ULabMin 0.6.0

Introduction

Section Links

1. Understanding ULabMin
   
2. Road map of future changes
   
3. Version history
   
4. Documentation
   
5. How to install
   
6. Requirements
   
7. Download
   
8. Configure
9. Turn it on
10. Troubleshooting

Understanding ULabMin

Road map of future changes

Version history

Documentation

How to install

Requirements

Download

Configure

• $harddiskname - Your hard disk will be named this at every startup.
• $kioskusername - Logging in as this user will disable the Dock, the Finder, and will cause the idlescript to completely change its behavior so that it always keeps a Safari web browser open, and it removes and cleans up the home folder when the screen saver is on. Note, in Mac OS X 10.3 "guest" is not a valid username... :(
• $adminusername - Logging in as this user will skip home folder creation and certain idlescripts tasks.
• $maintenanceusername - Logging in with this username will run radmind.
• $imagerusername - (Doesn't work, but it is suppose to run an ASR utility to image a second hard disk.)
• $kiosk_homefolder_name - Homefolder name of the kiosk user (this is normally /Users/$kioskusername, but can be different). Note, this folder is created by the scripts. Any folder you create with this path will be deleted.
• $kioskUserHomeFolder - /Users/$kiosk_homefolder_name. Ok, a bit of duplication here. It isn't perfect.
• $presentation_homefolder_name - This is the folder for the "presentation" user.
• $lab_homefolder_name - Homefolder name of the authenticated user. Each user (no matter what their username is) should get this folder. The name is the same for every user to simplify configuration of preferences and such that require that the path of the home folder be known by the admin. YOU MUST SET THIS UP IN NETINFO MANAGER (local users) or DIRECTORY ACCESS (ldap/etc users).
• $authenticatedUserHomeFolder - Homefolder name of the kiosk user (this is normally /Users/$kioskusername, but can be different). Note, this folder is created by the scripts. Any folder you create with this path will be deleted.
• $template_homefolder - The location of the home folder you have setup for your users to use.
  

• Menuversum - Currently the menuversum files are not being distributed on this page. They will be added soon. When they are added, no configuration of Menuversum will be needed.
• You should configure SecureIt's password. Please read the SecureIt documentation how to do that. Note, ULabMin replaces some modifications that SecureIt performs.
• iHook - we modify iHook's NIB so that the window behaves closer to what we want. If you use your own iHook graphics, you don't need to worry about modifying iHook in the way we have. However, if you want to use our graphics, you will need to modify iHook. The instructions are not provided here yet...
• Screen Preserver - Just put pictures in the pictures folder located inside of the app bundle.
• ncutil 2.x and Radmind require no modifications.
  

Turn it on

• /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow.plist (this file activates the login and logout hook and disables logging in as ">console"--the other settings don't matter)
• /Library/StartupItems/ULabMin/StartupParameters.plist (required for the startup script)
• /Library/StartupItems/ULabMin/ULabMin (this file executes the startup script)
• /private/etc/rc (this script disables setting the language with /var/log/CDIS.custom because /var/log is ignored by radmind, and we don't want /etc/rc to read anything in it!)
• /private/etc/rc.boot (this script runs fsck a bit different... saves the success or failure of fsck into nvram)
• /private/etc/rc.cleanup (this script removes and replaces /Volumes just like it does /tmp because radmind ignores /Volumes, and we want to clean it up!)
• /private/etc/ttys (this file disables logging in as ">console" too)
• /System/Library/StartupItems/LoginWindow/StartupParameters.plist (this file stops the startup process until the ULabMin startup item finishes, very important if you want to run radmind at startup or with cron)

Troubleshooting

• Make sure scripts are executable.
• Make sure scripts have Unix line endings.
• Make sure scripts don't have bad white space, which happens when you copy text out of a web browser window.
• Make sure the scripts do not have syntax errors.
• Make sure scripts that execute other scripts have correct paths.
• When debugging ULabMin behavior, it is VERY helpful to have sshd turned on and to ssh into the computer.
• Check /var/log/system.log, nearly all ULabMin scripts save messages there.
  

• Verify that the ULabMin startup item is running (see "Startup" below). If ULabMin isn't running, then disable it to see if ULabMin is the problem, or something else. Disable ULabMin startup item by:
  1. Edit the file /System/Library/StartupItems/LoginWindow/StartupParameters.plist
  Change:
  Requires = ("Disks", "SecurityServer", "Order from Chaos");
  To:
  Requires = ("Disks", "SecurityServer");
   
• 2. Move /Library/StartupItems/ULabmin to some other location (/ works).
  If the computer still hangs at startup after disabling ULabMin's startup item, some other startup item is hanging and you will need to figure that one out on your own.
  

• Make sure the application that replaces the Finder exists and is executable by the user logging in.
• Try to enable sshd and check to see what process is running... kinda hard to debug this one.
  

• Make sure the loginhook runs (execute it in the command line)
• Make sure there is a valid home folder after the loginhook finishes that can be read and written to by the user logging in (you may want to check the home folder path in NetInfo manager (local users), Directory Access (network users with a home folder setting that is static), or your LDAP/etc server (network users that have the home folder set in the directory)
• Make sure the loginhook finishes (check /var/log/system.log for loginhook.pl messages)
  

• When the ULabMin startup item executes, text is saved in /var/log/system.log like this:
  
  Apr 17 00:40:09 localhost ConsoleMessage: ULabMin starting up
  Apr 17 00:40:11 localhost root: ULabMin starting up
  
  If you don't see those lines /Library/StartupItems/ULabMin/ULabMin is not executing at startup. Follow the "General" troubleshooting list for the file /Library/StartupItems/ULabMin/ULabMin.
• Next, check for these lines in /var/log/system.log
  
  Apr 17 00:40:12 localhost startup_script.pl[326]: Started.
  Apr 17 00:40:30 localhost startup_script.pl[426]: LabStartup took 18.
  
  If you don't see those lines /Library/ULabMin/scripts/startup_script.pl is not executing. Follow the "General" troubleshooting list for the file /Library/ULabMin/scripts/startup_script.pl.
• If all of those lines are present, then ULabMin startup script is at least executing and finishing properly.
• If some other script is not executing, search /var/log/system.log for the name of the script that is not executing. If there is nothing there, check /Library/ULabMin/scripts/startup_script.pl to make sure that it can execute the script.