Default Desktop and input method setting in Edubuntu

[Joao Ferreira gmail]

On Thu, 2009-04-16 at 20:04 +0800, Elanjelian Venugopal wrote:
> Hi there!
> 
> I am newcomer to Ubuntu, and after becoming convinced with its power,
> embarked on a project to set up computer labs at two local schools in
> Malaysia. One lab, complete with 40 terminals, is now in operation,
> running on Ubuntu 8.10.
> 
> Now, here is the problem.
> 
> Whenever I create a new user, it appears, I need to yet again set the
> everything from the desktop, to resolution, to default fonts, to input
> method. (The default language is Tamil, and SCIM is used to type in
> Tamil characters.) Typically, this takes about 5 minutes each. There
> are around 400 students in the school, and I'd need to create that
> many users.

--------------------------------
solution a)
create one base user (call it 'baseuser') ! configure all you want. when
it's finished dont touch it again.

for every new user (say student023) do this:

- su
- cp -R /home/baseuser/* /home/student023/
- chown -R -f stundent023:users /home/student023

you may need some minor adjustments..... try it :)

------------------------------------
solution b)  :)
you should also connect to the Gnome (or KDE if that is the case)
mailing lists and ask your question there.... it just may happen that
they have better solutions for that

------------------------------------
solution c)

use skel.

all linuxes come with a /etc/skel/ dir: inside that dir is the base
skeleton for all new user accounts.

I've never tried this, but I belive that you can create 1 user,
configure it as you need. the do

su
cp -R -f /home/baseuser/* /etc/skel/

the following users created will have all those files. (try it)...
that's what skel is for.
-----------------------------------


are you creating all those 200 acconts in all 40 terminals or do you
have a central server ?

congratulationjs for using linux/ubuntu..... you won't be sorry.

Joao



> 
> I've checked the manual, and did searches in the internet, but did not
> come up with any way to set the default look and feel and input
> method.
> 
> I really hope someone in this user group could advise me on how I
> could sort out this problem.
> 
> Many thanks,
> 
> Elanjelian
> (Kuala Lumpur)
>