[Ltsp] K12LTSP GDM Kiosk Mode success!

[Adam Melancon]

Well, I finaly got my new K12LTSP server running.
The machine I used for the server is a 500Mhz PIII with .5GB of ram
running K12LTSP 4.1.

For the first client I used a donated computer from a friend of mine
Kris. A compaq presario 9548 with a 100Mhz PI and I was able to cram
about 80MB of RAM into it. Since everything is processed on the server
the terminal is surprisingly quick, and is nowhere near ready to be
tossed into the recycle bin.

I set this server up to have the terminals use GDM Kiosk Mode. The
machine automatically logs in as a user with the same name (ws001) as
the workstation name.
The user has complete control over the desktop and can run or change
whatever they want, but when the session is logged out, the
/home/ws001/ folder is wiped clean and /etc/skel/ is copied in it's
place just like it was a new user.
It's like a homebrew centurian guard.


I used this as a guide. http://www.k12ltsp.org/phpwiki/index.php/GDMKiosKMode

Here are the gotchas and things you will need to do different than the
link above.

You will need to edit the /etc/dhcpd.conf file and make sure that the
MAC address for the terminal is giving the right IP address and giving
it the right hostname.  I didn't want the terminals to use DHCP since
all of my terminals are going to be public workstations.  I just
wanted them to autologin, then blow out the home directory on logout.
example in dhcpd.conf:
---------------------
host ws001 {                                                #the
hostname of terminal one
        hardware ethernet     00:01:02:c5:0f:37; #MAC address of terminal one.
        fixed-address         192.168.0.1;            #the IP that I
want it to have
---------------------

Also, where the how-to has "/etc/gdm/gdm.conf" you will not find this
file there, you will find this file in "/etc/X11/gdm/gdm.conf" the
"gdm" folder is under /etc/X11/

Also, where it says "/etc/gdm/PostSession/ws001 and so on (One file
per hostname)" You will need to name the script ws001.ltsp since that
is the actual hostname, not just ws001.

The only other snag I ran into was this below.
---------------------------
I would get "error activating xkb configuration" when logging into a
terminal.
Found the answer here:
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=120858
I solved this by simply adding a symlink in
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb/rules:

ln -s xorg.lst xfree86.lst

Temporary, sure, but setxkbmap is happy again.
----------------------------


Here are some shots of the terminal screen and the terminal itself.
http://www.vermilion.lib.la.us/sysa...screenshot1.jpg
http://www.vermilion.lib.la.us/sysa...screenshot2.jpg
http://www.vermilion.lib.la.us/sysa...l/terminal1.JPG


Enjoy!

-- 
Adam Melancon
Work: http://www.vermilion.lib.la.us
Personal: http://www.melancon.org