From: Vesa-Pekka Palmu (depili@sci.fi)
Date: Tue Jun 12 2001 - 08:48:00 CEST
> @What will it be used for then? Office Applications? AbiWord and Gnumeric are great software to run on
> Linux, but you'll have to avoid Star Office, as it is slow at 400Mhz. How many users will you be supporting? The
> "problem" with Linux is that cracklibs is installed as default - and you have to make passwords very secure (and
> hard to remember for the younger children.
The terminal will be used for entertainment, In a childrens hospital, this is why windows is totally out of question, as the configs would get messed in about 15 minutes by little "computer experts". So as the computer woun't be containing any personal data, there is no need for separate logins for users. The plan is to create a static system that woun't be destroyed by people unpluggin the computer when it is running etc.
> >The computer itself is a 120Mhz pentium with 24mb ram.
> @Should run RedHat fine then, though maybe a little slow. Personally I would install both Gnome, and KDE -
> both for the libraries that come bundled, and the kdm logon manager is very easy to setup as root. However I
> would run wmaker as the window manager - it is much faster, though quite different to Windows.
Ok, I have tought about using some of the liter wms, as the access when using them is easier to restric.
> >
> >the points that I have tohught:
> >1. MOUNTING THE ROOT AS READ-ONLY and loading /etc as a
> >ramsdisk so that the configuration is restored at reboot.
> @Why bother? Redhat is much more secure than MuLinux, and only root can access files outside of anybody's
> home area, access serial ports, or shutdown - unless permissions are changed as root.
Well this is to ensure that when some litlle person presses the reset button the fs woun't get corrupted.
> >2. Staring X at boot time and loggin the user in automatically, with
> >very limited access of course.
> @Errm, why are you going to log the user on automatically? Ease of use?
see my earlier point...
> If you really insist on auto logon then something like:-
> ### Start Script ###
> #!/bin/bash
> logon user pass #
> startx
> ### End Script ###
> Might work if placed in /etc/rc.d/rc.local, I haven't tested it. Or alternatively you could just leave it logged on all
> the time and run xscreensaver, though pesky students would logout.
If I tweak the wm so that there isn't a way to logout the user and start the X at boot time and restart it if it gets killed (maybe making a script for this and adding that scrip to initab would work?)
> @Customizing RedHat is pretty easy if you use linuxconf and setup as root. Although the sendmail setup from
> there is useless. And running RedHat means a lot of people will be able to help you.
Well I will probably do it the redhat way, or if the mandrake seems good for the job I will use it.
The most recent plan of mine is also to create a bootable "rescue cd" that will automatically when booted fdisk the hd, format and restore the box to the condition of fresh install, but I'm not sure how to do this.
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