Kiosk for Mixxx

Here you can post about the issues related to modifications performed manually (not through the kiosk wizard). Example: swapped kernel, added 3rd party modules or files.
Please describe in detail what has been changed and hopefully other kiosk user will be able to help.
Porteus team wont resolve bugs posted in this category as we support only modifications made by the kiosk wizard.
Forum rules
Porteus Kiosk section of the forum is unmaintained now. Its kept in a 'read only' mode for archival purposes.
Please use the kiosk contact page for directing your queries: https://porteus-kiosk.org/contact.html
Dauphin
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Kiosk for Mixxx

Post#1 by Dauphin » 19 Aug 2015, 12:09

Hello at all, first of all: I am a complete newby to Linux at all, so my questions may be a little dumb :-)
I am trying to set up a Kiosk system for only one application: to play music in a dance school.
The desired app would be Mixxx (see mixxx.org). Goal would be to have Mixxx running in fullscreen, no other app is possible, no internet access, only access to filed music on the HDD and an optional USB-Stick is necessary.

I do think that this is possible with Porteus Kiosk, isn´t it?
I downloaded Porteus Kiosk 3.4.0, run the wizard, saved the ISO, unpacked it, unsquashed 003-settings .... and now I am stuck. How do I implement an app like Mixxx in a newly created module? Th documents "Manual Kiosk customization" and "What are modules" are not of much help (to me as a newby). What is the necessary mixxx-file and where do I find it?

Thanks for your patience!
Dauphin

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Rava
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Re: Kiosk for Mixxx

Post#2 by Rava » 19 Aug 2015, 14:09

Hi Dauthin, Grüße aus Franken!

Ich habe nie Kiosk angepasst. And I have not loaded the newest version as well. But me thinks there is a Firefox module. And that after X starts, Firefox gets started as only app.

You need to remove the firefox module and replace it with mixxx, and then find the way Kiosk is made to only run firefox after X starts and nothing else. Like, when you restart X, there will only be a new firefox. I think that's what you want? When a user starts the machine, you want mixxx running, and when the user for some reason restarts x, then you want mixxx started as only app once again, yes?
Cheers!
Yours Rava

Dauphin
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Re: Kiosk for Mixxx

Post#3 by Dauphin » 19 Aug 2015, 14:39

Hi Rava,
Thanks for your reply!

Yes, thats exactly what I am trying to do. I also found already the autostart-file and the gui-app-file, so I could change to not start firefox but mixxx (-f for fullscreen).

But I have still some major difficulties to understand the logic behind apps/programs to be installed onto a linux-machine in general and creating a module for PK: In Xubuntu, that I am trying on a different machine, I installed mixxx using the Ubuntu Software Center and I also used already the terminal with get-apt to install something. But for the PK-module I do not know what file I have to copy into the module: is it the file "mixxx" I find on my xubuntu-machine under /usr/share/app-install/desktop/ ? Trying to copy this to my module leads to an error "invalid filename" ("Ungültiger Dateiname").

So, I am still trying ;-)

Gruesse aus Oberbayern,

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Re: Kiosk for Mixxx

Post#4 by Rava » 19 Aug 2015, 15:05

tl:dr: Sorry, you have to read it all. :D
Dauphin wrote:But I have still some major difficulties to understand the logic behind apps/programs to be installed onto a linux-machine in general and creating a module for PK: In Xubuntu, that I am trying on a different machine, I installed mixxx using the Ubuntu Software Center and I also used already the terminal with get-apt to install something.
You have to realize that a live system and a "normal" installed system do differ. In Porteus, standard Porteus (=not Kiosk) I mean, you just activate a new module and that's it. When you no longer need it you can deactivate it.
When you need it every time, or want to exchange modules you remove the module you not want from the porteus/base folder, and put the module or modules in there that you need and you have them after every boot.

You sure can also install a program the normal way, but that would be put into the changes folder, bloating it up, instead of being in a new at small xz compressed module.
Or it would be lost when you use "always fresh"
Dauphin wrote:But for the PK-module I do not know what file I have to copy into the module: is it the file "mixxx" I find on my xubuntu-machine under /usr/share/app-install/desktop/ ? Trying to copy this to my module leads to an error "invalid filename" ("Ungültiger Dateiname").
Kiosk differs from standard Porteus, you must always remaster the ISO. You cannot add or remove modules on the fly. That is done so that users cannot change the OS. That only you, the admin, can maker any changes.

You have to copy our mixxx to the extrated ISO and create a new ISO.

But really, for such large changes, I recommend you download a comparable non Kiosk Porteus, extract it and copy it onto an USM stick, remove the firefox and add the mixxx. Of course, after starting X you have to start mixxx manually, but still, I recommend you doing so, since it could be that there are more issues you have to solve, e.g. settings for the sound card that won't work out of the box. And when you finally have it running in standard Porteus, you then extract the Kiosk ISO, remove the firefox module from porteus/base and add your mixxx module. If you need additional settings, e.g. sound card settings, I recommend creating a 999-settings.xzm that holds all your changes.
You sure could also extract and edit an existing module of your Porteus Kiosk, but then you would have to do the very changes to all and every new Porteus kiosk you might want to use in the future, and probably you not wrote down each and every settings you did... and then you start searching and debugging the same cause of troubles over again.
But when all your changes are in your 999-settings.xzm they get loaded as last module (you need to add a number to your mixxx module as well, or it gets loaded after your settings and might reset your very machine specific settings with its default, and that is most probably not what you want.

So, I recommend it naming 020-mixxx.xzm, and when you would need even another module, then name that 021-nedded-dependecies.xzm or such...

Oh, and since you want to only use the standard porteus for checking out if all runs well for your kiosk, I also recommend you only run it via always fresh. You have to either update your 999-settings module after each change prior reboot or put the changes into your porteus/rootcopy folder.
(But know, when you run if from a non Linux filesystem, all files in the rootcopy folder will be executable and writeable by anyone, that is not a good idea, you should reset the permissions to user:root and to not executable. When it is a settings file. It needs to be executable when you added a script or program to a rootcopy (sub)folder.)

And remember to add all stuff (with the right user and permissions) to your 999-settings module prior putting that into your to-be-created Kiosk ISO.

// I forgot to add: // remember that Kiosk is Gentoo-based.

So with all the above, it still could happen that it works as it should on standard Port and fails with Port-Kiosk, but if that should happen, you then can ask our Kiosk maintainer himself and you can show him what you already did to make it work. :)

________________________________________________

:Yahoo!: Hey, gleiches Bundesland! 8)
Cheers!
Yours Rava

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