edubuntu-users Digest, Vol 9, Issue 14

[Gavin McCullagh]

Hi,

On Wed, 21 Feb 2007, David Caldwell wrote:

> Initially, I tried simply doing an 'apt-get install kubuntu-desktop' on
> the server, but I couldn't see how I could get a thin client to log into
> a KDE session so I thought I had to chroot the kubuntu-desktop install it
> instead. 

ldm doesn't give you the option of launching a kde session.

> So, if I rebuild the ltsp file system and install kubuntu-desktop on the
> server (it is actually already installed), do you know what steps I need
> to take to enable clients to log into KDE (I'd like it to be default)?

Since edubuntu 6.10, ldm gives an available session list.  I guess it
doesn't have kde in there or else maybe kde just isn't the default?  It
appears from the code that ldm uses some sort of socket to get a list of
available sessions from the server but I'm not too clear how that works or
how you'd modify the answer the server gives.

Looking quickly at the ldm code in /opt/ltsp/i386/usr/sbin/ldm:

  # select the right session command
  session_manager = get_config('LDM_REMOTECMD') or '/etc/X11/Xsession'

  if selected_session != 'None' and not get_config('LDM_REMOTECMD'):
    session_manager = session_manager+' '+selected_session

suggests the LDM_REMOTECMD variable placed in /opt/ltsp/i386/etc/lts.conf
might allow you to specify a session.  I'm not certain what the kde session
command is off the top of my head but a quick search suggests it may be
"startkde".

If this is true, you may be able to put something like

	LDM_REMOTECMD=/usr/bin/startkde

but I really haven't tested this so I'm not sure.  As an initial test, you
could set:

	LDM_REMOTECMD=/usr/bin/firefox

in /opt/ltsp/i386/etc/lts.conf and reboot the thin client.  If when you
login it goes straight into firefox, this works.  It'd be very useful to
know if this works so please tell us how you get on.

Gavin