[K12OSN] More detailed instructions & documentation needed for K12LTSP implementation

[Kanwar Ranbir Sandhu]

On Thu, 2006-13-07 at 15:25 -0400, Roj Jer wrote:
> 1) How / Where do you configure K12LTSP to segregate "Teachers" from
> "Students", "3rd Grade" from "12th Grade", so that each "group" gets
> the appropriate desktop and program menu respective to their roles in
> the school? A 3rd Grader does not need the same applications,
> shortcuts, etc as a 12th Grader. 

You can easily customize the Gnome menu.  Previously, there weren't any
GUI apps for this, but I believe since Gnome 2.12, one is included by
default.  There are add on apps too...can't recall the name.  You can
also just do it from the command line.

The problem is customizing the menu for different groups of users.  I
don't think it's possible (easily) to do that centrally.  One possible
solution could be to build out your menu for each group, and using a
custom script, have the preferences applied to each group of users.
Once applied, you could use Linux permissions to lock down those files
so that users' can't change/delete them.

/etc/skel, like someone else mentioned, will come in handy for the
above, and generally other preferences.  To lockdown/control the look of
the Gnome desktop, Sabayon is where you should start.  It lets you
customize the desktop graphically (like you would for one user, for
example), while it writes out the gconf keys.  You then save the
profile, pick the user(s) you want to apply it to, and you're done.

BTW, Sabayon is in its infancy.  It's not a bug ridden crash fest - it's
just not very full featured yet.  It will likely become the defacto
Gnome desktop management/deployment app, but that's not for a while yet.

In any case, you have a lot of reading to do on Gnome administration.
Actually, if you're a Linux newbie, you have a lot of reading to do,
period.  Though, this shouldn't be too hard since you have managed to
get a small thin client system up and running.  Good start!
 
> 2) What are other schools using for URL filtering and Surf Control to
> keep students from "stumbling" across Porn Sites or any other topic
> deemed "inappropriate"? 

Lots of options, I'm sure. :)  Really though, there are many options.
Just google for it (I'm not very familiar with this side of F/OSS, so I
can't help much more than that).

Any questions, just ask.  I have a little experience in this area... :)

Regards,

Ranbir
-- 
Kanwar Ranbir Sandhu
Linux 2.6.17-1.2141_FC4 i686 GNU/Linux 
17:49:03 up 1 day, 18:29, 3 users, load average: 0.18, 0.33, 0.26