Customizing user accounts

[kablizzo]

Greetings! I am setting up an OS for a PXE server. I've gotten the latest version of Ubuntu installed, removed Unity and loaded Xfce (there are some older systems being used as clients). Now I need to add all the user accounts.

I would like specific bookmarks to be loaded into firefox and certain shortcuts added and removed from the rat menu. Is there a way I can do this without going into each individual profile and changing it? I haven't created the profiles yet so maybe there is a default or some template user profile I can change?

I apologize for then newb question, but that is what I am.

[TheFu]

ansible to automate HOME setup
or
modify /etc/skel/ with whatever settings you want. https://askubuntu.com/questions/186487/how-to-ensure-that-all-new-users-have-the-same-profile-settings-as-the-current-u
or
using NFS so that the directories for every user on every system are the same ... basically /home would be form 1 disk that is on the network. Most places use LDAP for userid management when they have more than 5 users and 5 workstations to be shared. With LDAP and NFS home directories, whenever a user logins in on any of the workstations, their HOME is used. Very convenient. It also means they can ssh into other machines and their HOME will be available there, highly convenient, provided the config files are setup so this works correctly.
or
if these are guest users, there is a way to setup the defaults. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CustomizeGuestSession

The main issue with firefox is that profiles are created using random names as a security measure. If you hard code them, some level of security is reduced.

For firefox, you might just replace the firefox command with one that always opens the tabs?

firefox -new-tab http://ubuntuforums.org/ -new-tab https://www.duolingo.com/ -new-tab https://forecast.io/

This probably isn't useful today.

[joe.koenig]

Hi kablizzo,

pardon my ignorance, but what is a "rat menu"?

[kablizzo]

ansible to automate HOME setup

That seems like a powerful tool. I should learn it but for now it's over my head.


modify /etc/skel/ with whatever settings you want. https://askubuntu.com/questions/186487/how-to-ensure-that-all-new-users-have-the-same-profile-settings-as-the-current-u (https://askubuntu.com/questions/186487/how-to-ensure-that-all-new-users-have-the-same-profile-settings-as-the-current-u)

This is exactly what I need! THANK YOU!!!!


The main issue with firefox is that profiles are created using random names as a security measure. If you hard code them, some level of security is reduced.

For firefox, you might just replace the firefox command with one that always opens the tabs?

firefox -new-tab http://ubuntuforums.org/ -new-tab https://www.duolingo.com/ -new-tab https://forecast.io/

I like the open-tabs-by-default solution as well. You, sir, deserve a beer! If you are ever in the Portland, OR area it's on me.


This probably isn't useful today.

Very useful thank you so much!!

[kablizzo]

Hi kablizzo,

pardon my ignorance, but what is a "rat menu"?

It's probaby not what the equivelant-to-a-start-menu is called in Xfce. But that's what I call it.