Re: KDE desktop

[Adam Tauno Williams <adam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>I really believe you can accomplish what you're trying to do
>with NFS.  Just export and mount "/home" on all the Linux
>PC's, then all home directories are available everywhere.
>
>The biggest thing you have to worry about with NFS is all the
>users have to have the same user NUMBER on all Linux boxes.
>So, if user "bert" has UIDP1, then it has to be 501 everywhere.
>
>You can sync your passwd and group files easily between Linux
>boxes with NIS (no windows).  You can also use LDAP (so I hear)
>to sync users & passwords between Linux boxes and Windows.

NIS stinks!!! It's an ugly kludge,  it feels more like something
M$ would foist on net-admins then it does something out of Sun.
It's also got BIG security problems so you really need to make
sure that portmap/RPC is disabled on the machine you use as your
internet gateway.  But NIS is easy to setup (usually).

LDAP has a precipitous initial learning "curve" but also 
integrates into every e-mail client (netscape, outlook, eudora,
etc...) as well as sendmail, PHP, Samba (HEAD and TNG, not 2.0.x),
apache, and eveything else under the sun (Old Sol, not Sun
Microsystems).  The pam_ldap modules also never require the server
to transmit a password or password crypt across the network, and
you can setup SSL encrypted communication between the LDAP server
and all the clients.  To use a basic LDAP setup simply install
OpenLDAP and get the MigrationScripts.  These let you pump your
/etc/passwd file etc... up into the LDAP server (after you makeup
a BaseDN, like "o=Brotherhood of the Whitemice, c=US") then
install the PAM and NSS modules and your on your way.

Whatever you do to distribute your user database install the nscd
package on all the machines, or else performance will suck.

See:
http://www.kalamazoolinux.org/presentations/20000328/
http://www.kalamazoolinux.org/presentations/20000530/

>>At this moment I use an SuSE 6.3 system as a file- and logon server at
>>home. I have samba configured in such way that it is the primary
>>domaincontroller. When connecting from my w9) system, a logon box is
>>presented asking for my NT-logon password. Depending on the person that
>>logs on, samba puts the right directories under the drive mappings. E.g.
>>we all have a G:\ as application drive an H:\ as the personal home drive
>>etc. The registry and desktop is saved on the linux system as well, this
>>works great.

You might want to try pam_smb and it's matching NSS module,  both of which
can be gotten from the Samba FTP server or found on freshmeat.  This lets
you Linux boxes auth the same way your Win9x boxes do.  Ugly, but it might
work, and looks pretty simple.

>>Except I want to replace W95 by KDE (or gnome). After setting a KDE

Helix GNOME rules!!! (with XFCE of course).

>>system up this week I realized that there are some difficulties to
>>conquer. Such as, the desktop, the passwords, the directories on the
>>file server etc.

NFS mouting the /home will fix the desktop preferences and things.
Also you might want to take a look at:
http://www.kalamazoolinux.org/presentations/20000725/

>>When I place a second W95 system into my network all still works.
>>Changing a password only has to be done at one place. The local pc holds
>>*no* passwords.
>>How do I "mount" a smb filesystem under a directory at my desktop
>>system? The KDE tool KDE Explorer is capable of viewing smb share via a
>>smbclient, but how do I make that "share" available via something like
>>mount. I do not want to use NFS because I want to keep on using the
>>possibilities that samba offers, putting different directories under
>>shares. (%U)

mount -t smb \\\\lnx01688\\workspace /mnt/floppy -o username=adam

>>It would be nice to keep on using de logon services, but I see not how
>>to do that. The KDE desktop system *does* need a password that is
>>located on the local system.

Nope, you can setup xdm/kdm/gdm through PAM to auth to any service you want.

>>Does anyone have any experience on this field?

And the grey hair to prove it,  Oh wait, when I started using UNIX all the
color came back.  Never mind.

Systems and Network Administrator
Morrison Industries
1825 Monroe Ave NW.
Grand Rapids, MI. 49505