Parental control locking features of some sorts with a simple interface and settings?
#76
Hi, I've made some advances on my earlier post regarding my XBMC kid friendly setup. I've quoted the main parts and added my update under that.

(2012-06-13, 04:46)rygle Wrote: I ... separated my TV and Movies into separate folders - "TV Shows", "AdultTV", "Movies" and "AdultMovies".

In XBMC I made a separate profile for Kids and Adults - the Kids profile only picks up the "TV Shows" and "Movies" folders, while the Adults profile picks up the others as well.

In Windows, I set the Adult folders as hidden and set Windows to hide hidden folders... My 11 year old... hasn't figured out he can set Windows to show hidden folders.

My 11 year old has now found out all about hidden files\folders, so I had to be more creative.

The HTPC logs in automatically to a non-admin login called "TV". I have now used Windows permissions to lock this user out of folders with adult content (the drive must be formatted as NTFS, not as FAT or FAT32 to set permissions), but have created a Windows non-admin user called "Adults" (could be "XBMC" or whatever) that has full access to the adult stuff. I use the Windows "runas" command with the "/savecred" switch to save the credentials for that other user and run XBMC using them every time. The same could probably be done by putting the Adult folders on a Samba share that is password locked but, as my folder are on a local drive, Windows won't let you/XBMC access them with alternate credentials.

I have now set XBMC to run from the "TV" login with the credentials of the "Adults" user with full access to adult sources, but still profile/password protected within XBMC so the kids login can't see them. In the shortcut for XBMC I changed it to "runas /user:adults /savecred [path to XBMC.exe]", and as runas is a command line program I set it to run minimized so the command/DOS window doesn't show before XBMC starts. This has also meant I moved the XBMC profile folder to the Adults user's profile so it can access my library as before with full details of what has been watched etc. Unfortunately the /savecred switch doesn't seem to work on Windows Vista Home or Starter editions.

According to the runas explanation on dummies.com, "The /savecred parameter is an extremely bad idea, as it creates a gaping security hole. In short, once you’ve used /savecred, any user at the computer can use the RunAs command to run any program with administrator privileges." I work around this by using runas to access another *non-admin* user that only has more access to the particular folders that are needed, not an admin account that has access to everything.

You may also have some luck with a program called "runasgui" that lots of people have used, which would also only allow this one program to login as an alternate user. I found two different but similarly named versions on the net, and couldn't get the Smart-X version to work with Windows 64 bit (puts too many "(x86)'s" in the path names no matter what I try), and didn't try the CRMXpress version as I found the command line version and it works great for me (and I trust Microsoft more than other unknown app publishers).

If you are on Mac or Linux, you could try variations of the command 'sudo -u [user] "/Path/To/MyApplication.app/Contents/MacOS/MyApplication" '. You possibly also need the -s switch - see http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?st...8224230789 . Linux should be very similar to Mac on this.

Another option I thought of was to run a local FTP server and connect to the folders using FTP within XBMC, but it seemed equally cumbersome.

Hope this helps! Wink
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#77
Hello

does somebody find a solution to lock or a pass-over to hide an usb external hdd? As said in the post, it automatically mounts and appears and through the files menu it is possible to go inside all the hdd contents.
Impossible then to really lock the contents ... since all the files are accessible.
thanks in advance
cheers
thurston
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#78
Are here some python nerds?

Can anyone update this plugin, so that it runs under Gotham?
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#79
I'm no python crack, but what's broken? Runtime issues or can't you install it because of unmet dependencies? In the later case try editing the addon.xml file and update the API versions
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#80
Install works if I edit the add-on.xml
But the plugin don't works, it's not possible the set the pin if the plugin ask for this
AsRock Q1900DC - SanDisk SSD 64GB - Crucial 2x 4GB - Streacom F1C EVO (Futaba M166A Display, YARD2) - BluRay Panasonic UJ-265
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