[ubuntu-uk] Locking down Firefox settings

[Alistair Crust]

On Thu, 2009-01-29 at 17:44 +0000, Rob Beard wrote:
> Hi folks,
> 
> I was wondering if anyone knew how to lock down the settings on Firefox 
> on Ubuntu 8.04?
> 
> Basically I'm nearly done setting up an LTSP Server and I want to make 
> sure that no one who logs on can fiddle with the settings.  I've got 
> Tinyproxy and Dansguardian installed and working but only if I manually 
> specify the proxy settings.  I found something about entering some 
> settings in /usr/lib/firefox/firefox.cfg which I have entered (details 
> here: http://m.linuxjournal.com/article/9044) but I'm finding I can 
> enable and disable the Firefox proxy settings and alter the rest of the 
> settings as I please.
> 
> I did try Firehol to force the proxy transparently but it stopped the 
> LTSP clients from booting unless I enabled a whole lot of ports on the 
> Firehol configuration (I got so far but got stuck on the nbd ports).
> 
> Just wondering if anyone knows how to do this?
> 
> Ta,
> 
> Rob
> 
> 
Hi Rob, 

I recall seeing a posting within the last 2/3 months on either the
ltsp-discuss mailing list or the edubuntu-users list that give you
instructions on how to lock firefox down.

If I remember correctly you can do it by placing the values you want to
lock in a text file, encoding it using Rot13 and specifying some global
settings that force Firefox to read that file (It greys out all the
options for the user, so the user can't change anything or add their own
settings in their ~./mozilla/firefox/*)

I've used this method successfully in school and at our boarding house,
I just cant remember the specifics off the top of my head.

If your still stuck next week drop me a line and I'll see if I can dig
the mails out for you. 

Kind regards
Alistair

Please email first, I may not be in my office and available for calls
-- 
Alistair Crust <alistair at skegnessgrammar.org>
Systems Administrator
Skegness Grammar School
Vernon Road
Skegness
Lincs
PE252QS
Tel: 01754610000