[OLPC-AU] Network and some further Q's

[Jerry Vonau]

On Tue, 2010-09-28 at 09:28 +1000, Jonathan Nalder wrote:
> Hi team,
> 
> 
> have been exploring using GNOME to connect to our DETQ network - need
> to load a security certificate also which is the sticking point at the
> moment.
> 
> 
> With some help I was able to get it connected to our network, but when
> we switched to sugar the connection did not remain active

NetworkManager sources different files while in gnome or sugar to setup
the network. 

> 
> 
> This has also led me to consider the place of GNOME in our rollouts -
> its not even really mentioned in the teacher training, but of course
> for students who find it and use it I need to know a couple of things
> security wise which those above me would ask:
> 
> 
> - how locked down re: user rights is the GNOME side of things?
Not very.

> - can the XO boot off a USB?

That is how re-imaging works. With a bit of homework by the student they
can boot their own kernel & initrd. If a student does manage to boot a
homebrew usbkey, you have your next XO tech. ;)

> - can students who have no idea what they are doing do much damage in
> terminal?

Yes, again you need to have some idea of the commands.

> - is it possible to have the keyring in GNOME turned off? Wouldn't
> want students entering an initial password that gets lost etc and
> causes problems.

What I've tried is leaving the password fields blank when prompted to
create one, then when using gnome I'm not prompted to unlock the
keyring. The keyring is stored in /home/olpc/.gnome2/keyrings/, just
un-encrypted. I haven't tried to set any parameters by hand or supplying
my own files yet. Sugar stores its wifi info in 
/home/olpc/.sugar/default/nm/connections.cfg. 

What is really needed is to setup NM to use system setting rather that
user settings, or something that populates both files. I'm un-sure if
sugar can deal with wifi settings that are not available in its own
menu.

Jerry