System Background
From Ndiyo
[edit] Background
Welcome to the Ndiyo system documentation!
A basic Ndiyo system allows several simultaneous users to share a single PC running the Linux operating system. There are many varieties of Linux, but a very popular one, and our favourite, is Ubuntu, so most of the documentation here will assume that you have a PC running some recent Ubuntu version.
We attach multiple users to a single machine through the use of a simple device called a Nivo and pos software, which provides a way of connecting a screen, keyboard and mouse to the network. The PC can send pixels over the network to the Nivo, and they will be displayed on the screen. The Nivo sends any key presses or mouse data back to the PC. So you need one Nivo for each network-connected user. You can also have one screen, keyboard and mouse directly connected to the PC, giving you one further user. A typical small installation might have one PC, with two nivos, providing computing facilities to three users in total.
[edit] Installation overview
A Nivo can display any kind of graphical data, but in most situations we want it to provide a normal login screen and then the standard desktop for the user who logs in. So we need to configure the PC to:
- run multiple graphical 'desktop' sessions, starting each one with a login prompt
- for each desktop session, run a piece of software on the PC that will send the pixels from that session to a specified Nivo
There's a Technical Summary for those familiar with Linux and networking who want to jump in at the deep end. Others should read on to find out about the System Installation process.
