[ubuntu-uk] Changing default settings for all users

[Darren Mansell]

On Wed, 15 Oct 2008 14:10:55 +0100, Rob Beard <rob at esdelle.co.uk> wrote:
> Hi folks,
> 
> I'm in the process of trying to roll out Ubuntu across one of our 
> offices as a replacement to Windows XP.  At the moment on Windows XP we 
> have a standard desktop which includes desktop background, Internet 
> Explorer proxy settings and other tweaks.
> 
> Now rather than have the hassle of setting up each individual users 
> desktop when they first login I was hoping it would be possible to set a 
> default desktop configuration for each new user.
> 
> I just wondered if it was possible?
> 
> What I was looking at doing was setting up Ubuntu to authenticate 
> against the Windows 2003 Server (so I don't have to create a bunch of 
> individual accounts too) and have their home directories mount to their 
> user directory on the server.
> 
> I vaguely remember reading something about default settings in /etc/skel 
> but after looking in that directory I see there are just some default 
> files for bash.  Is it possible to put a set of default files in to 
> /etc/skel and is there any specific configuration files I need?
> 
> Ta,
> 
> Rob
> 
> 
>

Lockdown editor introduced in Gnome 2.20 (Feisty) seemed to have that kind
of ability. Is anything in http://library.gnome.org/admin/deployment-guide/
any use?

You could put scripts in /etc/skel/.bashrc that get run on first login to
perform certain actions. (Check a .firstrun file exists, if so run the
scripts which deletes the file).