[K12OSN] Broadcast message

[Petre Scheie]

If you go to a client and, in a terminal window, type 'xhost +192.168.0.254', 
can you then send a message to that client via xmessage?  In other words, does 
setting xhost manually on the client work?

Petre

Huck wrote:
> been work'n all day at trying to figure out how to 'automate' the /xhost 
> +192.168.0.254 /parameter
> so I can broadcast to all logged-in...
> have tried putting it in /etc/X11/gdm/Sessions/Default and IceWM and 
> /opt/ltsp/i386/etc/X11/Xsession
> and /home/<username>/.profile  and none worked...
> unless I needed to restart gdm or something... I was merely logging out 
> and back in to test...
> 
> --Huck
> 
> 
> Petre Scheie wrote:
> 
>> I, too, was playing with xmessage, on Luis's suggestion, and came up 
>> with this quick & dirty script (which I'll call brmsg for discussion 
>> purposes):
>>
>> #!/bin/bash
>>
>> # brmsg: Send a broadcast message to all terminal screens
>>
>>
>> for x in `seq 1 30`
>> do
>> xmessage -center -timeout 10 -display 192.168.0.${x}:0.0 "$@" &
>> done
>>
>>
>> One would then call brmsg this way at a command prompt from the server:
>>
>> brmsg Please logout now or you may be expelled
>>
>> The message will pop up on the client for 10 seconds and then 
>> disappear.  It needs some refinement: For the seq range, it would be 
>> better to get a list of clients where someone is actually logged in so 
>> it doesn't waste time sending messages to irrelevant workstations; 
>> using 'who -T' and piping it to awk would be one way to get such a 
>> list.  And, as David suggested, and graphical version of this would be 
>> nicer; perhaps I'll try something in perl/tk this weekend (no 
>> gaurantees, I've got a ton of leaves to rake).
>>
>> One requirement is that the client workstation must be configured to 
>> accept such messages, which in my server-and-one-client K12LSTP ver 
>> 3.0.1 here in my cube, the clients are not.  This can be fixed by adding
>>
>> xhost +192.168.0.254
>>
>> to every user's ~/.profile.  This will allow such messages to be sent 
>> from the server, but not from other clients which could be a 
>> nightmare, e.g. clever students with too much time on their hands.
>>
>> Hopefully this is a start.
>>
>> Petre
>>
>> David Trask wrote:
>>
>>> Ok...I've never played with xmessage until now....I just tried it, 
>>> but  xmessage -Hi There!  only shows up on my onw desktop.....how do I
>>> broadcast to all or at least to a chosen user?
>>>
>>> "Support list for opensource software in schools." 
>>> <k12osn at redhat.com> on
>>> Friday, October 29, 2004 at 10:32 AM +0000 wrote:
>>>
>>>> This can be done using xmessage. Since it is part of XFree86, we 
>>>> don't have to worry about which window manager is being used.
>>>>
>>>> One thing I'm not sure about are permission settings with xauth. It 
>>>> also need to have the DISPLAY environmental variable temporarily set 
>>>> to the display you wish the message to pop up on.
>>>>
>>>> Luis
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> David Trask wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> Ok....I think it's time we find a way to do this and incorporate it 
>>>>> as a
>>>>> feature in something like TeacherTool.  It has been brought up way too
>>>>> many times.  This is a feature in Windows Terminal Server 2003 and 
>>>>> should
>>>>> be in K12ltsp as well if we can figure it out.  Any ideas?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> David N. Trask
>>> Technology Teacher/Coordinator
>>> Vassalboro Community School
>>> dtrask at vcs.u52.k12.me.us
>>> (207)923-3100
>>>
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>>>
>>
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> 
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