localzuk Posted January 11, 2013 Posted January 11, 2013 So, I've created an install of Debian which runs a python script after auto-login which wraps around FreeRDP to allow kids to log in with it using NLA (allowing our load balancer to work right). Now, I've got everything working as I want except a single feature - I want the disk to basically be locked. I know I could get it to mount everything read-only, but I suspect this will just cause everything to spew nonsense at the user when they turn on the machine. How do I go about making it 'locked' so that var doesn't fill up with logs etc...? HP managed it with their ThinPro system somehow. I don't really care about logs etc... because if there is an issue, it'll just get reimaged back to the base image. Any ideas?
mats Posted January 11, 2013 Posted January 11, 2013 I wouldn't worry about the logs - Linux is designed to be on forever and rotates them peridically, throwing away the oldest ones. If you're really worried, put /var on a different partition.
dhicks Posted January 11, 2013 Posted January 11, 2013 Any ideas? Could you replace the log files in var with symbolic links to /dev/null?
dhicks Posted January 11, 2013 Posted January 11, 2013 I wouldn't worry about the logs - Linux is designed to be on forever and rotates them peridically, throwing away the oldest ones. It does cause disk access though, which might wear down a (cheaper / older) SSD or similar.
mavhc Posted January 11, 2013 Posted January 11, 2013 If you don't want the user to alter files, just don't give them write access to their home dir. If you want it to restore to a known state on logout/reboot, perhaps the way live CDs work, loopback a ram FS
morganw Posted January 18, 2013 Posted January 18, 2013 You could base the solution on Debian Live instead. This gives you hooks at various stages to configure the system and user for a live session. Locally installed or network boot it...
CyberNerd Posted January 19, 2013 Posted January 19, 2013 So, I've created an install of Debian which runs a python script after auto-login which wraps around FreeRDP to allow kids to log in with it using NLA (allowing our load balancer to work right). Now, I've got everything working as I want except a single feature - I want the disk to basically be locked. I know I could get it to mount everything read-only, but I suspect this will just cause everything to spew nonsense at the user when they turn on the machine. How do I go about making it 'locked' so that var doesn't fill up with logs etc...? HP managed it with their ThinPro system somehow. I don't really care about logs etc... because if there is an issue, it'll just get reimaged back to the base image. Any ideas? I've read and re-read your post - could you explain a bit further because I don't understand why you want the disk read-only. Have you thought about deleting profiles on login and just recreating them them from /etc/skel or am I on a different line from your thinking?
localzuk Posted January 19, 2013 Author Posted January 19, 2013 Basically, the disk is 1GB in size. After full setup, it has 45MB of space left. I don't want to hit issues where the log files grow and fill the disk. So, I want the disk locked so on reboot, there is still 45MB space left - meaning that even if the disk fills up in a session for whatever reason, a reboot will resolve it.
CyberNerd Posted January 19, 2013 Posted January 19, 2013 understood. I think @dhicks is on the right lines with redirecting to /dev/null in your /etc/rsyslog.conf
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