Is there a knoppix Web Kiosk?

[davea0511]

Gandalfar-

Like Pinolinux and Oitsubob, I'm also looking for an Info-Kiosk geared more toward providing the user with a kiosk that doesn't even look like a webpage. Something that boots up to no menubar, no statusbar, no addressbar - where the whole screen is filled 100% with customized HTML or Flash content from the start.

Also, I had a novel idea about how to customize the homepage: Always point it to "d:\index.html". Then someone can just add another drive ($35 example: an IDE-to-CF adapter with a CF card) containing a website or an autoforwarding webpage. Also, with this method internet access wouldn't be required, but usable if internet access is available.

Please note that many interactive kiosks are in remote locations that don't even have internet access so the website has to be located on the computer itself. In fact, that's one of my big problems: my kiosks go into new construction model homes - many don't even have a phone line. Of course, an added benefit is that local webpages are also much faster and it's best to store Flash video and other large files locally.

Lastly, (since I'm spilling my guts) I have a fear that your next version of Stallion could be a step backwards if it requires customization for each person to use as they need. In fact, it's the plug-n-play ability that makes the Stallion LiveCD great as an internet-cafe (and it will be absolutely perfect when you disable Ctrl+Alt+Fn). Similarly, I believe that a distinctly seperate Info-kiosk LiveCD like what I described above would be perfect for Info-kiosk applications (as opposed to internet-cafe applications). Nothing to "configure" then... just put the InfoKiosk LiveCD in drive 'C:\', and then put your website or autoforward webpage in drive 'D:\', and be done with it.

So, JMHO - I vote to keep the internet-cafe (Stallion) and the Info-Kiosk (which I described above) as two seperate LiveCD apps... but that's just because complicated things hurt my brain. Ow. Why me laugh?

PS - do you have a paypal account where we can donate to this cause?

[oitsubob]

I tend to agree with Dave on the fact that two distinct liveCD's are needed. They each have their own purposes which do differ from one another. The info-kiosk we envision isn't for "web surfing" but rather to provide information on a product, whatever that may be.

For us non-guru's, digging in and figuring this out on our own seems to be a struggle. I'd really like to learn, but honestly, Linux is still a little intimidating and this level of customization seems pretty advanced for this Windows user. I really liked some of the early ideas behind the firefox livecd where some of the settings were stored outside the mainmod and available to edit without having to decompress/recompress. Some of these settings might include the default start page location (which could point to a local file or a URL), boot-splash image/progress bar color and wallpaper images that we could just replace with our own of the same name.

Whether that's doable is another story all together.

Ghandalfar,
I plan to try to go into the stallion.mod file and see if the stallion xml is similar to firefox in that you can comment out what you don't need. That part, at least, seemed pretty straight forward. I actually made it work for my Windows box

As for the boot-splash, progress bar color and wallpaper image, could you point me to where that can be found? I know you have plans to release something in the next few weeks, which I eagerly look forward to, but unfortunately my boss is expecting me to come up with something before the end of the year. He wants to be able to include it in our list of accomplishments for our annual performance review. You and I have talked occasionally offline, so you know this is something I've been sitting on for a while. Now, unfortuantely, my procrastination is finally coming back to bite me -- so it's crunch time!

The only other change I could envision to put this to rest would be to disable ctrl+alt+fn keys. While you can't seem to do much, it does hang up the machine.

Hope you all have a Happy Holiday season!

Bob

[Ghandalfar]

oitsubob: well, you said you could wait. Anyway contact me by mail and I'm sure I can help you if you provide me with nice list of things that you'd like.

davea0511: really great insight. I'll make sure there will be at least two versions.

Any suggestions how to make sure distributing flash is allowed?

[pinoylinux]

i agree both with dave and oitsubob,

a new separate ISO for pure 100% buttonless,addressbar less, and ctrl+alt+fn less
more power to gandalfar!

[davea0511]

Any suggestions how to make sure distributing flash is allowed?

I didn't get that. You mean Flash Memory, or Macromedia Flash? I wish they hadn't given two different and powerful technologies the exact same name.

Regarding Flash Memory, these IDE-to-CF adapters will attach a CF card to an IDE slot, and fool the BIOS into thinking it's a hard drive. The adapters are cheap ($15 for this one: http://www.wisp-router.com/product_i...roducts_id=103 ). Flash memory is cheap too ( http://www.pricewatch.com/ shows a 64 Mb for only $13).

The URL that points to a homepage on the CF card should look like this: " file://localhost/D:/index.html ". Then all we have to do is make sure that the BIOS assigns 'D:\' as the drive letter to the CF card.

Another way is to put the LiveCD on a CF card instead of CD-ROM, and put the index.html on the same card under a directory called 'website'. That way the URL would be: " file://localhost/C:/website/index.html ". That would also save someone the cost of a CD drive, not to mention they get the benefit of no more CD drive noise and unreliability - and silent kiosks are the sign of true quality.

For reference, here's a guy who put the Knoppix LiveCD on a bootable CF card: http://staff.washington.edu/gray/KnoppixCFguide.html . He shows how to do it, and relates all the benefits for doing so (one being easy customization of the kernel which is one of the challenges that we're facing here).

[Ghandalfar]

sorry, I meant Macromedia flash

customizing kernel isn't a big challange

[oitsubob]

LOL -- speak for yourself Just out of curiousity, is it possible to decompress, edit and recompress the main module from Windows? If so, do you know of any tutorials explaining how to do so?

Thanks,

Bob

[Ghandalfar]

it should be possible with cygwin

[Dominic Liversidge]

web kiosk but differnt i love the idea that this is locked down to 1 program (something which i am looking for) but its not firefox how easy would it be to remove firefox and make another linux program boot up instead.

[oitsubob]

Dominic,
Check out the following tutorial on the Morphix.org website:

http://www.morphix.org/modules/secti...ticle&artid=13

Bob