How to lock/hide a private folder

[vinnywright]

I realize that the best way to protect private stuff is by encryption, but My private files doesn't need that kind of protections.
I came to the conclusion that for my basic needs a simple adjustment of the permission / ownership settings of the folder will do the job just fine.

what are your "basic" needs?
just to keep a user from being able to see your files? if you have other user acounts on your box and do not want them to be able to read your files just go (in dolphin) to /home and right click your /home/folder click properties ,,on the permissions tab change "others" from "can view content" to "Forbidden"
now only users you place in your group will be able to see your files .

VINNY

[ronshor]

I know how to change permission / ownership .
I don't have other user accounts on my PC. This is what I'm trying to do right now.
I want to have a guest user login just like in Ubuntu.
I can't find that option in System Settings / Login

[vinnywright]

what ver. of Kubuntu and ver. of KDE
@hear on KDE-4.11.1 in system settings>login on the general tab thare is a button for alow guest login and I have a guest login showing on the login page,,,,,,,But I have never tryed it.

you could make a user acct and call it guest ,,,,,,

VINNY

[vinnywright]

OK so I just loged out and back in as Guest ,,,,,,it works as expected .
the guest cant even enter the /home folder
I am posting from the guest acct. now ,,,,O and it has no password

VINNY

[ronshor]

ver. of KDE 4.8.5
ver. of Kubuntu 12.04.02

And this is how it looks on my screen

[Buddlespit]

You're running kdm instead of lightdm. You can either change over to lightdm (sudo dpkg-reconfigure lightdm) or create a guest account by hand.

sudo useradd -m guest 
sudo passwd -d guest

[ronshor]

But what is the difference between kdm and lightdm ? and why kdm is the default settings ?

This code that you wrote will create a guest user on the login screen of Kubuntu ?
Will the guest user settings be on the GUI as well (if I want to change something) ?

[vinnywright]

KDM was the default display manager on 12.04 and before,,,,,,lightdm is the default display manager from 12.10 on ,,,,, you could install lightdm "sudo apt-get lightdm" if you install lightdm from console I think it will ask if you want to use it as default display manager ,,,,if it dose not then runing "sudo dpkg-reconfigure lightdm" will.

as to the adduser and passwd @Buddlespit has suggested ,,,,,,you will half to tell us if it works as expected ,,, I do not know if it will be the same as the lightdm "guest" acct. as far as permissions goes


VINNY

[Buddlespit]

useradd -m creates a /home directory for the added user. passwd -d creates a password-less password (deletes password on creation). You will have to be sure that the user 'guest' is added to the login screen thru the kdm login settings, users tab.

[vinnywright]

useradd -m creates a /home directory for the added user. passwd -d creates a password-less password (deletes password on creation). You will have to be sure that the user 'guest' is added to the login screen thru the kdm login settings, users tab.

right ,,,,,,,,BUT by default if no modifications have been made to permissions on any acct.'s all added users can "view" each others files ,,,,,,,the lightdm "guest acct." can not even enter the /home DIR so cant see any user files.

you can of course modify this ,,,, but it is not the same as the lightdm "guest acct"

VINNY

[ronshor]

Okay, got it !

If lightdm is the default display manager in the new versions of Kubuntu then I should install it.

By the way, I'm not upgrading Kubuntu to 13.04 because I heard somewhere that it's better to stick to LTS versions to avoid instability issues. Am I doing the right thing ?

You got me a bit confused with the command I should use to install lightdm...
What should I type ? the reconfigure or the apt-get ....

[Buddlespit]

If you install lightdm by itself, it will install a ton of gtk stuff that you'll probably not want or need. So, I would recommend:

sudo apt-get install lightdm-kde-greeter

which will just install what you need to get lightdm to work on a kde system (ie-Kubuntu). During the install of lightdm, it will ask you if you want to use lightdm as the default dm (or it will ask you to choose between available dm's, you'll want to choose lightdm). Then go back to system settings and configure lightdm to your tastes. Not a whole lot you can do with lightdm and guest account is enabled by default.

[Guest]

.....necessary post for thread.......

[Snowhog]

I was just wondering what is the best way to hide / lock a folder.

Something simple that even if you forget the passwork somehow, you can always get in on safe mode or something.

When I used windows I had a simple application to do it but eventually I came to the conclusion that the best way is just to define the fokder as hidden and then change the "Show hidden files and filders" option to your needs from time to time

How can I define a folder as hidden on kubuntu ?
And where do I change the settings of "Show hidden files and folders"

If you want to prevent anyone other than yourself (any other users you have set up who log in under their own accounts) from viewing, changing, or deleting your stuff, this can be done by changing the permissions on your folders/files. Open a console and type:

chmod -R go-rw *

Be sure you are in your user home directory first.

[Buddlespit]

If you want to prevent anyone other than yourself (any other users you have set up who log in under their own accounts) from viewing, changing, or deleting your stuff, this can be done by changing the permissions on your folders/files. Open a console and type:

chmod -R go-rw *

Be sure you are in your user home directory first.

Does he really want to sudo that chmod?