Create Guest Session

darthpenguin · 2014-03-21 17:11:41

Hi all,

I have posted this under 'System Administration' but the question is quite elementary. Possibly better posted in 'Newbie Corner'?

Anyway. I have Arch installed on my Lenovo ThinkPad. Occasionally, someone might want to borrow my system for a few minutes. Usually just to pull-up a web site or something. Maybe I am just a bit paranoid, or OCD or something but I am simply not comfortable with others using my system or, to be more precise, mucking about in my local account. Many systems (Ubuntu, Mint, Windows, Mac, etc.) all have a guest (or temporary) account. I'm using lightdm and cinnamon both of which offer an option to 'switch' to a 'guest account' or 'guest session'. Is is possible to build a local guest account or install a guest session or something that I can switch to for others to use?

obviously, the guest session would have no password, no elevated privileges on the system, and would forget/delete all data and setting at log-out. Currently the command

dm-tool switch-to-guest

does nothing. I expect there must be a way to create an account or session so that this command will switch directly to the guest session (bypassing the lightdm greeter) while leaving my account logged in but locked.

I'm sorry if this is already in the forums or the wiki. But I looked and couldn't find anything.

ewaller · 2014-03-21 17:36:26

Of course you can create other user accounts, and they can be created with restricted privilege, and they can be created without a password. I do not recommend no password accounts.

As to switching sessions, you are over complicating things. Just hit Ctrl-Alt-F2 (or F3-F6). You will get a log in prompt. Log in, use startx, and off you go...
You can even switch back to your session with Ctrl-Alt-F1, and back with Ctrl-Alt-F2

Edit: And, yes, moving to Newbie Corner.

Last edited by ewaller (2014-03-21 17:38:27)

darthpenguin · 2014-03-21 17:54:09

True. Your method would work. And yes, I'm am making it more complicated than it truly *needs* to be.

But, guest sessions on other systems are unique to other accounts. They give the most basic access and all data is removed on logout. All settings changed, all files downloaded, all cookies, all browser settings, all of it automatically deleted at logout. Effectively, the guest session (or account) should rebuild itself from scratch at each login.

Even Linux systems treat guest accounts differently than standard accounts. Ubuntu uses /etc/guest-session/skel which is separate from /etc/skel. lightdm offers a command-line switch [dm-tool switch-to-guest [session]]. I'm not sure what I would enter as the [session] variable in that command but there is another switch for the same command-line tool called 'switch-to-user' (just check 'lightdm --help' or 'man lightdm').

Clearly, there is a difference between user accounts and a guest session. What I want is the guest session. The same guest session available on Ubuntu and it's derivatives. Is this possible?

Last edited by darthpenguin (2014-03-21 17:55:24)

ewaller · 2014-03-21 18:02:04

Got it. I don't know of an off-the-shelf solution, A quick and nasty solution might be to but the home directory of that account in /tmp or on a ramdisk.

thiagowfx · 2014-03-22 00:34:21

See if these help:

Arch Linux

#1 2014-03-21 17:11:41

Create Guest Session

#2 2014-03-21 17:36:26

Re: Create Guest Session

#3 2014-03-21 17:54:09

Re: Create Guest Session

#4 2014-03-21 18:02:04

Re: Create Guest Session

#5 2014-03-22 00:34:21

Re: Create Guest Session

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