public pc

[Loïc Grenié]

2008/11/5 Bart Silverstrim <bsilver at chrononomicon.com>:
>
>
> Embrik Kaslegard wrote:
>> Hi!
>>
>> I am installing a public pc with ubuntu 8.04. My tequest is how do I
>> close the desktop enivornment? This user can be everyone visiting the
>> library and I don't want them to delete shortcuts and change the
>> environment.
>>
>> I have tried kiosk (a kde-app) but I can't get it to work. I may do
>> something wrong - but if there are other gnome apps out there I would
>> like to give it a try.
>
> Not quite the answer you're looking for, but you can look and see if
> Deep Freeze is available for Linux. For Windows it's fantastic for
> keeping systems working despite user changes...it allows all the
> alterations, reboot, and it's back to the previous state.
>
> I have found a lot of fragmentation over time, though. Something to
> check on periodically when you do update management.
>
> I know it's for Windows, thought there was a version for another
> platform...don't remember if it's Mac or Linux though.

     You can also have a ramdisk partition for the user with the help
  of unionfs (or aufs) over the readonly "default parition". At each
  logout umount the unionfs, reformat the ramdisk and remount
  the unionfs (this is similar to your "deep freeze"). I think my
  earlier suggestion is cleaner. Neither necessitate a reboot.

           Loïc Grenié