[rhelv6-list] how to remove 'shot down' from system menu?

[Alois Treindl]

I find it a terrible mistake by Redhat to install an unmodified GNOME 
with shutdown permission for non-root users.

We run our company server with about 10 X-terminals used by office 
staff. The server needs to run permanently, but the X-terminals are just 
used during office hours by non-technical staff.

The x-terminals use the Gnome desktop of the server via XDMCP. We have 
used this setup since many years, first with HP-UX, since eight years 
with various versions of RHEL. The server is physically remote in a 
server room.

It is an excellent solution, low maintenance, adequate performance for 
office work.

Please don't tell me we should use a local window manager on the 
x-terminals. These are horrible monsters. We like the desktop offered by 
RHEL.

Such an x-terminal  user, when he/she wants to logout and turn off the 
x-terminal, will easily make a mistake to 'shut down' the server if this 
option is offered as it is, and not even protected by the root password.

I found an article describing a solution:
http://www.shaunrowland.com/fsync/2011/04/20/removing-shut-down-from-the-gnome-panel-in-rhel-6/
But when you read through this, you notice how complex it is. And each 
gnome update will overwrite the special configuration it is. A design 
fault by Gnome, I agree with the author.
Redhat should not have accepted this design fault on their system.

We will switch back to KDE desktop, after using Gnome since RHEL5. KDE 
at least has no such stupid power-down by normal users. As the KDE 
konsole terminal is finally able to handle utf8 properly, including 
Asian languages with good fonts, as gnome-terminal did since a long time 
already, there is no string reason to stick with gnome now.


On 10/05/2011 03:10 PM, Prentice Bisbal wrote:
> Alois,
>
> If users have physical access to the systems and can hit the power
> button or unplug the system, I strongly recommend that you leave the
> shutdown option on the start menu. If a user is determined to
> shutdown/reboot a computer, I would much rather they shut it down
> gracefully by using the shutdown command than doing it harshly buy
> holding the power button or unplugging the system, which can lead to a
> host of other problems.
>
> --
> Prentice
>
>
> On 10/05/2011 08:49 AM, Horst Severini wrote:
>> Hi Alois,
>>
>> I'm not sure there is a way to remove that, and I'm not sure it makes too
>> much sense to look too hard for it, either, since when someone is sitting
>> right in front of a computer, they can (a) shut it down from the login screen,
>> or (b) press the power button or (c) unplug the power cord, so in my mind
>> it doesn't much matter if you eliminate one way to shut it down when
>> there are several other you can't eliminate.
>>
>> Just my 2c,
>>
>> 	Horst
>>
>> Alois Treindl<alois at astro.ch>  wrote:
>>
>>> I have recently installed RHEL6 with GNOME desktop.
>>>
>>> In each user's menu appeasr under the entry 'System' also to item 'Shut
>>> down'
>>>
>>> I would like to remove this item for all users except root.
>>> In fact normal users can use this link to shut down the system, they are
>>> not asked for root password. I do not know how this can happen?
>>> Where can I at least configure that they are asked the root password for
>>> shutdown?
>>>
>
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|| Alois Treindl,  Astrodienst AG,  mailto:alois at astro.com
|| Zollikon/Zurich, Switzerland
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