HowTos for the desktop
Contents
KDE Kiosk mode
Two default profiles are included:
debian_edu_pupils (enabled for members of the students file group)
- customized set of icons appears on student desktops
- makes sure that the programs behind the desktop icons also show up in the kde panel
- adept is not started
- makes sure that students cannot start another kde session
- disables possibility to gain root access for students
debian_edu_root (enabled for the root user and members of the admins file group)
- adds a desktop icon to connect to the local webserver on tjener to provide easy access to all the administration programs
Note:: modifications to the profiles can be done using kiosktool. However, unless you follow the step below, your changes will be overwritten by upgrades. FIXME: this is broken and a bug should be filed: kiosktool upgrades restore default desktop icons
If you want to modify the kiosk profiles, you can either copy the existing ones and modify them, or create new kiosk profiles in (for example) /etc/kde3/kioskprofiles/ and enable them in /etc/kde-user-profile. The kiosk tool will do this for you if you click "profile properties" and browse to a new folder.
Changing kioskmode on diskless workstations
After you have made changes to the kioskmode settings with kiosktool like described above, you will have to copy some files inside the chroot used by the diskless workstation.
Assuming the diskless workstations are running i386, the following commands must be executed on the workstation server(s):
export LTSPCHROOT=/opt/ltsp/i386/ cp -rv /etc/kde-profile/ $LTSPCHROOT/etc/ cp -v /etc/kderc $LTSPCHROOT/etc/ cp -v /etc/kde-user-profile $LTSPCHROOT/etc/ unset LTSPCHROOT
Else replace i386 with amd64 or powerpc as applicable.
Disabling kioskmode
If you don't want to use kioskmode, either just remove the file /etc/kderc. Or, if you just want to temporarily disable kioskmode, comment out all entries in there.
Modifying the kdm login screen
In Debian/Etch, the way to customize the kdm login screen was changed. Now, it is done by adding a file in /etc/default/kdm.d/ specifying variables to override the default.
Here is one example used to activate the theme in the desktop-base package:
USETHEME="true" THEME="/usr/share/apps/kdm/themes/debian-moreblue"
See the code in /etc/init.d/kdm for information on how these variables are used.
Flash
The free software flash-player gnash is installed by default, but switching to Adobe Flash is an option. To install the (non-free) Adobe Flash Player web browser plugin, install the flashplugin-nonfree debian package from backports.org.
There are three requirements to do so:
add backports.org to /etc/apt/sources.list as decribed in the general adminstration howtos
add the following lines to /etc/apt/preferences (the file probably does not exist, so you might have to create it):
Package: flashplugin-nonfree Pin: release a=lenny-backports Pin-priority: 999
as the flashplugin-nonfree package is only an installer-package (and does not contain the flashplugin itself, for legal reasons), it also requires a working internet connection as it will download the precompiled binary from Adobes website.
Sound with Flash on thin clients
Additionally to the flashplugin-nonfree package (see above) you just need to install the flashplayer-nonfree-extrasound package.
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 use the packages from debian-multimedia.org. Add the multimedia repository (as described just below this paragraph) and install multimedia and dvd libraries:
apt-get install libdvdcss2 w32codecs
Using the multimedia repository
To use www.debian-multimedia.org do the following:
# install the debian-keyring securily: apt-get install debian-keyring # fetch the debian-multimedia key insecurily: gpg --keyserver pgpkeys.pca.dfn.de --recv-keys 1F41B907 # check securily if the key is correct and add it to the keyring used by apt if it is: gpg --keyring /usr/share/keyrings/debian-keyring.gpg --check-sigs 1F41B907 && gpg --export 1F41B907 | apt-key add - # add repository to sources.list - please check the homepages for mirrors! echo "deb http://debian-multimedia.org lenny main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list # update the list of available packages: apt-get update
Handwriting fonts
The package ttf-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.
Remote desktop with x2go
To install x2goserver add "deb http://x2go.obviously-nice.de/deb/ lenny main" to: /etc/apt/sources.list
#Add repository key: gpg --keyserver wwwkeys.eu.pgp.net --recv-keys C509840B96F89133 gpg -a --export C509840B96F89133 | apt-key add - #Install x2goserver apt-get update apt-get install x2goserver-one
in the file: /etc/security/group.conf
add x2gousers to the line:
*; *; *; Al0000-2400; fuse
like this:
*; *; *; Al0000-2400; fuse,x2gousers
For lenny the client x2go-client is also available from deb http://x2go.obviously-nice.de/deb/ lenny main
For mac and windows have a look at: http://www.x2go.org/index.php?id=7