Re: Towards a simpler desktop environment: What is the current state of the art?
Hi Jordan et al, Here's a follow up to a discussion we had in May. I have been working on some of the tips that Jordan sent along (below). One tip that I would really like to try forces a homepage for all firefox users. It requires a tool called 'obscure-tool' which is supposed to ship with the firefox-dev package. It doesn't seem to come as part of the most current firefox 2.0.0.15+0nobinonly-0ubuntu0.7.4 installed on Fiesty 7.04 which is what our production LTSP server is running. Can anyone point me to where I can get copy of this (seemingly obscure) package? Thanks! John On Thu, May 29, 2008 at 10:07 AM, john [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Useful lockdown GConf keys: http://lns.wikidot.com/gconf Clean up menus: http://lns.wikidot.com/gnomecleanupmenus Custom menus: http://lns.wikidot.com/gnomecustommenus Hide directories in Nautilus: http://lns.wikidot.com/nautilushidefilesystem Mandatory Firefox homepage for all: http://lns.wikidot.com/firefoxmandatoryhomepage Lock down user home dirs: http://lns.wikidot.com/userdirsecurity HTH, Jordan Awesome! Thank you so much for this. I will dive right in! John -- edubuntu-users mailing list edubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/edubuntu-users
Re: Towards a simpler desktop environment: What is the current state of the art?
Hi John, I know you said you didn't think gconf had the lockdown functionality you need, but it's all I use to lock down my student desktops, besides standard Linux practices. Here is some information I've gathered over time regarding Gnome desktop lockdown in Ubuntu/LTSP/Edubuntu (This was just information I thought was useful in my elementary student labs, and I know - some of this stuff is of ugly hack status and might not all be completely tested for all environments so be conscious of what you're doing): Useful lockdown GConf keys: http://lns.wikidot.com/gconf Clean up menus: http://lns.wikidot.com/gnomecleanupmenus Custom menus: http://lns.wikidot.com/gnomecustommenus Hide directories in Nautilus: http://lns.wikidot.com/nautilushidefilesystem Mandatory Firefox homepage for all: http://lns.wikidot.com/firefoxmandatoryhomepage Lock down user home dirs: http://lns.wikidot.com/userdirsecurity HTH, Jordan Hello all, I am getting complaints from teachers that students are customizing their desktops to the point that they are distracting students from productive work. I'd like to make the edubuntu desktop MUCH simpler, ... -- edubuntu-users mailing list edubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/edubuntu-users
Re: Towards a simpler desktop environment: What is the current state of the art?
AFAIK this is system-wide, independent of user/group membership. GConf is like this for the most part, too (I wish it was more fine-grained). Sincerely, Jordan dbclinton wrote: On Wed, 2008-05-28 at 23:03 -0700, Jordan Erickson wrote: Hide directories in Nautilus: http://lns.wikidot.com/nautilushidefilesystem Thanks for this. Is there any automatic way to make these folders visible to the admin? David -- Jordan Erickson Owner, Logical Networking Solutions http://www.logicalnetworking.net 707-636-5678 Latest LNS Blogs - http://blogs.logicalnetworking.net The real RocketMan Computerworld.com examines Ubuntu Linux Exhaust from cars causing flowers to lose their scent? -- edubuntu-users mailing list edubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/edubuntu-users
Re: Towards a simpler desktop environment: What is the current state of the art?
Useful lockdown GConf keys: http://lns.wikidot.com/gconf Clean up menus: http://lns.wikidot.com/gnomecleanupmenus Custom menus: http://lns.wikidot.com/gnomecustommenus Hide directories in Nautilus: http://lns.wikidot.com/nautilushidefilesystem Mandatory Firefox homepage for all: http://lns.wikidot.com/firefoxmandatoryhomepage Lock down user home dirs: http://lns.wikidot.com/userdirsecurity Thanks to everybody for the ideas and resources. Jordan I notice that you are the last person to edit https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EdubuntuFAQ This would be great to have there as well if you are inclined to do so! John -- edubuntu-users mailing list edubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/edubuntu-users
Re: Towards a simpler desktop environment: What is the current state of the art?
I'll update it right now. I would love to incorporate most of my wiki into the *buntu wikis, though I want to learn more about the hierarchical structure of them so I'm not just cluttering it up. - Jordan john wrote: Useful lockdown GConf keys: http://lns.wikidot.com/gconf Clean up menus: http://lns.wikidot.com/gnomecleanupmenus Custom menus: http://lns.wikidot.com/gnomecustommenus Hide directories in Nautilus: http://lns.wikidot.com/nautilushidefilesystem Mandatory Firefox homepage for all: http://lns.wikidot.com/firefoxmandatoryhomepage Lock down user home dirs: http://lns.wikidot.com/userdirsecurity Thanks to everybody for the ideas and resources. Jordan I notice that you are the last person to edit https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EdubuntuFAQ This would be great to have there as well if you are inclined to do so! John -- Jordan Erickson Owner, Logical Networking Solutions http://www.logicalnetworking.net 707-636-5678 Latest LNS Blogs - http://blogs.logicalnetworking.net The real RocketMan Computerworld.com examines Ubuntu Linux Exhaust from cars causing flowers to lose their scent? -- edubuntu-users mailing list edubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/edubuntu-users
Re: Towards a simpler desktop environment: What is the current state of the art?
Ok, I've added what I thought was most relevant here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EdubuntuFAQ#head-1787e19381d9aa6c20647215990d4dd06ba2dec0 Hopefully my additions will prove more useful than clutter-ful. ;) - Jordan john wrote: Useful lockdown GConf keys: http://lns.wikidot.com/gconf Clean up menus: http://lns.wikidot.com/gnomecleanupmenus Custom menus: http://lns.wikidot.com/gnomecustommenus Hide directories in Nautilus: http://lns.wikidot.com/nautilushidefilesystem Mandatory Firefox homepage for all: http://lns.wikidot.com/firefoxmandatoryhomepage Lock down user home dirs: http://lns.wikidot.com/userdirsecurity Thanks to everybody for the ideas and resources. Jordan I notice that you are the last person to edit https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EdubuntuFAQ This would be great to have there as well if you are inclined to do so! John -- Jordan Erickson Owner, Logical Networking Solutions http://www.logicalnetworking.net 707-636-5678 Latest LNS Blogs - http://blogs.logicalnetworking.net The real RocketMan Computerworld.com examines Ubuntu Linux Exhaust from cars causing flowers to lose their scent? -- edubuntu-users mailing list edubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/edubuntu-users
Re: Towards a simpler desktop environment: What is the current state of the art?
I used Sabayon and Pessulus (lockdown manager) to set up controlled environments for our exam accounts this year, and that worked quite well. Granted, Sabayon crashes every once in a while, but it works, and I believe the winbind bug has been fixed now. I was going to write up a little howto, as I received quite some help from the IRC channel, but try it out... you'll have to set up seperate user groups and users within sabayon, but from within sabayon you then have access to the lockdown editor which is then tied to all the accounts of that user group (for example, students, or staff, or exam accounts) Kind Regards, David Van Assche On Wed, May 28, 2008 at 1:53 AM, nigel barker [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Yes, I had kids with whole toolbars full of bloody eyes last year. Not good when visitors come around! The kiosk tool works, though has some quirks with upgrades resetting some customisations. The KDE menu is not as short and structured as Gnome, but on the other hand it tells you the name of the app and not just editor. Overall I am enjoying KDE and have no desire go back. nigel Richard Doyle wrote: On Tue, 2008-05-27 at 10:52 -0700, john wrote: Hello all, I am getting complaints from teachers that students are customizing their desktops to the point that they are distracting students from productive work. I'd like to make the edubuntu desktop MUCH simpler, just an applications menu and little else. I guess the approach is to lock the desktops but I'd like to take the right approach. I've used both the gconf-editor and Sabayon in the past with mixed results. The last time I looked Sabayon was seriously broken ( I use winbind to authenticate users and after applying Sabayon no students could log in). I don't see that gconf-editor has the ability to lock the desktop, prevent changes to desktop fonts, backgrounds and remove access to system settings. Does anyone have a recipe for simplifying and locking down student desktops. Does anyone have experience with KDE/Kiosk Tool and would anyone recommend this over the gnome environment? How can I get _complete_ control over the user environment? Sabayon has promise, but wasn't stable for us. I'm not aware of any other single lockdown tool, but there are lots of more specialized tools that can help. Pessulus is quite useful and Alacarte can makes it easy to edit menus (you will also need to place restrictive permissions on gmenu-simple-editor). Firefox needs special attention, but much can be accomplished by adjusting file and directory permissions. Thanks! John -- edubuntu-users mailing list edubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/edubuntu-users -- edubuntu-users mailing list edubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/edubuntu-users
Towards a simpler desktop environment: What is the current state of the art?
Hello all, I am getting complaints from teachers that students are customizing their desktops to the point that they are distracting students from productive work. I'd like to make the edubuntu desktop MUCH simpler, just an applications menu and little else. I guess the approach is to lock the desktops but I'd like to take the right approach. I've used both the gconf-editor and Sabayon in the past with mixed results. The last time I looked Sabayon was seriously broken ( I use winbind to authenticate users and after applying Sabayon no students could log in). I don't see that gconf-editor has the ability to lock the desktop, prevent changes to desktop fonts, backgrounds and remove access to system settings. Does anyone have a recipe for simplifying and locking down student desktops. Does anyone have experience with KDE/Kiosk Tool and would anyone recommend this over the gnome environment? How can I get _complete_ control over the user environment? Thanks! John -- edubuntu-users mailing list edubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/edubuntu-users
Re: Towards a simpler desktop environment: What is the current state of the art?
Hi, On Tue, 27 May 2008, john wrote: I am getting complaints from teachers that students are customizing their desktops to the point that they are distracting students from productive work. I'd like to make the edubuntu desktop MUCH simpler, just an applications menu and little else. I guess the approach is to lock the desktops but I'd like to take the right approach. I've used both the gconf-editor and Sabayon in the past with mixed results. The last time I looked Sabayon was seriously broken ( I use winbind to authenticate users and after applying Sabayon no students could log in). I don't see that gconf-editor has the ability to lock the desktop, prevent changes to desktop fonts, backgrounds and remove access to system settings. Does anyone have a recipe for simplifying and locking down student desktops. Does anyone have experience with KDE/Kiosk Tool and would anyone recommend this over the gnome environment? How can I get _complete_ control over the user environment? A slightly contrary alternative answer (I don't know much about sabayon etc.) is that you could give them a very limited desktop like fvwm95. http://fvwm95.sourceforge.net/ It's not that pretty, but it's a familiar format and it doesn't offer much customisation. Actually, that's not true it offers lots, but you mostly need to do it by modifying rc files and students are unlikely to figure that out. Gavin -- edubuntu-users mailing list edubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/edubuntu-users
Re: Towards a simpler desktop environment: What is the current state of the art?
On Tue, 27 May 2008, Gavin McCullagh wrote: How can I get _complete_ control over the user environment? A slightly contrary alternative answer (I don't know much about sabayon etc.) is that you could give them a very limited desktop like fvwm95. http://fvwm95.sourceforge.net/ It's not that pretty, but it's a familiar format and it doesn't offer much customisation. Actually, that's not true it offers lots, but you mostly need to do it by modifying rc files and students are unlikely to figure that out. You could even set the RC file and make it read-only so as to stop them editing it. Oh, and I should say, it has a very low cpu/memory footprint which will allow you more students and better performance per server. Gavin -- edubuntu-users mailing list edubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/edubuntu-users
Re: Towards a simpler desktop environment: What is the current state of the art?
john kirjoitti: How can I get _complete_ control over the user environment? I do not _care_ what people do with their _own_ desktop. I just give them programs that are useful for everybody or someone want for a good reason. It is that simple to me... To me it is waste of time to _control_ user environment... Best Regards Asmo Koskinen. -- edubuntu-users mailing list edubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/edubuntu-users
Re: Towards a simpler desktop environment: What is the current state of the art?
On Tue, May 27, 2008 at 12:03 PM, Gavin McCullagh [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Tue, 27 May 2008, Gavin McCullagh wrote: How can I get _complete_ control over the user environment? A slightly contrary alternative answer (I don't know much about sabayon etc.) is that you could give them a very limited desktop like fvwm95. http://fvwm95.sourceforge.net/ It's not that pretty, but it's a familiar format and it doesn't offer much customisation. Actually, that's not true it offers lots, but you mostly need to do it by modifying rc files and students are unlikely to figure that out. You could even set the RC file and make it read-only so as to stop them editing it. Oh, and I should say, it has a very low cpu/memory footprint which will allow you more students and better performance per server. Gavin -- edubuntu-users mailing list edubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/edubuntu-users Thanks Gavin, I'll keep FVWM95 in mind. I'm really hoping to hear that there is a working solution for edubuntu using tools provided with gnome or kde. :- At first blush FVWM is pretty retro. I appreciate the small footprint however. Thanks! John -- edubuntu-users mailing list edubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/edubuntu-users
Re: Towards a simpler desktop environment: What is the current state of the art?
Yes, I had kids with whole toolbars full of bloody eyes last year. Not good when visitors come around! The kiosk tool works, though has some quirks with upgrades resetting some customisations. The KDE menu is not as short and structured as Gnome, but on the other hand it tells you the name of the app and not just editor. Overall I am enjoying KDE and have no desire go back. nigel Richard Doyle wrote: On Tue, 2008-05-27 at 10:52 -0700, john wrote: Hello all, I am getting complaints from teachers that students are customizing their desktops to the point that they are distracting students from productive work. I'd like to make the edubuntu desktop MUCH simpler, just an applications menu and little else. I guess the approach is to lock the desktops but I'd like to take the right approach. I've used both the gconf-editor and Sabayon in the past with mixed results. The last time I looked Sabayon was seriously broken ( I use winbind to authenticate users and after applying Sabayon no students could log in). I don't see that gconf-editor has the ability to lock the desktop, prevent changes to desktop fonts, backgrounds and remove access to system settings. Does anyone have a recipe for simplifying and locking down student desktops. Does anyone have experience with KDE/Kiosk Tool and would anyone recommend this over the gnome environment? How can I get _complete_ control over the user environment? Sabayon has promise, but wasn't stable for us. I'm not aware of any other single lockdown tool, but there are lots of more specialized tools that can help. Pessulus is quite useful and Alacarte can makes it easy to edit menus (you will also need to place restrictive permissions on gmenu-simple-editor). Firefox needs special attention, but much can be accomplished by adjusting file and directory permissions. Thanks! John -- edubuntu-users mailing list edubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/edubuntu-users
