TC as a Kiosk

[remus]

Hi all,

Trying to get the basic's of a TC + firefox web kiosk setup on a VirtualBox VM before tackling the old HP Touchsmart 300 install I want to deploy it to.

Goals of this project:

* A touch screen pc start up and there is desktop as such. It just loads firefox straight away and loads one URL, a webpage that shows items we have for sale in our OP Shop. Would be great if there was no address bar or any other interface, just the webpage.

* Id also like to set the system to close and restart firefox after 5 minutes of IDLE activity. An easy solution to get fresh content on screen

* I'm also wondering if it might be possible to have a screen saver on TC ?

Where would be a good place to start ?

I think I want Microcore... and learn how to get bare bones of x components... and just put firefox in bootlocal.sh maybe ?

Suggestions and comments welcome,
Thank you.

[Rich]

Hi remus
I know that several members have posted about this subject in the past. I think your first move should be to go to the search
page and search for  kiosk.

[curaga]

The book has a chapter on this too. For screensavers, the default is a black screen, configurable via xset; xscreensaver is available for locking and pretty savers, and several other options for locking only.

[patrikg]

Some old webpage.. but somewhere to start

https://itekblog.com/tiny-core-linux-remote-desktop-kiosk/

[remus]

The journey continues.

I've been following the kiosk setup guide in the Core book
tinycorelinux.net/corebook.pd

When the system boots up firefox is determined to try and load previous pages, despite the fact that I set it to load the home page each time. See attached image for reference.

Another problem is that it doesnt start full screen.

suggestions and comments welcome.

[Rich]

Hi remus
Google:

Code: [Select]

disable firefox restoreTheres a setting somewhere in  about:config  that disables the restore behavior. There may also be a user file with a  .js
extension that needs to be deleted.

[Rich]

Hi remus

Another problem is that it doesnt start full screen.

But does it remember the last size and position? If it does, hit  Ctrl-Alt-M  until it's full size. There's also a  kiosk  add-on for FF
you might want to look into.

[remus]

Hi remus
Google:

Code: [Select]

disable firefox restoreTheres a setting somewhere in  about:config  that disables the restore behavior. There may also be a user file with a  .js
extension that needs to be deleted.

Thank you Rich. Has done the trick.

about:config --> set browser.sessionstore.resume_from_crash to false

[remus]

While using stock tc 8.2.1 boot cd, firefox, and chromium-browser refuse to start in full screen mode.

I thought this might be a problem with the virtuablbox vm I'm testing in, so I tried it on an actual pc and the problem persist's.

I've tried the RKiosk extension without success.
Browser does not remember previous setting if I alt+shift+m and then close

Can someone else test this ?

[Rich]

Hi remus

Another problem is that it doesnt start full screen.

I found this online:

Code: [Select]

#!/bin/sh
firefox &
sleep 2
xdotool key "F11"You need to install  xdotool.tcz  and might have to tweak the sleep time.

[patrikg]

Have you tried to add "--start-fullscreen" to the command line ?? For chromium.
Or you could add these add on to firefox.  https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/r-kiosk/

[Rich]

Hi patrikg

Or you could add these add on to firefox.  https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/r-kiosk/

Already suggested:

There's also a  kiosk  add-on for FF you might want to look into.

And the response:

I've tried the RKiosk extension without success.

[remus]

Thanks for your input Rich and patrikg

Sorry I haven't been more active. I am not getting notifications of thread replys.

Have you tried to add "--start-fullscreen" to the command line ?? For chromium.

In short, I've tried every switch I could find in documentation (chromium and firefox), none of them work.
Yes I've tried the kiosk extensions that I could find for the browser's I tried.

#!/bin/sh
firefox &
sleep 2
xdotool key "F11"

I saw the xdotool solution a while back but did not find it in the 8.x repo. I've just checke the 7.x repo and its not there either. I guess I'll try the  6.x and keep going until I find it.
Other's whoe tried resorting to xdotool due to browser's not deploying to full screen for kiosk setup's found their commonality was they were trying to use ultra light desktop manager's. People using Gnome or KDE are not having this progblem.
I've been testing with some success following a guide for debian, using debian 7 (xorg+lightdm+matchbox-window-manager) http://www.alandmoore.com/blog/2011/11/05/creating-a-kiosk-with-linux-and-x11-2011-edition/. I'm not sure I want to use debian for this. Its minimalist install is bigger than TC. BUT the debian solution is working whereas I still have a lot of stuff I have to fix with the TC solution to make it viable and secure. Disabling the context menu's for example.

I will search for xdotool.tcz and report my findings.

[andyj]

When I did this years ago it worked best for me to not use a window manager. I didn't see where you said if you were using one or not. But if you're only running one app full screen, what's the window manager for?

[remus]

When I did this years ago it worked best for me to not use a window manager. I didn't see where you said if you were using one or not. But if you're only running one app full screen, what's the window manager for?

I'm too inexperienced to know any better andyj. If you could suggest how to do that I would be happy to try it

Starting with a stock TC and then figuring out how to disable its menu system's and wbar seem counter productive to me. Learning how to Boot up with MicroCore and then ONLY loading the required tcz's seems wiser, but I've had no luck with that either. Any suggestions would be very welcome.

Thanks.