set default desktop for all users

**felixvah** · September 21st, 2009

I've ubuntu 9.04 on a virtual box. Is there possible to set a default windows desktop for all users? Once I configure the very first desktop and settings, I want to apply to all users that logon to the same PC. I don't like logon to individual account and re-configure all settings, desktop, screen saver and etc. again.

Another question was if I log on as a user without administration, how would I sudo with a different users with administration? I've tried sudo su - but when I type in the password, it didn't allow me to change. Can someone please help. Thank you,

**arrange** · September 22nd, 2009

It should be possible to copy all settings from one account to another though I have not tested it thoroughly.

Create an account using the usual Users and Groups option. Let's say we have 2 users then: original and copycat. First copy the contents of the original home direcory and change its ownership

Code:

sudo cp -rT /home/original/ /home/copycat/
sudo chown -R copycat:copycat /home/copycat/

Depending on your initial setting of the original you may have some references to that user in the profile; check that

Code:

sudo grep -lIR '\/home\/original' /home/copycat 2> /dev/null

If you see any files that contain a reference to /home/original, change the reference manually to /home/copycat or run

Code:

sudo -i
grep -lIR '\/home\/original' /home/copycat 2> /dev/null | while read F; do sed -i 's:\/home\/original:\/home\/copycat:g' "$F"; done

When I was testing this, the copycat account was identical to the original including FF, TB and Evolution profiles. The only thing that seemed broken was positioning and scaling of icons on the destop. Actually, I'm writing this from a copycat account

Report back how you worked it out.

ad 2) You can't sudo with a user who is not in the admin group (not an administrator).

**felixvah** · September 22nd, 2009

I'm not able to copy. Here's my command error:

felix@felix-desktop:~$ sudo cp -rT /home/felix/ /home/mcpl/
cp: cannot stat `/home/felix/.gvfs': Permission denied