(solved) Usability of saving to external devices.

Post#1 by **enorthwood** » 30 May 2018, 18:09

Hello,

Background:
I am having a problem making use of the ability to save to external devices (usb drives). In the config I have enabled usb drive access and right click. The drive pops up as expected when I plug it in, however there seems to be method to save files such as pdfs to the drive.

I am using build 4.6.0 of the Kiosk flavor. I have included always preview extension to get pdfs working in my iso, previous to adding this extension the pdfs would fail to load in an about:blank tab.

Issues:
1. When I right click the link to the pdf on the target page, I get no menu to save the link (file).
2. When I open the pdf, clicking the download button yields no prompt to select a save location.

Outcome needed:
Users need to be able to save pdfs found in our library catalogue to their usb keys.

Please let me know if you have any suggestions.

Best Regards,
Liz N

Post#2 by **fanthom** » 30 May 2018, 19:14

Liz,

USB devices mounted with write access needs to be ejected safely. There is no possibility to do this in standard kiosk in an user-friendly way (only keyboard shortcut can do this and its not very convenient).
Please use variant "Cloud" instead of standard kiosk as it has functions you need.

"I have included always preview extension to get pdfs working in my iso, previous to adding this extension the pdfs would fail to load in an about:blank tab."
a) are you using Firefox or Chrome?
b) do you load the PDF from the usb drive or web?
c) please provide a link to this extension so i could recreate your issue and solution.

Thanks

Post#3 by **enorthwood** » 30 May 2018, 20:58

Hello F,

Prior to installing the extension below, pdfs never opened for me using Firefox Browser. Any time a link for a pdf was clicked, a new tab opened titled "about:blank."

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo ... src=search

This extension will open the pdf in a new tab.

Additional question:

Is there a way to strip down the cloud iso (no launcher, firefox opens at boot, and reopens when closed by a user) to match the function of the kiosk version? My organization needs a kiosk solution for our library quick lookup terminals.

Requirements:
PDF working
Firefox
ability to save pdfs to external drives (usb)

Any ideas you have would be greatly appreciated.

Best Regards,
Liz N

Post#4 by **enorthwood** » 30 May 2018, 21:53

I also need for the users to not poke around in the file system

- Liz

Post#5 by **fanthom** » 31 May 2018, 07:17

1) PDFs are opened in Firefox by default. Just tested this one and it works ok:
http://www.pdf995.com/samples/pdf.pdf

Please provide an URL of PDF which does not open in kiosk.

2) I could create customized build with standard kiosk modified for write access for usb devices. Mind that users will have to unmount the drivers before ejecting otherwise files may not be saved fully (become corrupted).

Unmounting could be implemented as:
a) keyboard shortcut - users need to press e.g. Ctrl+Alt+Space to unmount usb device
b) onscreen applet in bottom left corner (only if Firefox does not work in fullscreen) - users need to click on it to unmount usb device.

"I also need for the users to not poke around in the file system"
This is default.

If you are interested please contact [email protected]

Thanks

Post#6 by **enorthwood** » 01 Jun 2018, 15:45

Hello Fanthom,

How would this be done? Is there any tutorial?

"2) I could create customized build with standard kiosk modified for write access for usb devices. Mind that users will have to unmount the drivers before ejecting otherwise files may not be saved fully (become corrupted).

Unmounting could be implemented as:
a) keyboard shortcut - users need to press e.g. Ctrl+Alt+Space to unmount usb device
b) onscreen applet in bottom left corner (only if Firefox does not work in fullscreen) - users need to click on it to unmount usb device."

Best,
Liz

Post#7 by **fanthom** » 02 Jun 2018, 07:42

Hi Liz,

First of all you need to modify '/sbin/udev-automount-disabled' script and change:

Code: Select all

# Default mounting flags:
MOPT="ro"

to:

Code: Select all

# Default mounting flags:
MOPT="rw"

1) For 'keyboard shortcut' unmounting method you would have to modify /etc/xdg/openbox/rc.xml file and add keyboard binding there.
2) For 'onscreen applet' unmounting method you could utilize tint2 panel. You could start it with 'run_command=':

Code: Select all

run_command=tint2 -c your_config &

You need to create the config yourself, see samples in /etc/xdg/tint2.

Thanks