[ubuntu-uk] Changing default settings for all users

[James Westby]

On Wed, 2008-10-15 at 14:10 +0100, Rob Beard 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?

/etc/skel can contain files to go in the users home directory, so many 
things will be able to be customised via that mechanism.

Some applications have other ways to set defaults. For instance you
could configure the layout of the panel etc. in a GNOME desktop by
setting up gconf defaults. This is probably easier than crafting
the appropriate file for gconf and dropping it in /etc/skel/.

Thanks,

James