The Linux Public Web Browser Mini-HOWTO
Donald B. Marti Jr. <dmarti@agdia.com>
v0.01, 2 February 1997
0. Copyright and Disclaimer
Copyright 1997 Donald B. Marti Jr. This document may be redistributed
under the terms of the Linux Documentation Project license.
_This is a draft version of this document. It may contain errors.
Apply these instructions at your own risk. _
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.
1. 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. Before you begin
2.1. 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, the only way that I know
of to get a license is to buy the Caldera distribution "Open Linux
Base."
2.2. 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 when
he or she is done.
2.3. 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:
lynx -dump http://localhost
You should get the text of the home page on your system.
3. Add the guest account
As root, run adduser to add a user named guest.
Then enter
passwd guest
to set the password for the 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
chown me.mygroup /home/guest
Replace "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.
4. Create or edit the following files in /home/guest:
4.1. File name: .bash_login
_________________________________________________________________
exec startx
_________________________________________________________________
This means that when guest logs in, the login shell will start up the
X Window System right away.
4.2. File name: .Xclients
_________________________________________________________________
netscape
_________________________________________________________________
This means that when X starts, 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
chmod 755 /home/guest/.Xclients
to make it so.
4.3. File name: .xsession
______________________________________________________________
#!/bin/sh
netscape
______________________________________________________________
If you use 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
chmod 755 /home/guest/.xsession
to make it so.
4.4. File name: .Xdefaults
______________________________________________________________
! 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\
______________________________________________________________
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.
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.
5. Make a .netscape directory for guest
Enter
mkdir /home/guest/.netscape
Then
chmod 777 /home/guest/.netscape
to copy the configuration files to guest's .netscape directory and
make it world-writable.
6. Try it
Log out, then log in as guest.
7. 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.
8. Bonus Perl script
The HTML version of this Mini-HOWTO is also a Perl script that does
all of the steps for you except "Add the guest account" which needs
to be run as root. Run the script with perl -x.
9. To do
This document needs setup information for other graphical browsers,
a non-graphical section for Lynx, and how to do a no-keyboard setup
that will come up with a guest web browser when you turn it on.