The Linux Public Web Browser Mini-HOWTO
 Donald B. Marti Jr. <[email protected]>
 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.

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