Lockdown Editor
As of GNOME 2.14, a graphical lockdown editor called
Pessulus has been included to ease the task of
disabling desktop settings.
To run the lockdown editor:
You will see a window with several different tabs. Each of the tabs
represents a different category of desktop settings that can be disabled.
In the next section, we will discuss each category and provide a brief
description for each setting that can be disabled.
To disable a setting, make sure the checkbox next to the setting's
description is checked. Most settings will take effect immediately,
however some settings will require that the application be restarted in
order to take effect.
When pessulus starts, it will try to get
a connection to the GConf mandatory configuration source. This address for
this configuration source is
xml:merged:$prefix/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.mandatory.
If the user that is running pessulus has access
to this configuration source, then a lock icon will be displayed next to
the checkbox for each setting. Clicking the lock will toggle whether or
not the setting is mandatory. If the setting is mandatory, then regular
users will not be able to change or override the setting. If the user
running pessulus does not have access to the mandatory configuration
source, then the lock icon will not appear. In this case, all disabled
settings will simply be stored in the user's default configuration source
and can be modified later using other tools such as
gconf-editor or
gconftool-2. For more information on GConf and
mandatory configuration sources, see the section called “GConf Configuration Sources”.
The following subsections will give a brief description of the
settings that can be disabled for each category.
 | Note |
|---|
Depending on the applications you have installed, you may see
fewer categories than those described in this section. |
- Disable command line
Prevent the user from accessing the terminal or specifying a
command line to be executed. For example, this would disable
access to the panel's "Run Application" dialog.
- Disable printing
Prevent the user from printing. For example, this would
disable access to all applications' "Print" dialogs.
- Disable print setup
Prevent the user from modifying print settings. For example,
this would disable access to all applications' "Print Setup"
dialogs.
- Disable save to disk
Prevent the user from saving files to disk. For example,
this would disable access to all applications' "Save as"
dialogs.
- Lock down the panels
If true, the panel will not allow any changes to the
configuration of the panel. Individual applets may need to be
locked down separately however. The panel must be restarted for
this to take effect.
- Disable force quit
If true, the panel will not allow a user to force an
application to quit by removing access to the force quit
button.
- Disable lock screen
If true, the panel will not allow a user to lock their
screen, by removing access to the lock screen menu entries.
- Disable log out
If true, the panel will not allow a user to log out, by
removing access to the log out menu entries.
- Disable quit
User is not allowed to close Epiphany.
- Disable arbitrary URL
Disable the user's ability to type in a URL to
Epiphany.
- Disable bookmark editing
Disable the user's ability to add or edit bookmarks.
- Disable history
Disable all historical information by disabling back and
forward navigation, not allowing the history dialog and hiding the
most used bookmarks list.
- Disable javascript chrome
Disable JavaScript's control over window chrome.
- Disable toolbar editing
Disable the user's ability to edit toolbars.
- Force fullscreen mode
Locks Epiphany in fullscreen mode.
- Hide menubar
Hide the menubar by default. The menubar can still be
accessed using F10.
- Disable unsafe protocols
Disables loading of content from unsafe protocols. Safe
protocols are http and https.
- Lock on activation
Set this to TRUE to lock the screen when the screensaver
goes active.
- Allow logout
Set this to TRUE to offer an option in unlock dialog to
logging out after a delay. The Delay is specified in the
"logout_delay" key.
- Allow user switching
Set this to TRUE to offer an option in the unlock dialog to
switch to a different user account.
