How do you install this? https://git.gnome.org/browse/archive...ESSULUS_2_30_4 I'm trying to lock down a computer for public use.

First step is to download either the .zip or tar.gz file and then extract it. You should get a pessulus-PESSULUS_2_30_4 directory in that same directory. There is a README file there which would be a starting point.

There haves to be another way to install or how do you install?

pessulus
========

pessulus is a lockdown editor for GNOME, written in python.

pessulus enables administrators to set mandatory settings in GConf. The
users can not change these settings.

Use of pessulus can be useful on computers that are open to use by
everyone, e.g. in an internet cafe.

You may download updates to the package from:

http://download.gnome.org/sources/pessulus/

To discuss pessulus, you may use the desktop-devel-list mailing list:

http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listin...top-devel-list


Installation
============

See the file 'INSTALL'. If you are not using a released version of
pessulus (for example, if you checked out the code from git), you first
need to run './autogen.sh'.


How to report bugs
==================

Bugs should be reported to the GNOME bug tracking system:

https://bugzilla.gnome.org/ (product pessulus)

You will need to create an account for yourself.

Please read the following page on how to prepare a useful bug report:

https://bugzilla.gnome.org/page.cgi?id=bug-writing.html

Please read the HACKING file for information on where to send changes or
bugfixes for this package.

You should be able to install it in Mint with: sudo apt-get install pessulus, or use the software center. You should then be able to find it in the Menu.

Now it ask me to load these files. Trying to find out how do I go by installing these?
Please add the files
codeset.m4 gettext.m4 glibc21.m4 iconv.m4 isc-posix.m4 lcmessage.m4
progtest.m4
from the /usr/share/aclocal directory to your autoconf macro directory
or directly to your aclocal.m4 file.
You will also need config.guess and config.sub, which you can get from
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/config/.

Might expain why it's in an archive directory.

Given Pessulus "enables administrators to set mandatory settings in GConf" and the default Mint 16 desktop environment Cinnamon is derived (maybe the wrong word) from GNOME Shell which uses dconf not GConf, it's probably no use to you.

You would probably do better to explain exactly what you it is you are trying to lock down.

This https://help.gnome.org/admin/system-.../index.html.en should help you with how to handle dconf settings including setting user over-ridable defaults and locking settings. Not that it's for GNOME not Cinnamon so some of the key names will not be relevant but the concept will be the same.

Possibly you're looking for 'kiosk mode linux'; try google of that.
Another alternative in terms of maintaining ctrl/easy re-initialising is ltsp.org

I've not spent much time searching for this capability in a general sense, nor tried to customize a full distribution such as MINT or Ubuntu; rather instead picked a kernel and customized it "up". For instance there are ways to deploy a GUI such that it does not require a window manager or even the XServer. You can start up a system so that it does not show anything besides your customized start screens as well as the information you wish to show to the user. And you can limit access by disabling network sessions; like FTP, SSH, Telnet, and so forth; or just disable all network access completely and use the console through say COM1 and restrict COM1 to be inside an enclosure so a person can't access it without a laptop, cable, and also takes apart the public computer enclosure partially so they can plug in. Of course restricting the logins also applies there.

These things involve customizing your kernel and potentially your bootloader.

Doing some of these actions with a general purpose distribution are fine for demonstration purposes, but if your intention is to produce an actual product then you're best to put in the effort to perform these customizations; and they are not simple things, they do take some time to learn how to do them.

In response to the original question about how to install; I believe that has been answered. I do not believe it is the correct way to do this; you're allowing a general purpose distribution to fully load all of it's services and capabilities and hoping to load a python based application to control locking out the system. That's just not going to be secure enough IMHO.

I'm not familiar with this package, but I do know that "kiosks" normally use a dedicated graphic shell – specified in the equivalent of the /etc/passwd file – instead of the normal, full-featured GUI or TTY-shell) ones. This is the only program that faces the user, and if the program ever dies, init is programmed to re-launch it. The program is dedicated solely to the purposes of presentation (or whatever the dedicated-task may be) and there is no "other shell" underneath it at all. So, there's nothing to break through or to break into. The only way to administer the machine is to ssh into it (or something), by actually attaching to a wired socket within a locked case. Yet the entire power of Linux is under there.

I would be tempted to use a remote boot or diskless boot or freenx type. Hard to lock down stuff people have access to.