are connected to that. The main system pushes all the stuff like TV, Video, Music, tons of games, yadda yadda yadda. Problem is I decided that I really wanted each user the ability to do their own thing if need be. So i decided to use KVM switches, 6 of them to give the user the ability to hit a button and go to personal PC. I didnt go over board with power, I made the personal computers a modest 1.6 GHZ with 2 GB of RAM, 1 GB which is dedicated to the EWF and HORM. Each unit will run about 181.00 for MoBo, HDD, and RAM.... Thats cheaper then the units that they sell for virtualization. Also the KVMs are cool, they support audio, say your on PC2, but want to listen to PC1, you can hit hot keys to do so. The personal units do not have the ability to play on the speakers, they can only be used with headsets. I did that to make it personal and kill some complications.

Also as a side note, Kev000 the ARM idea is actually a good one. Nice thing is, is that FLUX has thought about the potential. They have actually created a Front End for ARM system, basically anything running Windows CE 5 and up, which includes Window Mobile 2003 and up. Its currently in BETA though and will eventually need plug in designers. I think that will be a cheap and easy solution.

Originally Posted by TZed9

To the CF download page!!

Wish you luck, if you need any help, I'll help you out!

To get CF to work dual screen, you have to go into setting, hold down the + key for 8 seconds to go into advanced settings mode. Then simply go into each area, like video, and set it to display 2. Only thing is, that if you do so, it can only be controlled by display to, and thats for just about every area of CF. Now to get it where both screen 1 and 2 can be used at the same time and what not, you'll have to wait till CF3.