LinuxQuestions.org
Review your favorite Linux distribution.
Go Back   LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - Desktop
User Name
Password
Linux - Desktop This forum is for the discussion of all Linux Software used in a desktop context.

Notices


Reply
  Search this Thread
Old 08-10-2009, 11:20 AM   #1
emjga
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Jul 2008
Posts: 4

Rep: Reputation: 0
How to Centralize KDE 3.3 Menu for 100 Workstations RHWS 4U7


Folks

Is there a easy way to centralize the KDE 3.3 menu for RedHat 4U7

What I would like to do is to allow one user as say user kdemgr
to login and Right Click Menu Editor then Add / Delete any kde menu
After saving the changes any other user who logins to any workstation will see the same Menu.

Can any body advise.

Matthew
 
Old 08-10-2009, 01:10 PM   #2
cmdln
Member
 
Registered: Apr 2009
Location: Lawrence, KS
Distribution: Debian, Centos
Posts: 108
Blog Entries: 1

Rep: Reputation: 25
I once faced a similar issue. I wanted to enforce certain enviornment settings like background and initial app settings. I ended up so frustrated with trying to parse kde config files I tried out gnome. Honestly I never liked gnome before but using gconf with python bindings was so nice I became a fan for large user enviornments.

But to satisfy your requirement I have an idea. You could use Pam mount to mount your kdeuser dir. The use Pam mount and an overlay file system like unionfs to overlay the user on top of the customized kdeuser home dir.
 
Old 08-10-2009, 01:49 PM   #3
i92guboj
Gentoo support team
 
Registered: May 2008
Location: Lucena, Córdoba (Spain)
Distribution: Gentoo
Posts: 4,083

Rep: Reputation: 405Reputation: 405Reputation: 405Reputation: 405Reputation: 405
That unionfs idea is pretty neat. I know that there's also some kiosk stuff for kde though never tried it myself. It might worth a short to try both ideas in conjunction, assuming that the kiosk kde stuff is mature and works, which I don't know.

http://extragear.kde.org/apps/kiosktool/
 
Old 08-10-2009, 02:21 PM   #4
arizonagroovejet
Senior Member
 
Registered: Jun 2005
Location: England
Distribution: openSUSE, Fedora, CentOS
Posts: 1,094

Rep: Reputation: 198Reputation: 198
I've added a new sub menu on the KDE 3.5 menu before by creating the file /etc/xdg/menus/custom.menu E.g.

Code:
<!DOCTYPE Menu PUBLIC "-//freedesktop//DTD Menu 1.0//EN" "http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/menu-spec/1.0/menu.dtd">
<Menu>
 <Menu>
  <Name>Blah</Name>
  <Directory>Blah.directory</Directory>
  <Include>
  <Category>Blah</Category>
  </Include>
  <Layout>
   <Merge type="menus" />
   <Menuname>Applications</Menuname>
   <Merge type="files" />
   <Filename>quota.desktop</Filename>
   <Filename>changepassword.desktop</Filename>
   <Filename>linuxdocfaq.desktop</Filename>
   <Filename>thunderbirdsetup.desktop</Filename>
  </Layout>
  <Menu>
   <Name>Applications</Name>
   <Directory>Blah-applications.directory</Directory>
   <Include>
   <Category>Blah-Applications</Category>
   </Include>
   <Layout>
    <Merge type="all" />
    <Menuname>Foo</Menuname>
    <Menuname>Baa</Menuname>
   </Layout>
   <Menu>
    <Name>Foo</Name>
    <Directory>Blah-foo.directory</Directory>
    <Include>
    <Category>Blah-foo</Category>
    </Include>
   </Menu>
   <Menu>
    <Name>Baa</Name>
    <Directory>Blah-baa.directory</Directory>
    <Include>
    <Category>Blah-baa</Category>
    </Include>
   </Menu>
  </Menu>
 </Menu>
</Menu>
For examples of .directory and .desktop files look in /usr/share/applications.

Don't know if that would work for (so very, very old and obsolete) 3.3, try it and see.

For 3.5 at least then if you put the right files in the right place you can modify the KDE menu. I don't have a copy of KDE 3 anywhere to play and be more specific but the a technique for working out stuff like this is as follows:

In your home directory run the command

Code:
$ touch /tmp/now
Change the configuration you're interest in, in this case edit the KDE menu as desired. Then in your home directory run the command


Code:
$ find . -newer /tmp/now
You'll get a list of any files which have been changed since the file now was created. Often there will be system level equivalent of those files which can modify to apply the settings for all users.

It will of course help a lot if you have some automated way to put files on to all the workstations. I build my own rpms for this.
 
Old 08-17-2009, 05:14 AM   #5
emjga
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Jul 2008
Posts: 4

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 0
Folks

Thanks for all the replies

In the end I have done the following.

Created a User account kdemenu
Created links from each users account to the kdemenu account for the following.

~/.config /export/home/kdemenu/.config
~/.local /export/home/kdemenu/.local

I then login to kdemenu from a workstation do the edits via Menu Editor
and all the users can then share the kde menu.

The only problem I found is that you have to watch the permisions for
~/.local which seem to get changed after each edit and have to be altered , but it works for me.

Matthew
 
  


Reply


Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off



Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
200+ Systems...how do you centralize sudo? custangro Linux - Enterprise 20 01-08-2010 10:39 AM
SUSE 9.3 server, xp workstations. Now, workstations can't reconnect after reboot ImaMess Linux - Newbie 2 05-31-2009 11:05 AM
Replacing windows workstations with linux workstations jdw52 Linux - General 4 09-26-2008 05:37 AM
server runs redhat , workstations win 2k ,workstations cannot connect to internet snkambule Linux - Networking 7 04-27-2005 10:08 AM
RHWS 3.0 installation problems oxo Red Hat 0 03-03-2004 02:29 AM

LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - Desktop

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 05:53 AM.

Main Menu
Advertisement
My LQ
Write for LQ
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute content, let us know.
Main Menu
Syndicate
RSS1  Latest Threads
RSS1  LQ News
Twitter: @linuxquestions
Open Source Consulting | Domain Registration