Hide user from login screen Lucid

[MSPdwalt]

So...

I actually got my boss to let me put Ubuntu on a laptop for a client and it works like a champ. I have it all setup but there's one thing I'd like to do on it. I have an admin user (the one I created during the install) and a desktop user (for the person receiving the laptop). I would like to hide my admin user from the login screen, so when it boots up all the user sees is their name. If I need to help them with something/install software I can choose other and login as my admin user.

It appears this was rather easy in 9.10 and previous but I can't figure out how to do it in 10.04. To be clear, I want to edit the user list, not disable it entirely. I've tried changing the user id, I found a post that claimed IDs less than 1000 were not shown on the login screen, this proved un-true in my case.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

DW

[jrev]

Just make an automatic login on the user you select in
system/admin/login window.
The session will open automatically on the user

[MSPdwalt]

Just make an automatic login on the user you select in
system/admin/login window.
The session will open automatically on the user

Thanks for the reply, but I want them to have to enter their password. I want to have a user on their machine without them knowing and without enabling root.

[MrEgg]

Hey,

On Lucid, place the users you want to hide under the 1000 level (eg 999, 998, 997, etc.). They'll be removed from the login screen and from the Disconnect menu. Works in my case.

sudo usermod -u 999 username

Cheers,
Egg

[Krytarik]

How about this: http://fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?t=246103

Seems it should work in Ubuntu too, checked the gdm.schemas-file.

If that doesn't work you could still disable the user list at all, in a terminal type:

sudo -u gdm gconftool-2 --set --type boolean /apps/gdm/simple-greeter/disable_user_list true

[MSPdwalt]

Thanks guys,

I'll give your suggestions a try if I can ever get my hands on that laptop again LOL. I gave it to the customers CIO to test and see if he felt his user base could function in Ubuntu. He loved it so much he won't give it back.

[sisco311]

It appears this was rather easy in 9.10 and previous but I can't figure out how to do it in 10.04. To be clear, I want to edit the user list, not disable it entirely. I've tried changing the user id, I found a post that claimed IDs less than 1000 were not shown on the login screen, this proved un-true in my case.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

DW

Edit the /etc/gdm/gdm.schemas file and the admin user to the list of users of the greeter/Exclude stanza:

...
    <schema>
      <key>greeter/Exclude</key>
      <signature>s</signature>
      <default>username,bin,root,daemon,adm,lp,sync,shutdown,halt,mail,news,uucp,operator,nobody,nobody4,noaccess,postgres,pvm,rpm,nfsnobody,pcap</default>
    </schema>
...

[Megaptera]

If you look at Ailurus, available through Software Centre, it has the option to disable user list at log in. That way your boss would have to enter his/her log in name and get to his/her account. Provided your boss didn't know your log in name he/she couldn't access you account.
Would that be an option?

[MSPdwalt]

Edit the /etc/gdm/gdm.schemas file and the admin user to the list of users of the greeter/Exclude stanza:

...
    <schema>
      <key>greeter/Exclude</key>
      <signature>s</signature>
      <default>username,bin,root,daemon,adm,lp,sync,shutdown,halt,mail,news,uucp,operator,nobody,nobody4,noaccess,postgres,pvm,rpm,nfsnobody,pcap</default>
    </schema>
...

This did it! Thanks a lot sisco311!

[Krytarik]

Since "/etc/gdm/gdm.schemas" is included in the gdm install package, your modification will most likely get overwritten by an update of the package (just yet did further research).

Thus you should instead modify "/etc/gdm/custom.conf" by adding:

[greeter]
Exclude=user1,user2

Those file will definetely not get overwritten by an update.