I read about the virtual terminals a little and that gave me an idea. I searched for a way to have two X sessions simultaneously.
I had a look at these sites :
1. How to run multiple user X sessions on the same computer, at the same time?
2. How to drag windows between 2 X servers?
I tried startx -- :1
but my earlier terminal (on Ctrl+Alt+F7) hung up. How do I ensure this does not happen?
My main need is to get Unity on :0
and Gnome-shell on :1
and switch between them like workspaces.
If possible, I'd like to get login screen on tty8 or get option of logging into a different account.
As per question 2, exchanging windows between sessions is not recommended as it is not easy. But if it is possible I'd like to know.
I have Ubuntu 12.04 64bit.
The above command made both sessions crashed (virtual one worked for 15 min then crashed when I switched to real).
Also, how to revert to one X session if system gets overloaded?
Update :
Tried code in answer 3 times but system never stabilizes. Either tty7 or tty8 works, but not simultaneously, for sometime before crashing.
Best Answer
Questions #1: How to run multiple X sessions at the same time
You need to run
sudo startx gnome-session -- :1 vt8
- thevt8
tells X to start the session on TTY8 (which you get to with ctrlaltF8)Question #2: Drag windows between X Sessions
I doubt that's possible, and if it is, with the software we have today it would be very unstable - it's the job of the DE to do everything from window management and toolbar rendering to workspace placement, and you can't just 'cut and paste' a window from one DE to another. In the future this could be possible, as it sounds like something the Wayland graphics server (hoped to be a replacement for X) could be better at managing. But for the moment at least, it's unlikely to work.