USB Ports – How to Prevent Standard Users from Using USB Ports on Ubuntu 12.04

12.04

I'm admin for one of my college PC with 3 other normal users . If possible I want to restrict other 3 normal users from using USB. I'm using Ubuntu 12.04 .

Best Answer

You can disable USB storage device in Ubuntu, where only root users can only enable it. Just press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open Terminal. When it opens, run the command below.

gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

enter image description here

When it opens add blacklist usb_storage as the last line, then with the command below open the rc.local file

gksudo gedit /etc/rc.local

When it opens, add modprobe -r usb_storage before the line exit 0

enter image description here

Now go ahead and reboot your system.

To mount, open a Terminal and use the following command.

sudo modprobe usb_storage

To Unmount the USB device, just right click on the device in file manager, and choose safley remove, or Unmount device, and run

sudo rmmod usb_storage

In Terminal.

^{Source: How to Disable and Enable USB Device}

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to block users from changing wallpaper (under Unity in Ubuntu 12 and 14)

Although the suggestion below is far from "waterproof", it offers at least some "first-line" precautions against changing the wallpaper too easily.

You could make a small script to run in the background that checks every x seconds if the current wallpaper is still the wallpaper that you set in the first place.

The command to see (get) what is the current wallpaper:
```
gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri
```
If you run this in a terminal, you will get an output looking like:
```
'file:///home/jacob/Thema/Bureaublad4/Frog.jpg'
```

We can make the script restore the original wallpaper if it has changed.

To set a specific wallpaper, the command is:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri 'file:///home/jacob/Thema/Bureaublad4/Frog.jpg'

If we use these two in a python script, we could get the following (python3, 14.04):

#!/usr/bin/env python3

import time
import subprocess

set_wallpaper = "file:///home/jacob/Thema/Bureaublad4/Frog.jpg"

cmd2 = "gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri "+set_wallpaper
cmd1 = "gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri"

def check_wall():
    curr_wallpaper = subprocess.check_output(["/bin/bash", "-c", cmd1]).decode("utf-8").strip()
    if curr_wallpaper == "'"+set_wallpaper+"'":
        pass
    else:
        subprocess.Popen(["/bin/bash", "-c", cmd2])

while True:
    check_wall()
    time.sleep(10)

The only difference for 12.04 is the shebang: 12.04 does not come with python3 by default, so the shebang should be:

#!/usr/bin/env python

How to use

copy the script into an empty file. Change the wallpaper line (after set_wallpaper =) into the path to your wallpaper image (starting with file://, like in the example). Save it as something.py.

run it by the command:

python3 /path/to/something.py

or (12.04)

python /path/to/something.py

If all works as you wish, add it to your startup applications: Dash > "Startup Applications" > "Add"

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to block users from changing wallpaper (under Unity in Ubuntu 12 and 14)

How to use

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