HP COMPAQ T5125, COMPAQ T5525, COMPAQ T5515 User Manual

Customization Techniques on HP Compaq Linux Thin Clients

HP Business PC Group

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Modifying the right-click menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Linux configuration files that control the right-click menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Modifying the right-click menu to remove non-root access to the

Linux console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Modifying the right-click menu to add a custom command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Modifying the global key set for XFCE to remove access to the manual Linux RUN command . . . .7

Manually adding additional keyboard layouts to the HP Linux thin client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Manually adding extra libraries for additional application support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Appendix A: Partial list of vi commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

Introduction

The white paper provides some simple modifications that you can make on select HP Compaq Linux thin clients. Linux is a very powerful and flexible operating system that you can customize in many ways. The more you understand how the Linux operating system works, the better you can tailor the operating system to meet your needs.

This white paper covers the following specific topics related to customization:

1. Using the HP Linux thin client Altiris manageability scripts.

2. Modifying the right-click menu to remove non-root access to the Linux console.

3. Modifying the right-click menu to add a custom application command.

4. Modifying the global key set for XFCE to remove access to the manual Linux RUN command.

5. Manually adding additional keyboard layouts to the HP Linux thin client.

6. Manually adding additional Linux libraries for additional application support.

This paper assumes that the IT Professional has basic knowledge of navigating directory structures using the Linux console, editing files using the “vi” editor, and an understanding of how to set file permissions through the Linux console. A listing of some basic vi editor commands is provided in Appendix A.

Modifying the right-click menu

The right-click menu is displayed while holding down the right mouse button while the mouse pointer is on the HP Compaq Linux thin client workspace or desktop area. The information displayed on the right-click menu varies based on whether you are logged in as root user (administrator) or non-root user. By default, the right-click menu content changes depending on the user type. By default, the right-click menu for nonroot user is the same for all non-root users on the same system; however, you can configure the right-menu differently for two non-root users.

Linux configuration files that control the right-click menu

The files that control the content of the right-click menu are located in the /etc/xfce4 subdirectory. The file directory is shown below:

drwxrwxr-x 4 root root 1024 Mar 8 18:08 .

drwxrwxr-x 20 root root 1024 Mar 14 02:04 ..

drwxrwxr-x 2 root root 1024 Jan 4 23:50 applets

-rw-rw-rw- 1 root root 41 Apr 15 2005 blank.menu.xml

-rw-rw-rw- 1 root root 53 Apr 15 2005 ff.menu.xml

-rw-rw-rw- 1 root root 2014 Mar 14 01:04 menu.xml

-rw-rw-rw- 1 root root 1747 Mar 7 19:04 menu.xml.cma

-rw-rw-rw- 1 root root 2012 Mar 14 01:06 menu.xml.cman.root

-rw-rw-rw- 1 root root 2390 Apr 15 2005 menu.xml.pna

-rw-rw-rw- 1 root root 2089 Apr 15 2005 menu.xml.pna.root

-rw-rw-rw- 1 root root 2079 Apr 15 2005 menu.xml.XXXXXXX

-rw-rw-rw- 1 root root 2079 Apr 15 2005

-rw-rw-rw- 1 root root 52 Apr 15 2005 po.menu.xml

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 52 Jan 31 17:08 poweroff.menu.xml

-rw-rw-rw- 1 root root 47 Apr 15 2005 rb.menu.xml

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 47 Jan 31 17:08 reboot.menu.xml

-rw-rw-rw- 1 root root 65 Apr 15 2005 vnc.menu.xml

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 53 Mar 14 01:04 webbrowser.menu.xml

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1098 Jul 21 2004 xfce4rc

drwxrwxr-x 3 root root 1024 Jan 4 23:50 xfwm4

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5298 Apr 21 2005 xinitrc

The specific files that control the right-click menu are listed in the following table:

HP Desktop Startup Mode Root account Non-root account*

HP Connection Administrator menu.xml.cman.root menu.xml.cman

Citrix ICA Client menu.xml.pna.root menu.xml.pna

XFCE (model specific) menu.xml.XXXXXXXX.root menu.xml.XXXXXXX

Note that the non-root files control all non-root users for that system. You can customize non-root files per user by appending the system defined user name to the end of the file. For example, a custom non-root user file for user “Bob” can be created by creating and modifying the file “menu.xml.cman.Bob”.

The basic structure of each of these files is similar but varies depending on the current startup shell (XFCE, HP Connection Administrator, Citrix ICA Client) and the current logged in user. A partial display of the menu.xml.cman file is shown below.

========================================================================

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE xfdesktop-menu [

<!ENTITY webbrowser SYSTEM "webbrowser.menu.xml">

<!ENTITY VNC SYSTEM "vnc.menu.xml">

<!--

Explanantion of XFce 4 menu file:

=================================

Here we will try to explain the format of the menu file. Look at the

actual menu below for the real examples.

-->

<!--

+ Everything is between exactly one pair of

<xfdesktop-menu></xfdesktop-menu> tags.

+ Applications:

'term' determines if the program needs a terminal to run

Only 'name' and 'cmd' are required.

+ Separators:

+ Submenus:

Only 'name' is required.

Between the menu tags you can define more applications, separators and

menus.

+ Titles

Creates an insensitive menu title

+ Including other files:

Other files can be included by using an xml trick. This is a little bit

complicated.

First you have to define a so called entity in the file header. See above,

where we define a 'menu2' entity to point to a "menu2.xml" file.

Then you can use '&entityname;' anywhere in the menu file and it will be

replaced with the contents of the file the entity points to.

+ 8 hidden pages