Parental Units Setup

From Brandonhutchinson.com

My parents somehow agreed to try Linux. Here the steps I performed after the default install of Ubuntu 7.10.

Contents 1 Configure user auto-login 2 Remove the metacity minimize animation 3 Install Opera 4 Install Internet Explorer 6

Configure user auto-login

From /etc/gdm/gdm.conf:

# Automatic login, if true the first attached screen will automatically logged
# in as user as set with AutomaticLogin key.

$ $ sudo sed --in-place -e 's/AutomaticLoginEnable=false/AutomaticLoginEnable=true/' -e 's/AutomaticLogin=/AutomaticLogin=user/' /etc/gdm/gdm.conf

Remove the metacity minimize animation

• Disable the animation.

$ gconftool-2 --set --type=boolean /apps/metacity/general/reduced_resources true

• Display contents of windows when moving (i.e., disable the awful wireframe effect).

$ gconftool-2 --set --type=boolean /desktop/gnome/interface/accessibility true

Install Opera

• Add the Opera .deb repository.

$ sudo sh -c 'echo "# The Opera browser (packages)\ndeb http://deb.opera.com/opera etch non-free"'

• Add the deb.opera.com GPG key.

$ sudo sh -c 'wget -O - http://deb.opera.com/archive.key | apt-key add -'

• Install Opera.

$ sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install opera

Install Internet Explorer 6

Install IE6 just-in-case a site is unusable with Firefox or Opera. Instructions on installing IE6 on Ubuntu are here[1].