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2. OLD GUIDE: The Linux Public Web Browser
mini-HOWTO by Donald B. Marti
Jr.,dmarti@best.com
v0.3, 5 January 1998
The basic idea here is to give web access to people who wander by, while limiting their ability to mess anything up.
2.1 Copyright and Disclaimer
Copyright 1997 Donald B. Marti Jr. This document may be redistributed under the terms of the Linux Documentation Project license.
This document currently contains information for Netscape Navigator only, but I plan to add notes for other browsers too as I get the necessary information. If you try this with a different browser, please let me know.
2.2 Introduction
The basic idea here is to give web access to people who wander by, while limiting their ability to mess anything up.
This setup was originally intended for trade shows, but it might be applicable other places you want to have a web browser going without having to babysit a computer.
Following these instructions does not make your system bulletproof or idiot-proof.
2.3 Before you begin
You need a graphical browser
This document assumes that you already have a running graphical web browser, such as Netscape Navigator, on your system. You should have permission to use your graphical web browser. If you want to use Netscape Navigator in a commercial setting, you can buy a copy with appropriate license through Caldera.
You need to be able to add an account
If you don't have the right to be root, get the system
administrator to add the ``guest'' account and give
you ownership of guest's home directory. Skip to the
``Create or edit the following files'' step ( Create or edit the following files in
/home/guest) when he or she is done.
You need httpd for a stand-alone web browsing
station
If you are setting up a web browsing station to run stand-alone,
without a network connection, you should have httpd
working and the web documents installed. To tell if this is the
case, enter:
You should get the text of the home page on your system.lynx -dump http://localhost/
2.4 Add the guest account
As root, run adduser to add a user named
guest. Then enter
to set the password for thepasswd guest
guest
account. This should be something easy to remember, like
``guest''. You will be telling people this password.
Don't make it the same as your own password.
Then make guest's home directory owned by you. Enter
Replace ``chown me.mygroup /home/guest
me'' with your regular username
and ``mygroup'' with your group name. (On Red Hat
Linux, these will be the same, since every user has his or her own
group.)
You should now exit and do the rest of the steps as yourself, not root.
2.5
Create or edit the following files in
/home/guest
File name: .bash_login
This means that when
exec startx
guest logs in, the
login shell will start up the X Window System right away.
File name: .Xclients
This means that when X starts,
netscape
guest just
gets the web browser, no window manager. If you prefer another web
browser, do something else.
The file .Xclients should be executable by
guest. Enter
to make it so.chmod 755 /home/guest/.Xclients
File name: .xsession
If you use
#!/bin/sh netscape
xdm(1) to log people in, this
file should make guest get the web browser as if he or she had
logged in normally. The file .xsession should be
executable by guest. Enter
to make it so.chmod 755 /home/guest/.xsession
File name: .Xdefaults
This file disables blink tags, drag-to-select, and some of the keyboard commands. It also makes all mouse buttons do the same thing, hides the menu bar, and makes visited and unvisited links the same color, so each visitor gets nice clean blue links, not ones that other people have been thumbing through and staining purple.
! Disable drag-to-select. *hysteresis: 3000 ! Make visited and unvisited links the same color by default *linkForeground: #0000EE *vlinkForeground: #0000EE Netscape.Navigator.geometry: =NETSCAPE_GEOMETRY ! Disable some of the keyboard commands. *globalTranslations: ! Mouse bindings: make all mouse buttons do the same thing. *drawingArea.translations: #replace \ <Btn1Down>: ArmLink() \n\ <Btn2Down>: ArmLink() \n\ <Btn3Down>: ArmLink() \n\ ~Shift<Btn1Up>: ActivateLink() \ DisarmLink() \n\ ~Shift<Btn2Up>: ActivateLink() \ DisarmLink() \n\ ~Shift<Btn3Up>: ActivateLink() \ DisarmLink() \n\ Shift<Btn1Up>: ActivateLink() \ DisarmLink() \n\ Shift<Btn2Up>: ActivateLink() \ DisarmLink() \n\ Shift<Btn3Up>: ActivateLink() \ DisarmLink() \n\ <Btn1Motion>: DisarmLinkIfMoved() \n\ <Btn2Motion>: DisarmLinkIfMoved() \n\ <Btn3Motion>: DisarmLinkIfMoved() \n\ <Motion>: DescribeLink() \n\
You should replace the NETSCAPE_GEOMETRY in this
file with an X geometry that looks like this:
XxY+0-0, where X is the width of your
screen and Y is the height of your screen +
32. This will position the Netscape menu bar off the top
of the screen, so the user won't be distracted. For example, if
your screen is 800x600, the geometry should be
800x632+0-0.
2.6 Make a .netscape directory for
guest
Enter
mkdir /home/guest/.netscape chmod 777 /home/guest/.netscape
to create guest's .netscape directory
and make it world-writable.
2.7 Try it
Log out, then log in as guest.
2.8 Changing preferences
Since you won't be able to use the menu bar as
guest, you should edit guest's preferences manually
if you need to change them, or change your own preferences to
what you want guest's to be and copy the preferences
file.
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