Firefox Add ons?

[goat]

Hey

The porteus kiosk ed is totally awesome, I set up a kiosk in no time at all, thanks guys.

We have need of a kiosk using touchscreens, so require a Firefox addon called fxkeyboard (it brings up a kind of ipad style keyboard interface). Anyone familiar enough with Firefox to know off hand where I can twiddle on the iso to push plugins onto it?

#g.

[fanthom]

hello goat,

ISO customizations are very easy

please install 'squashfs-tools' package, unpack the ISO to /tmp/ISO then go to /tmp/ISO/porteus/base folder and run:

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unsquashfs 003-settings.xzm

put your custom addons, plugins, settings, etc to the /tmp/ISO/porteus/base/squashfs-root/home/guest/.mozilla/firefox/c3pp43bg.default folder
and recreate 003-settings.xzm module with

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mksquashfs squashfs-root 003-settings.xzm -b 256K -Xbcj x86 -noappend

now you can delete squashfs-root folder and create new ISO by running /tmp/ISO/porteus/make_iso.sh script.

please test in vbox that all is ok before burning new cd

let us know in case of troubles.

[goat]

Hey,

Thanks for this fanthom, I've had a few attempts at modifying the firefox config files manually to add the extension but it's a bit of a nightmare and I've not had much success. Adding an extension looks to modify a whole stack of information in the firefox profile directory.

Is there some way I can boot Porteus kiosk to make the changes and then somehow scp the firefox config directory onto my work machine for inclusion on the ISO? Perhaps altering the ISO to launch xterm on boot or similar would allow me to do this?

#g.

[goat]

Forgive me I've just read http://porteus.org/component/content/ar ... d-faq.html which should allow me to do this. Will report back with a how to if I have any success.

#g.

[goat]

Ok I got this going, the full howto would take me forever to type it up, so here's the method I used, hope it'll help someone out.

Note: I couldn't get the admin mode working, whether I missed something I don't know, so I'm sure there will be an easier way than this! If anyone has it please let me know.

Create a new user on another linux machine with Firefox installed
Add desired extensions

Extract Porteus Kiosk ISO
Unsquash the settings file
Copy the existing Porteus Firefox profile somewhere for comparison
Replace the Porteus Firefox profile with that of the new linux user
Use Meld to compare prefs.js between both and amend the Porteus one accordingly

At this point it should work but will likely complain about missing extensions due to extensions.sqlite being different

Install SQL Lite manager on development machine (Firefox addon)
Examine the backed up extensions.sqlite file and make a note of the addon details (I exported them to a csv using the addon)
Open the Porteus user's extensions.sqlite and ensure the addons table includes the new addons

Recreate squashfs
Recreate ISO

All done, working great with touchscreen style keyboard addon.

#g.

[captainwhimsical]

Hello,

I am in the same situation, i.e. I want to add one add-on (Leechblock) to the Firefox kiosk.

I am trying to follow goat's instructions, but getting stuck. I unsquashed the settings file, created a new user with a clean firefox profile. So now I have two separate mozilla profiles, one from Porteus and one from my new local linux user.

The problem is that when I compare their prefs.js files, they are completely different. And also how can I just "Replace the Porteus Firefox profile with that of the new linux user", aren't there some configuration information (e.g. the Public Fox setup used in Porteus) that will be missing since I don't have those add-ons or settings in the profile folder of my new linux user?

Sorry for the confusion, to say that I am Linux semi-literate would be self-flattery, and messing around with the Firefox settings files isn't something I am terribly comfortable with, either. There must be an easier way, no?

Thank you for all the information so far. Best, CW

[fanthom]

creating new user makes no sense (i see no advantages for this) and will definitely break the kiosk.
please use current user and profile.

it should be enough to just copy your addon to unsquashed 003-settings.xzm/home/guest/.mozilla/firefox/c3pp43bg.default/extensions -> compress this module back -> create new ISO.
if you need to apply specific settings to your addon then you'll have to track relevant entries from prefs.js (you can install this addon on any PC, even under windows and monitor changes made to this file) and inject them to existing prefs.js from 003-settings.xzm.

[egesia]

Is it possible to change popup blocker settings permanently?
I need to display a page with a popup as homepage
Thanks

[AiR-0nE]

Hello everybody,

Sorry to up an old post but i'am am stuck to add an firefox extension in porteus kiosk call InlineDisposition http://code.kliu.org/misc/inlinedisposition/
(I think it could be great to add by default this extensions because it force all PDF to open in tab and not try to download (and fail to open then ...) , for more information : https://support.mozilla.org/fr/questions/967568 )

By the way i already try to copy my {123647d5-da43-4344-bfe2-fc093bdf8f5e}.xpi inside extensions folder like this way :

it should be enough to just copy your addon to unsquashed 003-settings.xzm/home/guest/.mozilla/firefox/c3pp43bg.default/extensions -> compress this module back -> create new ISO.
if you need to apply specific settings to your addon then you'll have to track relevant entries from prefs.js (you can install this addon on any PC, even under windows and monitor changes made to this file) and inject them to existing prefs.js from 003-settings.xzm.

But no success, no new addon is show or activate ...

Any idea please ?

PS: @egesia not sure but i think it should be here in permissions.sqlite file but i dont know yet where and how to edit it

[AiR-0nE]

I found !

It was easier than i imagine ...

just copy {123647d5-da43-4344-bfe2-fc093bdf8f5e}.xpi inside firefox extensions folder

And add this line in pref.js

user_pref("extensions.bootstrappedAddons", "{\"{123647d5-da43-4344-bfe2-fc093bdf8f5e}\":{\"version\":\"1.0.2.4\",\"type\":\"extension\",\"descriptor\":\"/home/guest/.mozilla/firefox/c3pp43bg.default/extensions/{123647d5-da43-4344-bfe2-fc093bdf8f5e}.xpi\"}}");

[chaos_prevails]

I cannot get it to work, whatever I try. I think it is a problem with squashfs, because whether I change something in the firefox profile or not, I always get the following error message when starting up:
"Your Firefox profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible".

This happens as well as in porteus kiosk 3.0 (online until last week) and 3.1 (configuration within the kiosk, not on the website any more)

steps to reproduce:
1) extract iso
2) unsquash 003-settings.xzm:

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unsquashfs 003-settings.xzm

3) squash again (without changing anything):

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mksquashfs squashfs-root 003-settings.xzm -b 256K -comp xz -Xbcj x86 -noappend 

or

Code: Select all

mksquashfs squashfs-root 003-settings.xzm -b 256K -noappend

because

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mksquashfs squashfs-root 003-settings.xzm -b 256K -Xbcj x86 -noappend

does not work (error message:

Unrecognised compressor option -Xbcj

) as mentioned here: http://forum.porteus.org/viewtopic.php?f=102&t=2058
4) delete the squash-root folder:

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rm -rf squash-root

5) make_iso.sh
6) startup the iso and after a while I get the aforementioned error message that the firefox profile cannot be loaded.

it is surprisingly hard to find a kiosk version of linux somewhere. In fact I would only need to install one addon (easy whitelist) to limit the kiosk to some urls. I would be happy to just install a very limited linux version on my HDD and make the changes to firefox. This would do.

I also wondered whether it would be possible to edit a kiosk system on a HDD? So I could make the changes on the live system (protected with the password for firefox). I can copy the iso to a hdd with dd but the changes I do on the system running of the HDD are forgotten with the next reboot (or even the next firefox refresh ....).

[fanthom]

hello chaos_prevails,

Unrecognised compressor option -Xbcj

-Xbcj switch is responsible for 'per arch' optimization (x86, arm, ppc, etc) so you must have older version of squashfs-tools which does not support this option. please try to remove it and see if that helps.

I also wondered whether it would be possible to edit a kiosk system on a HDD? So I could make the changes on the live system (protected with the password for firefox).

do you really need persistence in kiosk? maybe would be better to update 003-settings.xzm only once with all your modifications needed and burn the ISO as before?
if you get into troubles with this task or really want to be able to save settings in kiosk ('Public Fox' addon may have to be added back to protect sensitive firefox areas with password) then please contact me through the commercial 'Customized Builds' facility:
http://porteus-kiosk.org/builds.html

thanks

[chaos_prevails]

Hi fanthom,

thank you for your response.

I managed to successfully unsquash and re-squash the 003-settings.zxm file using sudo rights! I did everything as before, just as sudoer ... basically I gave it a last try following http://files.porteus.org/PorteusKioskEd ... ble-v5.pdf page 3. I don't know why it now works because all the extracting and copying happened in my personal home folder and I never got any permission error message - but well.

The unsquashing and re-squashing with sudo-rights didn't work with my old iso from kiosk 3.0 but probably something else was wrong with it.

With kiosk 3.1 I could sucessfully enable the easywhitelist addon by just copying the extension ({f01867ef-05d3-4ae4-a82b-5759a6c0ea39}) into the <profile/>/extensions folder and copying two other files: extension.ini and prefs.js. I took the files from a kiosk via SCP. Before I added the addon manually within the kiosk itself - the modifications are only temporary but the profile folder within the kiosk reflects nevertheless the installed update. I guess manually editing those files will work aswell but I wanted to make sure as I had so many problems before.

ad mksquashfs: I knew about the deprectaed -Xbcj option. with mksquashfs 4.2 (14.04 ubuntu) the following command worked for me using the architecture-dependend optimization:

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sudo mksquashfs squashfs-root 003-settings.xzm -b 256K -comp xz -Xbcj x86 -noappend

[fanthom]

very good and i'm glad that persistence is not needed

[luk]

Hello everybody,
Porteus is great, but i have problem with fxkeyboard addon for firefox.
I tried use above method but it doesn't work.
I have copied /home/guest/.mozilla/firefox/c3pp43bg.default/extensions/fxkeyboard@zabreznik.net.xpi and added lines to prefs.js:

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user_pref("extensions.bootstrappedAddons", "{\"fxkeyboard@zabreznik.net\":{\"version\":\"2.4.2\",\"type\":\"extension\",\"descriptor\":\"/home/guest/.mozilla/firefox/c3pp43bg.default/extensions/fxkeyboard@zabreznik.net.xpi\"}\"}");
user_pref("extensions.enabledAddons", "fxkeyboard%40zabreznik.net:2.4.2");

ISO is compiled and installed but fxkeyboard doesnt work still
Please help, without this addon it is unusable for me.