A similar idea that would work better for some...

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A similar idea that would work better for some...
by Aaron Traas on Tuesday 14/Aug/2001, @05:04

An idea I've been tossing around for something similar goes like this:

Modify Konqueror in such a way that you can pass it a parameter via the command line and have it run in "restricted mode". What this would do is disable all of the terminal/filemanager type abilities, and remove all of the KIO slaves except those that handle HTTP and HTTPS, allowing the user to *only* browse the web. Why is this ideal?

Consider this situation. I have a neat little PC in my bedroom. When my parents come to visit, they sleep in my room. I don't want them to accidentally do any damage to my machine (which they are more than capable of doing -- don't ask how), and I want my dad to be able to hit Motley Fool and his other financial sites when he wakes up, and I want my mom to hit hotmail. All this requires is a browser. So I could run KDM, add a user with a simple password called "guest". This user would have no shell, and would not be allowed to log in remotely. When the user logs in via KDM, however, it starts X with no window manager, loads Konqueror in "restricted mode", and maximizes Konqueror on the screen. Thus, they are surfing a really dumb web terminal. Exactly what they need, no more, no less.

My 2 room-mates and I have a combined total of 6 Linux desktops scattered throuout the house. This feature would be useful on some of them. I'd love to implement this myself, if someone would only tell me where to start...

--Aaron

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Re: A similar idea that would work better for some...
by aleXXX on Tuesday 14/Aug/2001, @06:52

as you say yourself, simply remove the other ioslaves, i.e. delete the .protocol (file.protocol) files and the actual ioslaves (kio_file.so)

Bye
Alex

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Re: A similar idea that would work better for some...
by someone on Tuesday 14/Aug/2001, @10:39

I wonder how your parents could running as a normal user (read, not root!) damage your system.

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Re: A similar idea that would work better for some...
by Andrew Kar on Thursday 16/Aug/2001, @05:27

Surely this sort of thing could be done simply with the xml interface? AFAIK all kde2 applications have their menus and toolbars defined by a simple xml file so you could just edit it so that with profile management only a simple browser window is opened with say back, forward and home buttons. Any 'powerful' commands are simply not included in the menus or toolbars.

I would imagine that most of kde could be closed up very neatly with this. Sure, people could do things if they really wanted but this sort of thing isn't meant to protect against technically competent people, its purely to make things simple for the masses by taking away all those 'confusing' options and to stop them accidentally bringing the system down

Andrew

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