[plug] making linux desktops consistent

[Mark O'Shea]

On Tue, 27 Apr 2004, Sol Hanna wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I'm getting two new PCs to be installed with Suse Linux which will add
> to two existing Linux clients. They are all connected to a Linux server
> running NFS server. I've copied over /etc/passwd, /etc/hosts/ &
> /etc/shadow from the server so that they all have the same users,
> password and vital information. But the desktops are starting to get
> inconsistent (because users, for instance, add an icon to the desktop on
> one machine, and then get upset when they can't find it on another -
> ditto for browser bookmarks). There are several users, and they just use
> which ever machine is available, generally speaking.
>
> I want to make the desktops consistent for each user, but I don't really
> want to use VNC because I've got good machines and want to take
> advantage of the power/speed, etc. I've been checking the web for ideas
> but haven't found anything inspiring yet. And the KDE Admin Guide
> doesn't have an answer to quite what I'm looking for.
>
> I was thinking of using NFS to mount /srv/home on the server as /home on
> the clients, but I've got a feeling that this would lead to very nasty
> consequences (apart from if the connection between server and client is
> broken). Is this safe? Has anyone done anything like this?
>
> Or is there another, possibly safer and/or simpler method of making
> desktop logins consistent from PC to the next?
>
> (NB: I'm using KDE ATM, but am prepared to look into GNOME if it has
> anything special to offer in this department.)
>

Mounting home directories over NFS has been a pretty standard way of doing
things in the UNIX world.  There is no reason why you shouldn't do this
with Linux (providing no NFS traffic can leave or enter your network, it's
not the most secure thing around).

If you don't want to be copying config files like passwd, hosts etc.
around then you could use NIS to store this config on the server and have
the clients use them for configuration (or fall back on local files when
the network is unavailable).  There is a how-to at
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/NIS-HOWTO/index.html.  I don't know how good it
is, but this system has been around for a while, there is loads of stuff
on the net about it.

There is also samba, which would let you use Windows in the network with
the same files/passwords.  This would also have the advantage of allowing
you to authenticate network mounts better than NFS.

Regards,
-- 
Mark O'Shea