Hi
I have set up Brickpi3 on a raspberry3B (running headless) and I would like to allow multiple users (grandchildren) each with there own login and userspace to use scratch. Currently only the pi user can make the cogs go round. All users are in the same groups and I have copied the Dexter directory structure. I guess it is a permissions thing but am unsure how to proceed,
Jon
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Welcome in!
Hummm. . . .
This is a tough one!  I suspect that you are right and permissions are strictly confined to the “pi” user.  What permissions the pi group might have I do not remember.
I can tell you how to change group and user permissions, (hint: “man chmod”), and I would NOT recommend just changing global permissions willy-nilly without knowing a LOT more about it than I do.
I hate to pass the buck, but I think you’re going to have to toss this to Modular Robotics support directly by sending an e-mail with your issue to support@modrobotics.com.  Unlike most support e-mails, the people at Modular Robotics actually READ and RESPOND to user questions.  I know, hard to believe, but it’s true.
When you hear from them, please post their response here so that others can learn from your experience.
Normally those of us who have haunted these fora for a while usually can offer excellent support.  It’s the really odd-ball question that we can’t handle in at least some constructive way.
I would absolutely recommend lurking the various forum categories and reading the topics there. I can especially recommend anything written by either @cyclicalobsessive or @cleoqc , they’re acknowledged masters of the art and have done things little short of pure magic.  Anything they say is well worth your time to read.
Me, I’m more of a hardware maven who has some embedded controller experience.  I tend to play with things like creating a multi-boot environment or booting different O/S’s by using jumpers on the GPIO pins.
Actually, a multi-boot environment is one solution - each grandchild has their own instance of the operating system.  Unfortunately it’s a non-trivial experience and takes a tremendous amount of patience for even experienced O/S hackers to accomplish.
If all else fails, and there are no other, simpler, solutions - I could try to make a PINN installable image and have you try creating a multi-boot scenario using PINN, but it’s better to do this directly and I would suggest this as an absolute last resort - because it doesn’t solve the real issue and any grandchild can boot anyone else’s image.
Yep, it’s a tough one!  Give the people at Modular Robotics a go, and see what they can do to help.
Thanks! Â Tough questions are always welcome!
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Thank you for your time and effort.
I was hopping that I was just missing an obvious fix and not to cause too much stress. The multi boot option would be less than idea as the children are logging on from different parts of the country, using a video feed to view. If nothing else we can use one user login (pi) for scratch and individual logins for python etc. They are just starting their scratch adventure and this presents an interesting home schooling opportunity. I will post the Modular Robotics answer and try to avoid too much blanket chmoding.
Thanks again!
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Oooh!
Cool beanies!
You gotta spill the beans and write about how you accomplished this for the grandkids.
My money’s on it attracting a LOT of interest!
Thanks jimrh
You were right. Modular Robotics were brilliant. Within a day they have sorted the problem and altered the amended the source code so that by pulling the files from github will give everyone multi user capability.
Remote access is easy enough. It is just a question of good band width with DNS and routing. I will gladly share my experiences.
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Excellent!
I’m glad it worked out so well for you so quickly.
I’m looking forward to your updates.