Kiosk Mod settings in DebianEdu/Skolelinux 3.0 "terra"


DebianEdu Kiosk mode is defined by a /etc/kderc like this:

[Directories]
userProfileMapFile=/etc/kde-user-profile

[Directories-debian_edu_pupils]
ProfileDescription=Debian-Edu Profile for pupils
prefixes=/usr/share/debian-edu/students

[Directories-debian_edu_root]
ProfileDescription=Debian-Edu Profile for root
prefixes=/usr/share/debian-edu/root

This file refers to /etc/kde-user-profile:

[General]
groups=students,admins,root

[Groups]
students=debian_edu_pupils
admins=debian_edu_root
root=debian_edu_root

Together this means there are special profiles for students and admins:

students kde profile (enabled for members of the students file group)

root kde profile (enabled for the root user and members of the admins file group)

Accordingly there is no special settings for teachers. In some settings the teachers role implies the students role (to embrace their access); in this case teachers are treated as students.

Modifying these settings is described in Desktop-Howto chapter of the release-manual.

Additionally these samples of how to use KDE Kiosk mode might give an idea on how to tweak the given settings.

/usr/share/debian-edu/students/share/config/kdesktoprc forces the KDE Version to 3.5.5 - settings for later versions are therefore locked! $i stands for "immutable" and indicates that personal changes will be ignored.

[$i]
[Version]
KDEVersionMajor=3
KDEVersionMinor=5
KDEVersionRelease=5

/usr/share/debian-edu/students/share/config/kdeglobals restricts root access and new sessions.

[KDE Action Restrictions][$i]
start_new_session=false
user/root=false

The next sample gives a Desktop icon for Stopmotion to (new) students. As there is no [$i] tag, users can remove the icon:

/usr/share/debian-edu/students/share/apps/kdesktop/Desktop/stopmotion.desktop

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Stopmotion
Icon=stopmotion
Encoding=UTF-8
Comment=Program to create stop-motion animations
Exec=/usr/bin/stopmotion
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=Application;Graphics;AudioVideo;Video;AudioVideoEditing;KDE;Qt
MimeType=application/x-stopmotion