mandatory profiles
I've been a sys admin in schools in antwerp for 4 years. For 4 years now
i've used a "debian sarge" server with samba acting as an NT4 Domain
controller.
This summer i started looking at debian/edu becouse i want to start
using LTSP and it looks very promising, however i'm missing some basic
profile managment.
1. mandatory profiles.
i'll start by explaining what mandatory profiles are by explaining what
roaming profiles are.
when a user logs in the domain, it downloads a his profile (c:\documents
and settings\username) from the domain controller and saves it on the
local computer.
when that user logs out, his profile is uploaded to the server.
that way a user can roam around the school and get the same profile on
every computer.
A mandatory profile is basicly a roaming profile but it isn't uploaded
to the server at logoff.
so every time a user logs in, he gets the same profile.
The advantage of this is:
- all users have the same profile (icons, menubars, bookmarks,...)
Teachers find this very handy (every desktop looks the same so they
can say: click on the top left: file --> save)
- when students or teachers fuck up the profile, they log off and back
on: instantly fixed
- It saves diskspace becouse only a couple of profiles are needed:
teachers, students, ...
- .thumbnails, firefoxcache, and so on aren't saved in the profile so it
keeps the profiles small.
- to change a profile, you can do it on 1 directory. the default profile
disadvantage:
- users have to work with what i give them. (the default profile)
- "my documents" is located inside the profile so you need to remap that
locatian to //server share/%username%
2. mandatory profiles in linux
Talking with pere on the chat a couple of days ago, and he came up with
a possible solution.
Adding a small script to xsession.d a default profile could be copied
over the existing profile in the home directory of the user.
example: you could remove the firefox folder but keep the firefox
bookmark file. so a user keeps his bookmarks (a lot esier than in
windows :-)
3. default profile editing.
with Xnest and KDM it is possible to log in with a 2nd user at the same
time. that way you can edit the default profile very easely. It would be
nice to add a function like this.
Laget Sebastiaan
ICT-coordinator KLA
Antwerp
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