Custom OS Template (Linux)

Although DaDesktop maintains a number of popular Linux distributions, there might be a situation where a specific distro that isn't available is needed. DaDesktop are happy to support this for most mainline Linux distros. Please let us know where to download the ISO file and on which server you would like to publish the Custom OS template.

Important:

About Disk Partitioning
1. Customised templates require only one disk partition or two partitions: an EFI/Boot partition and the other for system and data.
2. An LVM partition is not supported – please do not use LVM.
3. The wrong partition scheme will cause disk auto-resize and other functions to fail.

Linux Template

After we download the ISO file to the server, you will be able to see it under Admin Menu->OS IMAGES->ISO FILES within your account.

Then you can prepare the template under Admin Menu->OS IMAGES->CUSTOM OS TEMPLATES

Please follow this guide carefully, and complete all the steps as otherwise full DaDesktop operation is likely not to work.

1. Install OS
2. Set default username to "student"; Password to "student"
3. Set the "student" account to Auto Login
4. Use DaDesktop or your own brand wallpaper
   

5. Some distros now default to using Wayland as their display driver. Although Wayland works in DaDesktop, for now we recommend reverting to X11.
   
   To disable Wayland:-

   edit /etc/gdm/custom.conf, e.g.

   # Uncomment the line below to force the login screen to use Xorg
           WaylandEnable=false
           

   log out and log in again

6. Install spice-vdagent, using your package manager is usually the best approach. Note: this may already be installed depending on your distribution.
   • After a correct installation, restart the machine, and you should see the two running processes, spice-vdagent and spice-vdagentd
   • 
7. Install qemu-guest-agent, again using your package manager is usually the best approach
8. Install X11VNC. For some distros, you may need to add extra repos such as the 'epel' repo for Red Hat-based distros, like Oracle Linux or Rocky Linux.
9. Configure X11VNC
   • ensure X11VNC is installed
   • run the command sudo -i to open a root shell

   • run the following command to enable X11VNC to auto-start on reboot

     cat > /etc/xdg/autostart/x11vnc.desktop <

10. Create the desktop notify script by running the commands below

    cat > /usr/local/bin/announce-vnc-users.sh <

11. Reboot

12. Check the firewall settings, i.e., ensure TCP port 5900 is open, e.g.

    ss -pntl

13. Disable sudo password (recommended)

14. Verify success

    When you connect, if the URL changes to a new one with a token query parameter, then you're all set. This means X11VNC is working. And the text box at the bottom-left of the screen, used for copy/paste between your own desktop and the virtual desktop, should now be functional.

     

Please Note

To add additional optional features such as

• DDWebdav to allow the trainer's content folders to be synchronised to each participant's machine,
• or DDUpload – for easy file uploads into a DaDesktop machine;

Please contact DaDesktop Tech Support.