"First Time User" Setup After Installation

Installing Zorin OS
#1

Hi All - Really enjoying Zorin so far!

I recently received a donation of about 50+ out of service laptops from a local school district. The laptops were earmarked for the garbage, but I saw an opportunity to breathe new life into them (Pentium M, 2 GB Ram, 160 GB HDD).

My goal is to install Zorin on all these machines, tidy them up, and donate them to underprivileged children through some local non-profits I’ve connected with.

The hurdle I’m facing, though, is that I have to set up a user account upon installation of the OS and I don’t see a way to “remove” the created super-user and allow the recipient of the donated laptop to set up their own user account when turning it on their first time.

Any advice on how I can achieve this?

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#2

Anyone using such a machine would need the possibility to take actions as administrator, e.g. a user with sudo authority, one day or the other, IMHO.

You can force a user to change the password at first login by running passwd -e some-userid before handoing over the machine.

Actually, I’m currently doing something similar: I’m preparing my elder T43p for my grandson. I didn’t think of exiring the password, yet, since I can talk to him directly. But maybe I’m gonna expire his password before handing over, now that you brought me to it.

But, I defined a *normal" userid for him setting the account type to Desktop user, and I defined another account as administrator account, leaving account type as User defined, and made sure the same categories are checked under “extended settings” -> “user rights” as with the installation user (me). Then, I added that admin user to group *sudo", so he can do admin things when logged in as this user.

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#3

The expiring password idea is a pretty good one.

My biggest concern is that I likely won’t have any interaction with those that eventually receive the laptops from the donation. So I don’t want to put them in any predicaments where they won’t have full control.

My last-ditch effort was just to leave them some instructions on how to access the machine and update their credentials.

#4

I completely understand. And, yes, I guess you would need to write some document that explains a few things about the machine and its setup. Including information about the one or two users you predefined.

What is your idea about supporting the recipient in case of troubles? You or the organisation distributing the machines should probably think about how to help, and, you would need to be able to login even it the recipient completely screwed up his userids. So, maybe you need to define another “sudo” userid for you, and not tell the recipient about it.

#5

Hi @sfxdotcom! I’ve just sent you a message about this.

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