LightDM - Feb 2013 - How to set up a public computer without locking it down completely

Hi all:

I would like to set up a public Linux computer in a hackerspace, so that guests
can browse the Internet if they haven't brought their own laptop.

There is a minimum of security requirements to fullfill, but we are not talking
about serious security here. The PC is not really private, as there is always a
number of hackers walking around. Guests tend to be of good faith and they often
need help using computers. If the PC gets trashed I hope I can re-image it
pretty quickly.

I've spent some time searching the Web with keywords "Kiosk Mode"
and "Public PC", but most advice I have seen is about locking the
computer down, but that's not what I want to achieve, I want to let the user
do as much as possible, including (if possible) installing packages from the
distribution's default (trusted) software repositories. I just want to
forbid root and nothing else.

I would also be nice if the PC could update itself when shutting down, so that
it will come up again next day completed up-to-date with the latest version of
Firefox and so on.

I am thinking about creating some sort of autologin guest account. The trick is,
when the user logs out, or maybe at next login, the guest account gets totally
wiped out in order to start clean next time around. I am thinking about
resetting the user's file to a known baseline.

In order to prevent the guest user from being asked the typical welcome
questions every time, I would also like to temporarily disable such account
wiping, so that I can update the baseline used for the next wiping out at login.

I am guessing I could add some hook scripts somewhere in the LightDM's
configuration in order to achieve all this. Can anybody give me some pointers?

Many thanks,
? rdiez

Hi rdiez,

In terms of how LightDM does guest sessions, there are some files you can
modify:
/usr/sbin/guest-account creates/removes guest accounts - you could modify
that for new behaviour
/etc/apparmor.d/lightdm-guest-session controls guest permissions

You can enable guest autologin from /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf


On 2 February 2013 04:13, R. Diez <rdiezmail-temp2 at yahoo.de> wrote:
> Hi all:
>
> I would like to set up a public Linux computer in a hackerspace, so that
> guests can browse the Internet if they haven't brought their own
laptop.
>
> There is a minimum of security requirements to fullfill, but we are not
> talking about serious security here. The PC is not really private, as there
> is always a number of hackers walking around. Guests tend to be of good
> faith and they often need help using computers. If the PC gets trashed I
> hope I can re-image it pretty quickly.
>
> I've spent some time searching the Web with keywords "Kiosk
Mode" and
> "Public PC", but most advice I have seen is about locking the
computer
> down, but that's not what I want to achieve, I want to let the user do
as
> much as possible, including (if possible) installing packages from the
> distribution's default (trusted) software repositories. I just want to
> forbid root and nothing else.
>
> I would also be nice if the PC could update itself when shutting down, so
> that it will come up again next day completed up-to-date with the latest
> version of Firefox and so on.
>
> I am thinking about creating some sort of autologin guest account. The
> trick is, when the user logs out, or maybe at next login, the guest account
> gets totally wiped out in order to start clean next time around. I am
> thinking about resetting the user's file to a known baseline.
>
> In order to prevent the guest user from being asked the typical welcome
> questions every time, I would also like to temporarily disable such account
> wiping, so that I can update the baseline used for the next wiping out at
> login.
>
> I am guessing I could add some hook scripts somewhere in the LightDM's
> configuration in order to achieve all this. Can anybody give me some
> pointers?
>
> Many thanks,
>   rdiez
> _______________________________________________
> LightDM mailing list
> LightDM at lists.freedesktop.org
> http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/lightdm
>
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