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Gee4orce · Jun 2, 2003, 03:49 AM

Does anyone know if it's possible to make the sleep and shutdown and restart menu items require an admin password ?

bstone · Jun 2, 2003, 07:54 AM

Originally posted by Gee4orce:
Does anyone know if it's possible to make the sleep and shutdown and restart menu items require an admin password ?

It'd make sense cause on *nix systems to run any of the "init" or "halt" commands you need to do sudo or be root.

Hmmmmm......

GORDYmac · Jun 2, 2003, 08:31 AM

Why? If some unauthorized user wanted to cut it off, they could just unplug it.

Gee4orce · Jun 2, 2003, 09:49 AM

Well, that's malicious. I just want to stop someone (who shall remain nameless

) from habitually sleeping the machine (that's also used for other things) when they're done checking their email....

capuchin · Jun 2, 2003, 12:29 PM

I'd love to know how to do this. We have a bunch of people using OS X, and whenever an app locks up, or crashes (almost always Quark in classic), they habitually reboot the machine. Doesn't do a lick of good, and screws up permissions no end.
You can't get it through their heads - fair enough, there's a lot of dealing with OS 9 to unlearn. Throwing a roadblock in front of rebooting would be very valuable.

If it's a case of just putting root permissions on a command, that shouldn't be too hard; anyone know what command the system calls to inititate shutdown? Moving shutdown from /sbin doesn't do the trick...

Chris Grande · Jun 2, 2003, 03:02 PM

I know what you mean about "unlearning" OS9 tactics. I work on this guys business computers and they switched over to OSX when Jag came out. I went over there about 3 weeks after they were up and running (and comfortable) with X; he tells me how he finds that X is just as freezable as 9. Come to find out he was rebooting every-time AOL would cause a beach ball. Ugh. I told him about force-quit but AOL seemed to block the keyboard shortcut and one big thing that bugs me is if a program locks up it takes the Apple Menu with it and new users don't think to switch to the finder to get to the menu. It would be nice if the Apple menu was not able to be frozen with the App, and even if the App froze could still be used.

Sad thing is I think he still restarts a lot when stuff like this happens. Old habits die hard I guess.

capuchin · Jun 2, 2003, 03:24 PM

Not quite what we're after, but still interesting:

http://developer.apple.com/technotes/tn2002/tn2062.html

Rainy Day · Jun 2, 2003, 05:06 PM

I told him about force-quit but AOL seemed to block the keyboard shortcut

Tell him to go to the Dock, do a Control-Option click on the AOL icon; that should present a "Force Quit" menu option off the Dock.

theory · Jun 2, 2003, 05:58 PM

There are things you can do such as
using Fruit menu to get rid of the
sleep/shutdown menu items. Disabiling
restart and shutdown at the login screen etc..

But a mac can always be put to sleep by
the power key and if you Ctrl-Eject you
get the "Are you sure you want to shut down
your computer now?" dialogue box.

The only way I can think of is if you use Simple
finder and restrict the apps the person uses
(so they don't make an apple script). That
way the keyboard shortcut can't be used.
But it still can be put to sleep from the
machine it self.

Rainy Day · Jun 2, 2003, 08:55 PM

I think that this is possible. If it can't be done by done directly, as you suggest, it should be possible to do it at least indirectly: A small application could be run which asks the OS to be notified when a restart or power-down is about to occur and this application can cancel the shut-down, or ask for confirmation, etc.

I've seen some applications, such as Apple's Software Update for example, cancel a shut-down before. Can be annoying at times too.

Gee4orce · Jun 3, 2003, 02:03 AM

Sounds like fruit menu will do what I want - I don't want to make it impossible to restart, sleep or shutdown the machine, just want to remove the obvious way of doing it so that persons unnamed won't automatically use that option.

Surely the Apple Menu options are stored somewhere in /Library or /System/Library - Fruit Menu must hack something. Does anyone know where they are, and how to remove them. Maybe it's as simple as editing a NIB file or a plist....

Angus_D · Jun 3, 2003, 05:27 AM

Originally posted by Gee4orce:
Fruit Menu must hack something.

It does, but it's much cleverer than just manipulating a plist

iNeusch · Jun 3, 2003, 05:30 AM

Use simplified Finder

gatorparrots · Jun 3, 2003, 10:00 AM

Originally posted by Gee4orce:
Fruit Menu must hack something.

Fruit Menu draws a new (customizable) menu right on top of the existing menu, making the default inaccessible. Clever, no?

Angus_D · Jun 3, 2003, 11:22 AM

Originally posted by gatorparrots:
Fruit Menu draws a new (customizable) menu right on top of the existing menu, making the default inaccessible. Clever, no?

Actually, it's cleverer than that. The originial Classic Menu application did that, it didn't work terribly well.