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I work at a school and twice a year we have government exams. I pressed for years to get Linux installed on the school computers (Lubuntu 13.04) to avoid our constant problem with spam and popups and computer crashes when they were running XP. So far, using Linux has been a great success.

What I want to do is for when the students logon as a guest user, the system will default to a full-screen safari page, the page where the exam starts. Since we have 120 computers, this will save the teachers from having to go to each computer in the morning and load up firefox, type in the default web page, and maximize the screen. We have to use firefox since Chromium does not support the online exams. Firefox is already installed on the computers. Any suggestions as to the simplest method of doing this?

Thank you.

2 Answers 2

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The tutorial Customize Guest Session shows how this can be done using the guest session feature.

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It is pretty simple, you can find detailed instructions here on how to launch firefox automatically at log in: http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2009/07/ubuntu-open-applications-automatically-during-system-startup/

The essence of it it is to open "Startup Applications" and at the command section enter firefox. (or /usr/bin/firefox) Then in Firefox set the default homepage to the exam page!

Hope it helps you!

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  • I am using Lubuntu so the startup application preferences menu is not available. I found an autostart file in /etc/dg/lxsession/Lubuntu where I should be able to play around a bit. I need this for the guest session, so having firefox startup automatically when I log in under my account is not what I need. I need a way to modify the guest account parameters to open Firefox, go to the exam page, and go full screen . I assume I need to change a script for this to happen, since the guest account resets every time you log off. Is the autostart file I mentioned above the place to look?
    – user235417
    Jan 14, 2014 at 3:13
  • Update. Ok, I figured out a simpler method. I just created a new user with an automatic login and in there, I can easily set Firefox to default to the page I need.
    – user235417
    Jan 14, 2014 at 3:39
  • As well, if I bookmark the required URL as default, and the browser window is fully open, it saves that window size as the default. Sweet. All I need now is for it to open Firefox automatically upon login. I will use the link you provided to find out how to do this on Lubuntu (like I mentioned before, there is no GUI option that I can find to do this). I think this will be a much easier method to solve this than modifying the guest account. They have to log in anyway so why not have them log into a preset account with everything ready for them?
    – user235417
    Jan 14, 2014 at 3:40
  • Thanks for the help. All I need now is to do this in Lubuntu, which should not be too difficult.
    – user235417
    Jan 14, 2014 at 3:40
  • @user235417: Originally you asked how to do it when a student logs in as a guest. Please note that a regular account with automatic login differs from a guest session. Unlike the regular account, a guest session starts with a fresh environment. What you want can be fixed with the guest session feature as well. Jan 14, 2014 at 4:48

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