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[RESOLVED] Guest account and automatic login

mrbryce2000

Thu Sep 13, 2018 4:27:28 pm

Greetings,

I am using Zorin OS Lite Education for some low power cloudbooks in a school laptop cart. I found documentation for Ubuntu Desktop on how to setup a new account, and then make that account a guest. From there you edit the lightdm.conf file to automatically login as that new guest account.

It is my understanding that Zorin Lite uses XFCE. I researched commands to perform the same with that desktop environment, but have been unsuccessful so far.

What I need:
Assign my "Student" account to run like a guest
Auto login Zorin as that Student account

Is this possible? Maybe I am simply editing the wrong config files.

Thank you for your time.

Swarfendor437

Thu Sep 13, 2018 8:16:43 pm

Remember you should have an administrator account for updates etc. Yes Zorin Lite does use xfce and is based on xubuntu so you need to look at the guide here:

https://appuals.com/how-to-enable-auto- ... n-xubuntu/

mrbryce2000

Mon Sep 17, 2018 12:21:53 pm

Thank you for your reply. This is the instructions that I followed, however the lightdm.conf file is different, none of the example code works, and I DO need my "student" account to be treated as a guest. The examples in this site are the exact opposite.

mrbryce2000

Mon Sep 17, 2018 1:10:56 pm

OK, I was finally able to figure it out. The config file that needed to be edited was: /usr/share/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/60-zorin-os-lite.conf
I set the following variables after modifying my Student account and creating a link in /etc/guest-session/skel
[Seat:*]
user-session=zorin-os-lite
autologin-guest=true

Swarfendor437

Mon Sep 17, 2018 8:13:23 pm

Great work - 120 blue jewels to you sir! - 60 for solving the issue yourself and another 60 for sharing! ;) :D

pcfan5

Thu Sep 27, 2018 4:49:31 pm

:geek: :P ;)

Justin R

Fri Jan 10, 2020 1:30:37 am

Hi, is resurrecting an old thread ok?
I've been trying to resolve a problem with a new install of Zorin 15.1 where I've been getting stuck at the password prompt for the desktop. I'm using the correct password but it tells me "failed to start session". Various threads have brought me to this one, which is very useful, but now that I feel that I may be at the final furlong I've encountered another hurdle:
When I follow the steps described by mrbrice2000 above, I get "no such file or directory". If I check in Thunar on my other computer (which I've installed the same version of Zorin onto) it most definitely does exist.
I could reinstall the os but there was a file I had saved in a local folder which had not been backed up when I got stuck out in the cold, and I would prefer not to lose it if I replace the existing os.
Just in case it's relevant I was struggling with another bug before this one which involved the shut down button in xfce not working. Can't remember what the error message was but it wouldn't let me shut down, reboot, sleep or anything. I had failed to find a solution and wanted to try something in the bios or recovery menu so I forced a shutdown using the button on the actual stack. Rebooted and couldn't get back in either! The xfce gate is well and truly locked both ways, and the worst of it is, I can't force my way back in as there isn't a button for that on the stack!
Any help would be much appreciated.
Cheers
Justin

Aravisian

Fri Jan 10, 2020 1:51:01 am

Justin R wrote:Hi, is resurrecting an old thread ok?
I've been trying to resolve a problem with a new install of Zorin 15.1 where I've been getting stuck at the password prompt for the desktop. I'm using the correct password but it tells me "failed to start session". Various threads have brought me to this one, which is very useful, but now that I feel that I may be at the final furlong I've encountered another hurdle:
When I follow the steps described by mrbrice2000 above, I get "no such file or directory". If I check in Thunar on my other computer (which I've installed the same version of Zorin onto) it most definitely does exist.
I could reinstall the os but there was a file I had saved in a local folder which had not been backed up when I got stuck out in the cold, and I would prefer not to lose it if I replace the existing os.
Just in case it's relevant I was struggling with another bug before this one which involved the shut down button in xfce not working. Can't remember what the error message was but it wouldn't let me shut down, reboot, sleep or anything. I had failed to find a solution and wanted to try something in the bios or recovery menu so I forced a shutdown using the button on the actual stack. Rebooted and couldn't get back in either! The xfce gate is well and truly locked both ways, and the worst of it is, I can't force my way back in as there isn't a button for that on the stack!
Any help would be much appreciated.
Cheers
Justin

Justin, it sounds like something was either removed or got corrupted.
When you restart the computer, hold down the LeftShift Key.
You will then start at Grub
Down arrow key at the screen that comes up and on the next one, down arrow key to the option with your Kernel Generic (Recovery Mode)
Down arrow key to Enable Networking and on the next screen select Yes
At the next screen, scroll down to Root Drop to Root shell Prompt.
Hit enter then hit enter once more.
You got your terminal, back. ;)
In that screen enter
Code:
sudo apt-get install zorin-desktop

Code:
sudo apt-get install zorin-desktop-core

If it says it is already installed, try
Code:
sudo apt-get install --reinstall zorin-desktop

Then enter
Code:
reboot

and follow the prompts to reboot.
Hopefully, that will resolve but if it does not, repeat all the steps above EXCEPT instead of installing the desktop, try this:
Code:
sudo dpkg-reconfigure -a

Justin R

Fri Jan 10, 2020 10:43:55 am

Hi Aravisian,
I got "unable to locate package ......." on all the desktop reinstall options.
And for the dpkg-reconfigure attempt I got:
"unknown option: a
Usage: dpkg-reconfigure [options] packages
-u, ___--unseen only______Show only not yet seen questions
______--default-priority____Use default priority instead of low
______--force____________Force reconfiguration of broken packages
______--no-reload________Do not reload templates. (use with caution)
-f,____--frontend__________specify debconf frontend to use
-p,____--priority__________specify minimum priority question to show
______--terse___________ enable terse mode"
Haven't tried any of those as nervous to do anything in root without guidance!

Swarfendor437

Fri Jan 10, 2020 1:08:47 pm

Did you enter correctly?:

Code:
dpkg configure -a


Plus take a look here:

https://www.maketecheasier.com/fix-brok ... es-ubuntu/

Justin R

Thu Apr 30, 2020 11:24:02 am

Hi again, just to let you know I got this sorted in the end (ages ago now) and everything running again fine. Can't actually remember what the solution was though. Probably hadn't entered the command correctly!
So once again many thanks for your help.