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I've got an old laptop with Ubuntu 14.04 LTS on it. I've got it connected to my roommate's Xbox 360 with an Ethernet cable, so the Xbox can share its Wi-Fi connection. This works well. After I edited the IPV4 settings of the "Wired Ethernet" connection to share with other computers, I don't even have to sign in- the connections all work on the sign-in screen.

My question is, what settings can I change to optimize this even more? Ideally, I'm thinking of making a new user account that my roommates can sign into that would only provide the networking- no desktop environment or anything, just a dummy connection-forwarding account with a blank screen (or a powered-off screen, or the ability to close the lid without the connection being lost). I want to do this to avoid wasting electricity, burning in my screen, or risking unfamiliar users changing the wrong settings in a real account or from the sign-in screen. Is something like this already available? Where do I start?

Michael Hoffmann
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Normally if you check "Available to all users" for a connection, NetworkManager brings it up when the system boots, no login required. That would solve the login problem.

You can also let your roommate use the Guest account.

For blanking the screen, see Ubuntu 12.10 "Turn screen off when inactive for: Never" still turns off

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o9000
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  • Thanks- this answers part of my question. Do you know how I could automatically disable services other than those required for the network connectivity when a user logs on? Using the guest account would prevent unfamiliar users from permanently breaking settings, but having the full desktop environment and all of the other services running wastes energy and heats up the badly-cooling old laptop. – Michael Hoffmann Sep 26 '15 at 21:36
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    Actually, unless you log in, the only graphical applications that are running are X and the login screen. It is possible to disable these, see http://askubuntu.com/questions/196603/how-to-remove-the-graphical-user-interface . Regarding the temperature/power usage, you could try various things from https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PowerManagement/ReducedPower and https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/PowerManagement/PowerSavingTweaks – o9000 Sep 26 '15 at 22:03
  • Those other questions/answers are what I needed. Thank you. – Michael Hoffmann Sep 26 '15 at 22:25