oem-config-prepare for Debian

[nopposan]

Hello all.

Perhaps you've heard of this before, and perhaps not. Ubuntu has a nifty package called oem-config that allows you to configure a system to delete a user AND home folder called "oem" and ask the new user for a username, password, language, time zone, etc. on reboot; it then creates the new user and appropriately named home folder. I'm sure it's based on parts of the Debian installer, but I do not see an option like this in Debian; I'm fixing up old laptops for people whom I don't even know -- it would be nice to be able to allow them to choose their own user name and password, especially as deleting home folders seems to necessitate use of the CLI. I could just use Ubuntu, but I prefer Debian Testing because it doesn't require the user to chose between an unreliable "upgrade" or completely reinstalling the OS just to keep up with the latest version.


Please let me know if Debian has something like oem-config-prepare or if you have any suggestions to accomplish something similar on Debian.

Thank you.

[llivv]

you could take a look at FAI
It sounds like the script you're talking about is used after a machine is loaded by FAI

[nopposan]

Thank you for your response, but FAI isn't a tool which accomplishes this. Please see the following link.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Ubunt ... r_Overview

[nopposan]

It seems to me that Debian still does not have something like oem-config. All that I want to do is leave the creation of a user name and password to the end user. I can put my default settings into /etc/skel and remove the user, "oem" so that there will be no registered user on the system other than root. However, I don't know what Debian will give me when I reboot after doing this as I haven't enabled logging in as root. Will the system prompt me to create a new user account? I doubt it but perhaps I'll try it out on a USB installation. I don't care about the GUI of the Ubiquity installer that comes up after oem-config-prepare is run and then the computer is rebooted; all I want to do is allow the next person who boots the machine to create their own username and password, then log in and startx. I can let them choose the language from the lightdm drop-down menu.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to accomplish this?

I could just autologin my "oem" user that I've created, then leave a big button on the desktop that calls a script which opens the Users & Groups gnome system settings GUI and prompts the new user to create a new user account for themselves, login as that user and then click another button to remove the "oem" account and home folder. 'Seems a bit clunky though.

[vbrummond]

I couldn't think of a way to do this without original development. Which is possible for me but not at the moment. Thankfully any of the folk I help install Linux for are usually face to face so I can simply ask them what they want. If not I just set up 'user' and 'password' as the account. I give them info how to change the password if they want.

[nopposan]

Yes, I've done this too. When I am working on a computer for someone whom I know, or at least someone whose name I know, I can just use their name. Of course, if I want to use FAI, fully automatic install, or if I want to image the drive of a machine so as to use the same image on identical computers, well I could use the generic username and password then leave instructions for the user to create a new account and delete the old one. I think I might work on a few simple scripts that would accomplish this and come up automatically though, as I said in the previous post.

I'm using sudo so that the new user doesn't have to memorize two passwords. I could use zenity to have a graphical dialogue window series that would ask for the user-name and password of the new user and then feed these to a bash script that would create the new user and take care of permissions and the sudoers file; the initial desktop would be bare except for the big red button (xfce desktop icon) to start the script and call zenity. The script could also restart the computer or log out. Then, when the user first logs in as the new user I could auto-run a script (placed into the Xfce start-up options and in /etc/skel) that prompts the new user to "click here" to remove the default generic user and delete the default user's home folder--then remove said script from start-up options and delete the button and script from /etc/skel; the new user would have to, again, type in their password to do this via sudo as I'd rather not capture and save the new user's password anywhere, even temporarily. The only trouble is that I will have to translate my dialogue into French as some of my eventual users might not read English well.

I am sending some of these computers to, mainly francophone, Cameroon. Sometimes I know the name of the eventual user, but sometimes not. I will at least know the locales to use and the time settings and mirrors, etc., so I don't need to have a GUI asking the new users about this.

[fsmithred]

Here's a script I wrote to change a user's name. It has to be run from a root console. I know it's not exactly what you want, but maybe it'll help.
https://github.com/fsmithred/refracta/b ... e-username

[t.h.w.]

Hi,
I am looking for a Debian version of the *buntu oem-congif...
I have searched for two days now and have not found anything useful yet. I only found this is a years-old issue. Anyone?

Thanks!