[K12OSN] library kiosks

Gentgeen gentgeen at linuxmail.org
Thu May 20 00:22:05 UTC 2004


Don't normally reply to my own message, but I have been playing around
some more today with the kiosk idea and thought of something - figured I
share. (I have the day off, so lots of free time :=)

If you like my earlier idea about each library terminal having it's own
name then here is a really simple idea.  

For each library user, make the X sript as follows:
    # Kiosk .xsession script
    exec dillo http://www.LIBRARYSITE.HERE

Then for each library user, edit the ~/.dillo/dillorc file to set the
initial geometry to screen size (800x600 or whatever), and set the
show_menubar=NO.  You can adjust as needed for your use.  The dillorc
file is well commented.  

This of-course assumes that dillo will display your library web pages
correctly.  Dillo does not handle login or CSS.  

I think this makes a very nice, locked down kiosk. The only change I
would make is to the mouse buttons.  I would want to set ALL of the
mouse buttons to the left button.  So students could not use the right
click menu inside dillo.  Anyone know how to do that at the .xsession
script?

NOTE - The ALT-F4 only works if you have a window manager running.  I
tried it out with my dillo setup above and the only way to get out of X
is to issue the CTRL-ALT-BACKSPACE



On Wed, 19 May 2004 14:10:24 -0400
Gentgeen <gentgeen at linuxmail.org> wrote:

> I did something similar for my daughter when she was 4.  It was a very
> simple approach but, I sure you can make it work.  Any way - I always
> like the KISS approach. So here is what I am thinking for you -
> 
> Give each Library terminal it's own name (i.e library01, library02,
> etc) and use the same password for each one to make life easy on the
> librarians.  Then make your X script (.xsession, .xinitrc, etc) only 
> launch the web browser in full screen mode - NOTHING ELSE.
> 
>      # My Kiosk .xsession script
>      exec firefox
> 
> See http://tln.lib.mi.us/~amutch/pro/phoenix/kiosk.htm for a good
> HOW-TO for firefox, of course you could also use any other browser on
> the system.  (Dillo accually comes to mind as a good option)
> 
> Students should not be able to close the browser with the full screen
> option, and do not have ready access to anything else.  If the browser
> does get closed, then the session is ended.  You can set all of the
> users to use the same profile that is owned by root so they can't
> change the setting.
> 
> I know that it does not have the autologin part, but like I said KISS.
> 
> 
> On Tue, 18 May 2004 15:40:28 -0500
> Tim Litwiller <tim at litwiller.net> wrote:
> 
> > I want to setup several logins for a public area of the library.
> > I would like these to autologon to an account that opens a browser
> > to the card catalog web page.
> > I would also like the machine to log off and then back in if the
> > browser window is closed.
> > 
> > Has anyone done something like this?  What would be the scurity
> > issues I need to worry about?
> > 
> > 
> > 
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> 
>  
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  Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem    
  your own reputation; for 'tis better to be alone then in bad 
  company.        - George Washington, Rules of Civility        





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