How to login multiple users and desktop switch between sugar sessions

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Before you begin

This page describes how to add a new user login, start a new sugar session using the new login, and switch desktops between two Sugar sessions that are running simultaneously.

Adding a new user login

You'll want to get a root shell on the machine. Open the 'Terminal' activity on your XO, and type:

su -

To add a new user login named "john", type:

useradd -c "John Smith" john

To set a password for john, type:

passwd john

At the prompt, enter a password for john.

Logging in as a new user

As described in Sugar Instructions, hold down Ctrl+Alt+F1 to leave the Sugar screen and go to the text console's login prompt. The F1 key on the XO is labeled with the neighborhood icon. At the login prompt, type in John's username and password.

Starting a Sugar session from the console

After logging into the console as john, type:

startx /usr/bin/olpc-session -- :1 -fp built-ins -wr

A new Sugar session should start on display :1. The startx command is taken directly from the olpc-dm.c source file of the Olpc-utils package.

Desktop switching between Sugar sessions

Hold down Ctrl+Alt+F3 to switch back to the original "olpc" user's desktop. When you would like to switch back to the new "john" user's desktop, hold down Ctrl+Alt+F4.