Requests for Enhancements


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Revision as of 06:35, 20 September 2005 by Geek256 (Talk | contribs)

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saved files warning on shutdown

Have it check the desktop and home directory for saved files when the user tries to shutdown. If files exist prompt to ask them if they want to continue with shutdown or continue the session so they can upload the files someplace.

Mutiple Logins in Knoppix

I recently had an idea for non-server type computers. This would be implementable on Knoppix, but could be applied to any distribution.

Right now, "knoppix home=scan" will scan media for a knoppix.img file.

<newidea>

It would be cool if the system looked for all files called "home-*.img". For example, I might have a home-hal.img file which would be an encrypted filesystem containg the user hal's home directory.

Suppose it found two files: home-hal.img and home-dave.img. Then the login screen would show four user options: default, hal, dave, and new. Default would create a home directory in the ramdisk using the default settings, just like Knoppix does now.

If I chose hal, it would ask for a passphrase. If that passphrase works on the encrypted home directory, then it would add hal to /etc/passwd, mount the encrypted filesystem at /home/hal, and log me in.

The "new" option would create a new user and a new encrypted home directory on whatever media is chosen.

</newidea>

The advantages are:

  1. One is not limited to the "knoppix" user.
  2. There can be mutliple home-directory images for multiple users on the same hard drive.
  3. This encourages use of encryption for security.
  4. It seems more natural security model. In the old model of enforcing security, the kernel is expected to respect /etc/passwd and home-directory permissions. User A could always use a live-cd to read User B's private files, even if User B had set the permissions on those files to keep them private.

This idea needs work. But I think it has some promise.


Unique Hostname

It would be very nice and useful, if the hostname of the Knoppix box would be unique. This would allow, that there are several Knoppix hosts running on the same net. Currently, if dynamic dns and DHCP is used, only the first "knoppix" host gets added to the DNS.

One easy way would be, to add the MAC adress of the 1st NIC to hostname (without the : of course). This would make the hostname look something like "knoppix-0008743EFDE2".