Edubuntu Customization

[Gavin McCullagh]

Hi,

On Fri, 02 Mar 2007, Willis, Ben wrote:

> Can anyone point me to any documentation on modifying the desktop and
> links etc that are delivered to users the first time they log in? I want
> to add a "window" to mimic the Novel Application window and populate it
> with some links for the initial pilot of LTSP in our schools. 

A very poor start might be to put stuff in /etc/skel/.  When you create a
new user, /etc/skel is copied to make the new home directory.  So, if you
want a particular file in every new home dir, you could put it there.
Putting stuff in /etc/skel/Desktop/ should mean that new users get that
stuff on their Desktops.

In terms of getting things to start up automatically, individual users can
create automatically starting programs under preferences.  I imagine this
creates an entry in their gconf database.  If you can figure out where, you
should be able to put a similar entry in /etc/gconf/gconf.xml.mandatory/ so
that program runs for all users.

> Would it be possible to create a folder, place a bunch of launcher icons
> in there and have it 'ran' at log in. I would need the folder and its
> icons to be launchable but be protected from deletion.

You could possibly create a folder of symlinks to programs in a shared
location and use the autostart with a command like:

	nautilus /usr/shared/program_folder/

to get nautilus to pop up that folder at every login.

Not certain though, I haven't done this stuff.

Gavin