"locking down" kdm

[Mr Wiggles]

I was able to find some info on the KDE Wiki Tips & Tricks about this
http://kde.ground.cz/tiki-index.php?page=Tips+and+Tricks

they were quoting something from this list actually I think....
*************************************************
I have noticed that the part of the KDM configuration where the
sessions can be changed is missing in (my?) control center.
If you have the same problem and still want to change what's displayed
in the sessions menu in KDM, you can do it 'by hand'.
Well, you could do it before as well, but things have changed a bit
since KDE 3.1.x:

<quote from some kde-mailing list>

Your problem is not the file kdmrc. This file is no longer used to show
the selection of available WMs. kde3.2 uses .desktop files in
$KDEDIR/share/apps/kdm/sessions to determine wether a WM is available
or not. In these files there is a entry called TryExec. On startup kdm
checks whether the command in TryExec can be executed. If yes, the WM
is displayed in the entry, if not ... . If you chose one of these
entries from kdm the Exec part of the .desktop file is passed to the
xsession script (defined in kdmrc).

</quote>

So if you have p.e. xfce installed correctly and KDM doesn't show the
entry, you can edit the existing xfce.desktop file and change the
TryExec entry to contain the full path to your executable.

(If your Xsession script is correct, this should work straight, but if
you use the KDM-scripts, you might as well have to change the Exec
entry to contain the full path as well.)

Notabene: This should only be necessary if your needed session is not
in your $PATH (p.e. if you want to be able to choose both KDE-3.1 AND
KDE-3.2) A hint on howto accomplish that will follow as well ;)
*************************************************

I went in again (had previously tried to accomplish this by commenting
out the lines in question) and this time moved some of the .desktop
files into the parent dir and altered the TryExec command in others.
sure enough it worked and it removed those from the Session Type menu.

Unfortunately it there were no .desktop files for Custom Default or
Failsafe.....while it would be nice to remove them all except for KDE,
Default should be fine since the default is KDE but both custom and
failsafe allow users to circumvent kde-kiosk....any thoughts on where
to go to put an end to the menu as a whole or at leas the failsafe and
custom session types?

thanks again








On 6/15/05, Justin Denick <justin.denick at gmail.com> wrote:
> gdm uses something like this
> ..............................................................................................................................................
>  [root at ltsp root]# ls /etc/X11/gdm/Sessions/
> Blackbox  default  Default  Failsafe  FluxBox  GNOME  IceWM  KDE
> Reset your desktop  XFce4
> [root at ltsp root]#
> ..............................................................................................................................................
> 
> While I run KDE exclusively at home, I do not have acces to the box
> RN, so you'll have to take a look at you own box. However, the concept
> would be to change the perms on these file so that only certain
> groups/users can execute/read/write to them.
> 
> On 6/15/05, Mr Wiggles <astalavista.box.sk at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I am running suse 9.1pro but I think this question is only specific to KDE
> > (running 3.2) and not the distro...
> >
> > How can I lock down kdm so that when users are logging in they are only
> > able to login to a kde session? I have set this box up as a kiosk using
> > kde-kiosk, sadly if they click menu (wouldnt mind getting rid of this
> > button altogether) -> session type -> and select something else like admin
> > or failsafe, or anything really.....they circumvent all the kiosk
> > restrictions that we have in place.
> >
> > /opt/kde3/share/apps/kdm/sessions contains .desktop files that people say
> > reference all of the session types but there are session types that appear
> > at the kdm login screen that do not appear in this dir and lots of .desktop
> > files that are in this dir that do not appear as session type options at
> > the login screen.
> >
> > there is also the kdmrc file which I have heard contains a SessionType=
> > line that specifies what sessions a user can select from but even after
> > modifying this line nothing changes in the session type menu at the kdm
> > login screen.
> >
> >
> > So ideally...how can i remove the menu option from the login screen
> > altogether, or alternatively how can i make it so that "KDE" is the only
> > option under the session types drop down under the menu.
> >
> > tia
> > ___________________________________________________
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> >
> 
> 
> --
> Got Gentoo?
> 
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>                 -- Mark Twain
>
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