Ubuntu
firefox package

How to configure kiosk interface?

Asked by moneylogix

Can we use ubuntu for a kiosk application? We are making a display for a school and we are using ubuntu instead of windows as its robust and stable. We just do not know how to configure a kiosk interface for the station. Please help us.

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Dean Sas (dsas) said : 		#1

Yes you can, I think sabayon would help in "locking down" Ubuntu. As for the rest, I'm not sure what you mean by a "kiosk application", could you describe in more detail what you want?

A lot of http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-4-Manual/desktop-guide/ch-ddg-lockdown.html should be relevant to Ubuntu I think.

If you're using kubuntu http://developer.kde.org/documentation/tutorials/kiosk/index.html may be useful

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moneylogix (moneylogix) said : 		#2

Project Details:
We have a request to install stand-alone interactive educational kiosks for a local primary school. We have to make sure that the kiosks are able to connect to the intranet server through wifi/bluetooth (whatever is economical). The concern is that the kiosk interface needs to be simple and secured, so the persons using the station is not able to access the system files and any intrusive material from the internet. I hope this gives you an overview of the project. I do not know how to attach a picture in this box, but if you want to see a prototype of the standalone unit, I can email it to you. Do you suggest "kubuntu" over "ubuntu"? as we just received live cds for "kubuntu".

Thanks for your reply. I will look into the relevant sites.

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Dean Sas (dsas) said : 		#3

So you need to stop all internet access? Or have some program which maintains a blacklist of sites students aren't allowed to visit? (I'd have thought something like this would already be configured at a central router/proxy)

To lock down the station (stop students messing with wallpapers, panel configuration, screensavers etc) you should probably use sabayon (see http://www.gnome.org/projects/sabayon/ and http://www.gnome.org/~seth/blog/sabayon) and maybe pessulus (http://www.gnomefiles.org/app.php?soft_id=1082). Sabayon is in Ubuntus "main" repository and Pessulus is in the "universe" repository.

Sabayon works by taking a current default ubuntu profile and recording all the changes you make to it and saving them.

A screenshot may be useful, do you have some webspace you could put it up on? It would be useful to any other who wish to help then.

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Mark Rijckenberg (markrijckenberg) said : 		#4

6 years later now.... :-)

I suggest using Webconverger:

http://webconverger.com/

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