[K12OSN] OK now I am *very* confused!

[John Ingleby <john coronet co uk>]

Joseph,

The /etc/skel directory provides a kind of template for setting up new
users. I couldn't find any RedHat docs on it, but Googling for
"/etc/skel" produced this and several other refs:

http://www.fr.linuxfromscratch.org/view/blfs-cvs/postlfs/skel.html

John Ingleby
************
> Message: 11
> From: "Joseph Bishay" <joseph bishay utoronto ca>
> To: k12osn redhat com
> Date: Mon, 24 Nov 2003 22:28:40 -0500
> Subject: [K12OSN] OK now I am *very* confused!
> Reply-To: k12osn redhat com
> 
> I don't understand how this is at all.  If k12ltsp is designed for 
> use in school environments, then it must be necessary to create 
> accounts for all the students.  
> 
> Now, given that everyone must have experience in creating these 
> accounts, is there anyone who can help me with my problem!  
> 
> I have set up a generic student with specific features, namely:
> - specific desktop background
> - removal of the evolution email icon in the taskbar at the bottom
> - removal of the 'start here' icon on the desktop
> - started up and changed the theme for mozilla to IE, as well as the 
> start homepage and removed some of the buttons from the menu area
> - started up OpenOffice, dealt with the address book and registration 
> dialogs
> - started up Gimp and dealt with all its setup dialogs.
> 
> So now I have the perfect generic student account. Is there any way 
> AT ALL to create new accounts based on that one? I have tried using 
> the adduser smith -m -k /home/generic command which runs 
> successfully, but once I attempt to log in as smith, it hangs.  I 
> tried modifying all the files and changing their permissions to 
> smith, and even tried changing all there permissions to EVERYONE 
> (777) and it still will not login correctly.  It just seems to freeze 
> on the gnome Metacity icon (but if you wait a REALLY LONG TIME ie: 10 
> minutes) you will get maybe 2 or more icons, until the screen blanks 
> to blue and you have to kill X)
> 
> Am I just thinking about this all wrong? Is everyone suppose to have 
> the same, default desktop?  Or is everyone out there actually logging 
> in as each student, modifying it, then logging out (which is what i 
> had to to do for all the staff who are obviously are a much more 
> manageable number).  
> 
> Indeed, as I was going through the archives, the most telling piece 
> of information I found was the comment that while the software is 
> robust and freely available, the learning curve will definitely 
> prevent widespread usage. Which is definitely too bad.  
> 
> Joseph