Topics

1

General Support / guidance on auto reset

« on: August 23, 2013, 07:57:56 AM »

Hi,

I've been trying to get auto-reset working (http://wiki.ubermix.org/page/Auto-Reset) with limited success. Maybe I'm not understanding it correctly or maybe the wiki page is out of date, eg: on the wiki it says to edit the line in /boot/grub/grub.cfg that ends with 'splash'. However there is no line that ends that way, but there is one that ends 'splash --no-log vt.handoff=7'

I have appended to that line and it is doing something, but not what I expect.

After booting into 'generic' mode, I've made some software changes/updates and have customized the homescreen and homepages of Firefox and Chrome. If I set the grub.cfg line to 'aufs=restore_home' it keeps all the changes to the UI but does NOT delete some test files I've placed in /home/user. If I set it to 'aufs=restore_both' it wipes out the UI changes and resets the browser homepages. Also, it does remove the test files in /home/user/ and keeps the software changes I've made.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding what is supposed to be happening with those reset modes, but here is what I'm looking to achieve:

Thanks in advance!
I want the system to keep all of my software updates/changes/additions and keep all the UI changes made (browser home pages, custom Favorites screen, etc) but to erase any user files and any other config changes.

I'll note also that I have been making all those changes while booted into 'generic' mode.

2

General Support / rebuild base image w/ additional user

« on: August 15, 2013, 10:13:16 AM »

Hi!

Let me start with a little background so you understand what I'm trying to do. I work in the IT Dept at a community college and as part of my FOSS/Linux advocacy I've gained tentative permission to setup a few computers with Linux in public areas, like the library. Upper management has given me these 2 requirements:
- machines must log into the Active Directory
- machines must wipe/reset daily

So far I've been pretty successful. I am able to join to the AD with likewise-open and though I haven't implemented it yet I've read the instructions for auto-reset on each boot and don't expect any issues there. (http://wiki.ubermix.org/page/Auto-Reset)

The problem I am having is that the user I've created on my base machine, the username that I am required to use for the AD login for all student PCs (lanstudent), is not being fully transferred when I create an updated key. I can login as that user but there is no /home/lanstudent/, and the autologin for that user is not working either (which just may be a first time boot issue - I've noticed fresh installs of Ubermix require entering a password for "user" the first time they're booted)

Here are the notes I've made during this process. Though not very thorough (details of steps are omitted) they should provide an idea of what I'm doing.
***********************************
After fresh install ...

RESIZE BASE SYSTEM PARTITION
reboot w/ key
option 5, option 3
set to 16G

option 5, option 5
set hostname

REBUILD THE BASE IMAGE
reboot (no key)
ESC, normal, 'e', replace 'aufs' with 'generic', ctrl-x

   adduser lanstudent
   addgroup lanstudent <all of user's groups>
   
   edit /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf
   to autologin lanstudent

   PURGE
   Thunderbird
   
   UPGRADE
   (run apt-get update)
   localepurge, select 'en_US' (run it, saves 158M)
   firefox
   google-chrome-stable
   libreoffice
   likewise-open-gui
   vim
   
   run apt-get autoclean
   
   add zotero to FF
   set homepages
   set Favorites screen   
   
   use gparted to resize USB key
 
   reboot w/ key
   option 5, option 1
   <wait>
*****************************************************************

I guess the question comes down to: how to I get that 'lanstudent' user _fully_ transferred over with my new installation image?

I guess another problem will also be: how do I protect that account from getting destroyed each time I do a reset?

Thanks in advance!