HowTos for the desktop

Set up a multi-language desktop environment

To support multiple languages these commands need to be run:

apt update
/usr/share/debian-edu-config/tools/install-task-pkgs
/usr/share/debian-edu-config/tools/improve-desktop-l10n

Users will then be able to choose the language via the LightDM display manager before logging in; this applies to Xfce, LXDE and LXQt. GNOME and KDE both come with their own internal region and language configuration tools, use these. MATE uses the Arctica greeter on top of Lightdm whithout a language chooser. Run apt purge arctica-greeter to get the stock Lightdm greeter.
If LTSP diskless clients are used the above steps need to be done inside the LTSP chroot as well. LDM supports all desktop environments. First use Preferences to choose the language, then login.

Playing DVDs

libdvdcss is needed for playing most commercial DVDs. For legal reasons it's not included in Debian (Edu). If you are legally allowed to use it, you can build your own local packages using the libdvd-pkg Debian package; make sure contrib is enabled in /etc/apt/sources.list.

apt update
apt install libdvd-pkg

Answer the debconf questions, then run dpkg-reconfigure libdvd-pkg.

Handwriting fonts

The package fonts-linex (which is installed by default) installs the font "Abecedario" which is a nice handwriting font for kids. The font has several forms to be used with kids: dotted, and with lines.

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