[Feature request] Allow for restricted alternate shells

[matt335672]

This feature request has been prompted by discussion #3621.

At the moment, alternate shells can be specified by the user, to replace /etc/xrdp/startwm.sh, provided the configuration variable AllowAlternateShell is set to true. This allows users to run any script of their choosing, but also allows them to bypass any setup configurations which the system manager may have added to /etc/xrdp/startwm.sh

The proposal is to add an additional config variable PassShellAsEnv to go with AllowAlternateShell:

; If this is set, alternate shells are not actioned directly, but passed in to the default window manager
; in the specified environment variable. 
#PassShellAsEnv=XRDP_ALTERNATE_SHELL

With that set, within /etc/xrdp/startwm.sh the system manager can configure something like the following (as an example):-

   case "$XRDP_ALTERNATE_SHELL"
        '' | gnome)
            # Perform GNOME setup
            ;;
        kde)
            # Perform KDE setup
            ;;
        *)     zenity --error --text="Unrecognised shell option '$XRDP_ALTERNATE_SHELL'"
            exit 1
    esac

The advantage of this approach is everything remains within control of the system manager.

Comments? Is this a worthwhile addition to xrdp, or are there better ways to do this?

[akarl10]

that is a excellent idea.
on linux system the script might check for /usr/share/xsessions/$XRDP_ALTERNATE_SHELL.desktop and launch that one.

[metalefty]

@matt335672 Sounds a good idea. +1.

[matt335672]

Thanks all.

I'm a bit busy IRL at the moment, but I'll get round to this soon I hope.