How can I launch multiple instances of Totem since 11.10?

Question

Since Ubuntu 11.10, I can't use the --no-existing-session parameter that is used to launch multiple instances of Totem, because it has been removed from newest versions of Totem.

Is there a new way to do that now? If so, how do I do that?

Answer 1

Yes, there is. But as doug mentioned you need to change some lines of code.

If you are running ubuntu quantal you can use my ppa. I build a totem version which includes that --no-existing-session command.

You can find packages here:

https://launchpad.net/~qos/+archive/totem

Answer 2

Simple - you can't, at least not without altering the source code. Vlc is an option if you have need to run multiple instances.

As far as 2 totem instances - the only way I see is to use 2 different versions of totem, here I continue to keep a self-built totem-xine around, in that case both can run at the same time

Answer 3

One possible escape from the limitation is to use two/multiple user accounts - which each allows for one instance...

Though not very correct from the "safety/permissions/security" point of view one could do the following command

xhost +x; sudo bash -c "totem &"

(the command is used in the terminal of the active user, no need to do any logout/user switch at all)

which will run another totem instance under under the root-user. This arguably is a major security concern, but still maybe ok for listening to *.ogg *.mp3 in rare occasions. Also it would be smart to check for a safer substitution to the xhost + command to allow the x-server access in a more restricted manner.

The mehtod of using two/multiple user accounts can be a workaround to the limitation of only one instance per user. maybe a smart person can even create a kind of sandboxing "on-the-fly-user-creation" script which will call a totem instance. Which then could be hopefully less a concern then using the root account.

Answer 4

Based on humanityANDpeace's answer:

sudo -u ${USERNAME} totem &

works as well, but without the security risks.