this post was submitted on 28 Nov 2024
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Looking for a good solution for a hands-free kiosk. (lemmy.zip)
submitted 5 days ago by Blisterexe@lemmy.zip to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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I want to setup a bunch of laptops to be web kiosks, I'll organize my wants into a list so that it's easier to skim:

  • Open a version of Firefox with the normal ui, tabs and all.
  • Automatically enters a session with no user input on reboot
  • Doesn't allow doing anything but interacting with Firefox (kinda obvious, kiosk and all)
  • Auto-login
  • Automatic updates, with them being applied on restart
  • Firefox settings reset on reboot

Nice to haves:

  • nice Plymouth screen to hide the scary code on startup.
  • completely block any attempts to change configuration on Firefox
  • ad-block
  • easy deployment to a bunch of machines.

If these sound like pretty strict requirements, they are, I'm doing this to attempt to get an internship by making my school's web kiosk laptops not suck (they currently run a janky install of Ubuntu 18.04)

Any help would be greatly appreciated, and I'd be glad to add more information.

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[–] izax@pawb.social 6 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I would just go with Debian personally since it's not updated very often.

  • You can add Firefox to startup applications several ways, such as startup apps GUI on any desktop environment.
  • Most desktop environments have an "automatic login" option you can configure. You can also disable or remove the login manager
  • You can configure some desktop environments (xfce I know for sure) to not launch the panel. Don't forget to also look up how to disable your TTY hotkeys!
  • Install the unattended-upgrades package and Debian/Ubuntu will update automatically. I hardly ever have to touch the updates on my Debian machines
  • You can make Firefox's config directory read only and it won't be able to write to it

Nice to haves:

  • Plymouth can be installed on Debian, and has a few themes that are simple spinners
  • You can do this. Look up how to do the policies.json file. Since the Firefox directory will be read only, it won't be able to be changed by the user
  • I think you can still install add-ons like an ad blocker with policies.json, but not 100% dure
  • Do a preseed install or similar https://wiki.debian.org/DebianInstaller/Preseed
[–] Blisterexe@lemmy.zip 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

thank you for the long answer, but i looked at the policies.json documentation and it didnt have anything to block the core settings

[–] izax@pawb.social 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

It also supports about:config settings with the AutoConfig feature. Does this help? https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/customizing-firefox-using-autoconfig

[–] Blisterexe@lemmy.zip 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

that should help, thanks!

edit: Yup, i can use that to reset user preferences on reboot, perfect