Main Menu: return sub-menus, and lockdown question
 

Under Ubuntu 7 and now 8.04 then 8.10 I have "Places" and "System" in the Main Menu both as sub-menus under "Applications." On the panel, only the word "Applications" shows up next to the Main Menu icon. But installing Edubuntu 8.04 gave me all three words side by side in the panel, each its own first-level menu. How can I get the sub-menu arrangement back? I've searched all the documentation, cookbook, forums -- seemingly no way to configure this. But I had it under plain Ubuntu!
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Related question about lockdown, Ubuntu LTSP, client terminals running OK, but in "Edit Menus" for the Main Menu, I am unable to prevent students from access to all the "Places." It is possible to shut off access to "Administration," and narrow their choices from the long list of "Applications" available. That is, Games, Internet, Programming, System Tools, etc., are all shut off, and "Education" has been reduced to a few choices.

But there is no option to prevent them from rooting around among directories and trying out all the other clickable icons available under "Places." My purpose is to help them concentrate on the coursework I present to them, not to provide them with a toy. I want to focus their curiosity into channels that are meaningful to them now. Can I use another way to edit the Main Menu aside from the GUI, and shut off access to "Places"?

I haven't used edubuntu, so I don't know if this option is available, but try this if you haven't yet:

Right-click on a blank spot on the panel and select "Add to Panel"
Select "Main Menu" (not "Menu Bar") and click "Add"
Right click on the side-by-side menu. Select "remove from panel"


As for closing down access to clickable icons, if you don't need to keep the distracting programs for your own use I suppose you could just remove them using Synaptic. I would assume there's some way you could modify the ownership and permission of things so that the students couldn't use them (possibly using 'chown') but I don't know for sure.