Fw: Re: locking down the desktop

[Jim Kronebusch]

---------- Forwarded Message -----------
From: "Barb Tabor" <btabor at btownccs.k12.in.us>
To: "Jim Kronebusch" <jim at winonacotter.org>
Sent: Tue, 22 Jan 2008 09:27:59 -0500
Subject: Re: locking down the desktop

Re: locking down the desktopThanks for you help.
They are stand alones connected to our local network.
I think I am going to try to lock the desktop (if I can figure out how to do it correctly).
I think we are going to try thin clients in our next lab. Do you recommend going that route?
Thanks again.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Jim Kronebusch 
  To: btabor 
  Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2008 9:22 AM
  Subject: Re: locking down the desktop

  On Mon, 21 Jan 2008 08:01:32 -0800 (PST), btabor wrote 
  > All students log in the same (see the same desktop). 
  > Then they can navigate to their network folders. 
  > Obviously, from your "do you make sure they wipe themselves properly" 
  > comment, you 
  > do not understand the importance of not letting hundreds of teenagers save 
  > whatever they 
  > want to their school desktops. I am very new to Linux and trying to learn as 
  > I go. I thought 
  > signing up for this listserve would be helpful, but if you are just going to 
  > poke fun......I am thinking 
  > that this might not have been a good idea. I am just trying to figure things 
  > out and do the best 
  > I can. The high school computers with Edubuntu on them are looking a mess 
  > and everyone is 
  > complaining because the kids can save to the desktops, I was just trying to 
  > figure out a way to 
  > solve a problem that others have asked me to solve. If you feel the need to 
  > make insensitive comments, then I guess I am looking in the wrong place for 
  > answers.

  I had a bunch of trouble with trying to keep our students desktops "clean" as well. 
  Without meaning any offense, I think there are problems with students using the same 
  account that go beyond "clutter".  There are a lot of things that need individual 
  permissions to work correctly, say one student puts a USB stick into a machine, this is 
  likely going to show up on all desktops at once.  There are a lot of things that need 
  individual permissions to work correctly, I am afraid if you continue to run in this 
  fashion you will start to have problems.........wait a minute here......I should 
  probably verify that you are using terminal services and not stand alone 
  installations.....is that the case?  If not we should be offering a whole different line 
  of answers.  In LTSP configuration, you will have many problems with using a single 
  account, if these are stand alone, that won't really be a problem.  Please clarify this 
  part so we can offer better suggestions.

  In either case you can install gconf-editor and use the already installed pessulus to 
  fine tune permissions.  I used gconf-editor to lock backgrounds, themes, icons, etc. 
  However to completely lock down a machine's /home/user folder would take some scripting 
  likely at logout.  Maybe a script to run at logout that wipes /home/user and copies 
  /etc/skel back in.  The /etc/skel directory contains the default setup you want to 
  provide new users.  You can in this directory copy your theme settings, your menu 
  settings, your Firefox bookmarks, desktop icons, etc.  Then when a new user is created 
  the contents of this folder will be their default.  So you could wipe the folder on 
  logout and copy this default back in.  So you could do something as simple as lock the 
  Desktop folder and theme settings in gconf-editor to keep things looking pretty while in 
  use, then at logout wipe everything and set to default.

  But again this would work best in a stand-alone setting, as in LTSP this could cause 
  problems if it happened while other users were logged in.  However if the LTSP setup had 
  individual users and permissions, then you could do this to every user on logout without 
  conflicts and not run into the other glitches either.

  This is why Gavin is suggesting individual profiles for all users.  And trust me, even 
  though Gavin's comment seemed out of place, he can definitely be one of your biggest 
  allies in your use of Edubuntu.  Please don't leave this list due to one silly comment, 
  this is truly a very helpful community.  Unfortunately personal humor is hard to read 
  correctly in an email setting.  And trust me, as I work in a high school, I know how bad 
  a desktop can look after a few days, especially if they stretch a bunch of photos and 
  cover their desktop.  But another benefit of individual user logins is you then will 
  know which user to scold when it happens :-)

  Jim

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Jim Kronebusch
Cotter Tech Department
453-5188


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