Can't disable multiple desktop sessions per user on KDE

[Dipak Jha]

Guys,

I've recently installed Linux Mint 18.3 KDE ( plasma version 5.8.8 ) on my home PC and am generally quite happy with its aesthetics, stability and performance. By and large I have been able to tweak a lot of things to my personal liking. But the one aspect of this DE that still beats me is the option to be able to start multiple desktop sessions per user which I would like to disable. On a family computer like mine, my kids and wife end up creating a huge number of sessions with no one remembering which applications are attached to which session. I have tried using limits.conf to restrict the number of sessions per user but have observed 2 problems with this approach:

1. This configuration / limit does not differentiate between desktop and non-desktop sessions. I would still like to have a single desktop session for a user and multiple CLI / SSH sessions.
2. When the limit is reached, the system simply hangs during an attempt to create the (N + 1) th session, N being the limit, instead of showing an error message and / or gracefully failing back to the login screen

Is there a way to manage this better by either removing the ability to create multiple desktop sessions for a given user OR by merging a fresh desktop session into an existing one at logon

Any pointers would be most appreciated.

Regards,

Dipak Jha

[o-l-d]

If I am understanding you correctly this has been covered at the KDE forums. It is somewhat involved but might be what you are looking for.

https://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php?f=1 ... 64#p222372

[Dipak Jha]

Hi o-l-d,

Thanks for your response. The solution you have pointed me to makes sense and I kind of understand the logic but on the version of KDE that I am using - Linux Mint 18.3 KDE ( plasma version 5.8.8 ) - I can't seem to find a Xstartup script or equivalent containing similar pre-X session code that I could potentially modify.

Would anyone be able to assist on the exact script into which these changes should go into on plasma version 5.8.8 ?

Regards,

Dipak Jha

[RodJ]

Is there a way to manage this better by either removing the ability to create multiple desktop sessions for a given user OR by merging a fresh desktop session into an existing one at logon

It's a bit late but I'll have a go ...

Maybe I'm being a bit thick (not unusual for me) but can't you just change this: In System Settings, Startup and Shutdown, Desktop Session, On Login choose "Start with an empty session"?

It's one of the first things I turn off in KDE settings, I don't know why it's enabled by default as it causes all sorts of puzzlement with new users.

Or am I misunderstanding what it is you are trying to do?