Porteus Kiosk Edition v2.0 feedback
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
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
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- White ninja
- Posts: 12
- Joined: 24 Mar 2013, 20:40
- Distribution: Ubuntu
- Location: Estonia
Re: Porteus Kiosk Edition v2.0 beta feedback
Thanks so much for the reply - not sure I'm brave/patient enough to step into unsquashing just yet, but maybe - who knows?
All in all, I'm more than happy with this kiosk, its by far the easiest, most lightweight, and best featured browser kiosk I have tried (and I've tried lots).
A little off topic:
I just bought a Raspberry Pi, and am starting to look into using these as browser kiosks.
Really they're the perfect solution for digital signage or kiosks, as they only cost about €35, you can slap them onto the back of a TV or HDMI monitor and you're done.
There are some tutorials out there already on how to do this with Debian as base, but I was wondering if anyone has played with Porteus on the Pi?
All in all, I'm more than happy with this kiosk, its by far the easiest, most lightweight, and best featured browser kiosk I have tried (and I've tried lots).
A little off topic:
I just bought a Raspberry Pi, and am starting to look into using these as browser kiosks.
Really they're the perfect solution for digital signage or kiosks, as they only cost about €35, you can slap them onto the back of a TV or HDMI monitor and you're done.
There are some tutorials out there already on how to do this with Debian as base, but I was wondering if anyone has played with Porteus on the Pi?
- brokenman
- Site Admin
- Posts: 6105
- Joined: 27 Dec 2010, 03:50
- Distribution: Porteus v4 all desktops
- Location: Brazil
Re: Porteus Kiosk Edition v2.0 beta feedback
How do i become super user?
Wear your underpants on the outside and put on a cape.
Wear your underpants on the outside and put on a cape.
- brokenman
- Site Admin
- Posts: 6105
- Joined: 27 Dec 2010, 03:50
- Distribution: Porteus v4 all desktops
- Location: Brazil
Re: Porteus Kiosk Edition v2.0 beta feedback
Found this writeup for kiosk:
http://community.spiceworks.com/attachm ... reable.pdf
http://community.spiceworks.com/attachm ... reable.pdf
How do i become super user?
Wear your underpants on the outside and put on a cape.
Wear your underpants on the outside and put on a cape.
- Ahau
- King of Docs
- Posts: 1331
- Joined: 28 Dec 2010, 15:18
- Distribution: LXDE & Xfce 32/64-bit
- Location: USA
Re: Porteus Kiosk Edition v2.0 beta feedback
A quick note on the raspberry pi - Porteus should be booting, but it's not likely to be very fast. I have some optimizations in mind to help out, but right now my focus is on porting Slackware to armv6 hard float. I will use that as a base for a hard float version of Porteus (or use alienbob's armv7 port, but that would cut out support for the pi). That's not quite ready for use by others at this point. I've not started creating a kiosk edition for ARM yet, but there does seem to be some interest around that, so I suppose time and resources will tell.
Please take a look at our online documentation, here. Suggestions are welcome!
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- White ninja
- Posts: 12
- Joined: 24 Mar 2013, 20:40
- Distribution: Ubuntu
- Location: Estonia
Re: Porteus Kiosk Edition v2.0 beta feedback
Very useful reference for relevant commands. Thanks!brokenman wrote:Found this writeup for kiosk:
http://community.spiceworks.com/attachm ... reable.pdf
I'm keeping my eye on Spiceworks community activity, but somehow that one slipped under the radar...
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- White ninja
- Posts: 12
- Joined: 24 Mar 2013, 20:40
- Distribution: Ubuntu
- Location: Estonia
Re: Porteus Kiosk Edition v2.0 beta feedback
Found an easy way to do this without unsquahing it myself.fanthom wrote:@qbicdesign
if you are impatient you can unsquash 003-settings.xzm and just delete squashfs-root/home/guest/.mozilla/firefox/c3pp43bg.default/extensions/{3d7eb24f-2740-49df-8937-200b1cc08f8a} from it and create new ISO.
I just ran the wizard from within Linux Mint,
after it reached the section regarding browser options, I navigated to the same folder inside the structure the wizard created
deleted /{3d7eb24f-2740-49df-8937-200b1cc08f8a}
completed the wizard
dd'd the hybrid iso to USB
Its working great!
Re: Porteus Kiosk Edition v2.0 beta feedback
Great work, thank you fanthom!
I think it could be really useful to add the ability to view PDFs using the Firefox viewer or a simple linux utility.
Thank you!
I think it could be really useful to add the ability to view PDFs using the Firefox viewer or a simple linux utility.
Thank you!
- fanthom
- Moderator Team
- Posts: 5667
- Joined: 28 Dec 2010, 02:42
- Distribution: Porteus Kiosk
- Location: Poland
- Contact:
Re: Porteus Kiosk Edition v2.0 beta feedback
@qbicdesign
i'm glad to find that manual Kiosk customizations are easy for the users
@pips
kiosk 2.0.2 will be released today and native pdf support (through firefox) is included among other improvements/new features.
btw: Kiosk edition is not only my own work but rather whole team and users contributions.
stay tuned.
i'm glad to find that manual Kiosk customizations are easy for the users

@pips
kiosk 2.0.2 will be released today and native pdf support (through firefox) is included among other improvements/new features.
btw: Kiosk edition is not only my own work but rather whole team and users contributions.
stay tuned.
Please add [Solved] to your thread title if the solution was found.
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- Ronin
- Posts: 2
- Joined: 09 May 2013, 14:33
- Distribution: both std and kiosk versions
- Location: Calgary, AB
Re: Porteus Kiosk Edition v2.0 feedback
First of all, I'd like to say a thank-you and "Nice Work!" to those involved in the Porteus projects, very handy, nice stuff.
For the kiosk edition (currently using 2.02), has anyone come up with a straightforward method to add a simple "logo" screensaver? I don't need anything terribly fancy and hate to start ripping into xscreensaver to try to find something appropriate and make a module or whatever. I just need something to move a bitmap around the screen (even simple Windows XP style, non-panning, non-scrolling, just random pop-up locations for a JPG every few seconds would be perfect) instead of having the screen go blank. I've considered using the auto-exit firefox option to at least show the wallpaper but for this particular installation it is not a "public" facing kiosk, just a locked down appliance for a simple website used for daily reporting by bar/restraunt employees and people may well need to walk away while still in the process of entering data onto the site, etc. so I'd rather not force a firefox exit.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who would love to see this 'feature'...
Any pointers before I try to muck with this myself and undoubtedly come up with a less than optimal solution?
Thanks!
For the kiosk edition (currently using 2.02), has anyone come up with a straightforward method to add a simple "logo" screensaver? I don't need anything terribly fancy and hate to start ripping into xscreensaver to try to find something appropriate and make a module or whatever. I just need something to move a bitmap around the screen (even simple Windows XP style, non-panning, non-scrolling, just random pop-up locations for a JPG every few seconds would be perfect) instead of having the screen go blank. I've considered using the auto-exit firefox option to at least show the wallpaper but for this particular installation it is not a "public" facing kiosk, just a locked down appliance for a simple website used for daily reporting by bar/restraunt employees and people may well need to walk away while still in the process of entering data onto the site, etc. so I'd rather not force a firefox exit.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who would love to see this 'feature'...

Any pointers before I try to muck with this myself and undoubtedly come up with a less than optimal solution?
Thanks!
- fanthom
- Moderator Team
- Posts: 5667
- Joined: 28 Dec 2010, 02:42
- Distribution: Porteus Kiosk
- Location: Poland
- Contact:
Re: Porteus Kiosk Edition v2.0 feedback
hello drussell,
maybe instead of going with a real screensaver you could use tweaks included in the wizard:
- put your own custom wallpaper
- disable default screensaver (so monitor wont be turned off)
- enable 'firefox idle shutdown' and set it to few minutes.
this way firefox goes down when unused and displays your wallpaper which acts as a screensaver.
the only disadvantage is that image is static so maybe i'll add a animated gif support to next kiosk release.
maybe instead of going with a real screensaver you could use tweaks included in the wizard:
- put your own custom wallpaper
- disable default screensaver (so monitor wont be turned off)
- enable 'firefox idle shutdown' and set it to few minutes.
this way firefox goes down when unused and displays your wallpaper which acts as a screensaver.
the only disadvantage is that image is static so maybe i'll add a animated gif support to next kiosk release.
Please add [Solved] to your thread title if the solution was found.
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- Ronin
- Posts: 2
- Joined: 09 May 2013, 14:33
- Distribution: both std and kiosk versions
- Location: Calgary, AB
Re: Porteus Kiosk Edition v2.0 feedback
The other disadvantage is firefox exits automatically... As I mentioned in my previous post:maybe instead of going with a real screensaver you could use tweaks included in the wizard
...
this way firefox goes down when unused and displays your wallpaper which acts as a screensaver.
the only disadvantage is that image is static so maybe i'll add a animated gif support to next kiosk release.
Thanks for the quick reply!I've considered using the auto-exit firefox option to at least show the wallpaper but for this particular installation it is not a "public" facing kiosk, just a locked down appliance for a simple website used for daily reporting by bar/restraunt employees and people may well need to walk away while still in the process of entering data onto the site, etc. so I'd rather not force a firefox exit.
- fanthom
- Moderator Team
- Posts: 5667
- Joined: 28 Dec 2010, 02:42
- Distribution: Porteus Kiosk
- Location: Poland
- Contact:
Re: Porteus Kiosk Edition v2.0 feedback
ok - sorry 
so you need a screensaver.

so you need a screensaver.
Please add [Solved] to your thread title if the solution was found.
Re: Porteus Kiosk Edition v2.0 feedback
Hi,
Kiosk Edition is exactly what I needed. Running beautifully. Just wished there was a way to have a printing module installed on it.

Kiosk Edition is exactly what I needed. Running beautifully. Just wished there was a way to have a printing module installed on it.


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- White ninja
- Posts: 12
- Joined: 24 Mar 2013, 20:40
- Distribution: Ubuntu
- Location: Estonia
Re: Porteus Kiosk Edition v2.0 feedback
My students have found an easy way to "hack" my porteus kiosk.
I have set Porteus Kiosk up with the following:
- set desktop wallpaper
- screensaver off
- start browser fullscreen
- set browser homepage
- browser resets after 10mins of inactivity
we have only a mouse attached, and no keyboard.
Seems that a few of my students have discovered that although the browser is set to start full-screen there is a period of a second or so when the toolbar is visible, the toolbar also has the search option.
I found our info display was showing a random twitter page instead of our school lesson plan. You have to admire the students tenacity, i just wish those particular students would apply it to their studies...
Please can we add an option in the script to completely disable the browser toolbar?
In the meantime - Can I modify the browser launch command so that toolbars and address bar etc are all disabled ? if so how?
Thanks!
I have set Porteus Kiosk up with the following:
- set desktop wallpaper
- screensaver off
- start browser fullscreen
- set browser homepage
- browser resets after 10mins of inactivity
we have only a mouse attached, and no keyboard.
Seems that a few of my students have discovered that although the browser is set to start full-screen there is a period of a second or so when the toolbar is visible, the toolbar also has the search option.
I found our info display was showing a random twitter page instead of our school lesson plan. You have to admire the students tenacity, i just wish those particular students would apply it to their studies...
Please can we add an option in the script to completely disable the browser toolbar?
In the meantime - Can I modify the browser launch command so that toolbars and address bar etc are all disabled ? if so how?
Thanks!
- fanthom
- Moderator Team
- Posts: 5667
- Joined: 28 Dec 2010, 02:42
- Distribution: Porteus Kiosk
- Location: Poland
- Contact:
Re: Porteus Kiosk Edition v2.0 feedback
@umineiro
will dig into printing by the time of releasing kiosk-2.1 (approx 3 months from now on) once we fully migrate from dialog based wizard to the web wizard for kiosk.
printer would have to be configured at the wizard stage (hopefully there will be a list of supported models) before creating an ISO and we need a more advanced tool than 'dialog' for this task.
@qbicdesign
smart
will try to find a way to disable this 1 sec delay before toolbar gets hidden.
btw: there is another way of breaking kiosk full-screen mode as described here:
http://forum.porteus.org/viewtopic.php?f=102&t=2190
will be patching it in porteus-2.0.3 which should be out by next Monday.
will dig into printing by the time of releasing kiosk-2.1 (approx 3 months from now on) once we fully migrate from dialog based wizard to the web wizard for kiosk.
printer would have to be configured at the wizard stage (hopefully there will be a list of supported models) before creating an ISO and we need a more advanced tool than 'dialog' for this task.
@qbicdesign
smart

will try to find a way to disable this 1 sec delay before toolbar gets hidden.
btw: there is another way of breaking kiosk full-screen mode as described here:
http://forum.porteus.org/viewtopic.php?f=102&t=2190
will be patching it in porteus-2.0.3 which should be out by next Monday.
Please add [Solved] to your thread title if the solution was found.