Need Guidance: Creating locked down browser only (kiosk?)

Hi!
Ever knew where you wanted to go but didn't know how to get there? That's where I'm at right now.

I'm fairly new to Linux customization and am trying to put together a Knoppix customization for a PC that will sit in our lobby at the guard's desk.

Since it will be in a semi-public space and not watched over 24x7, I need to make sure it's locked down. The only thing this machine should be used for is for the guard to access our online employee database (intranet site). Everything else, for the most part, should not be accessible.

Ideally, the machine would boot up and immediately start Mozilla and load the default web page.

I'm not looking for someone to do this for me, just guidance and direction. Unfortunately, I'm really not sure where to start and could use any advice you're willing to offer.

Thanks,

Bob

http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9905

Poobaa,
You mention that your solution really isn't secure. For this application, security is essential.

Basically, I want just enough included to boot, obtain an IP Address, start a browser and load a web page. If possible, the user should be restricted from accessing any other site and/or, if possible, have all brower controls (and right click) disabled with the exception of a scroll bar. Then I can theoretically control where the user can go based on links within the web page.

There may also be a need in the future for things such as flash player and a pdf viewer that I might as well included now as well.

If I can get this to work, we'll likely make the CD image available to other company locations. Since I won't know what hardware they'll be using, I'd like for a wheel mouse not to be a required component.

Thanks Again...

Bob

You will have to look at the WM2 configuration, or X server configuration to work out how to disable all of the break out options/key strokes. Removing access to a keyboard may help here.

Links is one way of handling where the user can go; a better way would be some kind of proxy server, or DNS settings. This will redirect all web requests to your pages.

Mozilla/Firefox is not a great way to do anything securely, they are designed for web browsing, and they will also let you look at local file systems, DL files etc. I did do some reading on using XML to lock down all the features, you can find the info on the Mozilla page.

Giving anyone access to a working network connection, is always going to be bad news. If you can segment the network so that the kiosks are not on it, you will be getting a much more secure solution. If a machine is compromised, all they can get to is you other kiosks, and maybe the web server.

Food for thought, I’m sure other people have other ideas (even better ones)

maybe this one?

http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/m...1.iso?download

Well, I'm not usually one to cross post, but since I started this thread a couple months ago and found it again, I figured what's the harm in adding to it.

Anyway, I took Ghandalfar's advice and downloaded the Morphix/Firefox iso. After spending the day fooling around with it, it appears to be just about what I'm looking for. I would, however, need to make a few changes.

1) Change start-up background image and color of progress bar to match,
2) Boot Firefox into fullscreen mode less the title tab, add the printer icon and remove address/search bars,
3) Change default home page,
4) Disable the Firefox window resize while in full screen mode and/or take steps to prevent user from clicking on desktop to open a new Firefox window.
5) Disable Ctrl+Alt+Fn keys, and
6) Edit inittab to force user to login if they are able to crash X.

I'd like to try to do this myself if at all possible but don't really know where to start. Would someone be willing to guide me through the process? Any help would be very much appreciated.

Thanks,

Bob

Reading through Bendan's "How to make a single application morph", it describes how to change the bootsplash image by replacing the 'bootsplash-1024x768.jpg' and 'silent-1024x768.jpg' files in '/base/minitroot/bootsplash/images'. I'm assuming one is for the image and the other is for the progress bar.

If that's the case, we can scratch item 1 from the list :)

-Bob

Hello.

I am very interested in this kiosk idea with a few local variations. If anybody is actively remastering knoppix or specifically for this type of idea. Please contact me to discuss a.s.a.p.

Here is what I can solve to date.

1. How to change home page. Changes file:
etc/X11/Xsession.d/45xsession

You will see Exec line for konqueror and you just change it to mozilla/firefox.
Firefox is not in the base knoppix 3.4 dist yet.

2. To remove the sidebar in mozilla. Hopefully firefox is similar.
Open file localstore.rdf and edit the sidebar elements to hidden="true".

/usr/share/knoppix/profile/.mozilla/knoppix/ujixazk6.slt/localstore.rdf

i.e.
prd5:/var/local/Knoppix_Custom# diff knoppix_src/usr/share/knoppix/profile/.mozilla/knoppix/ujixazk6.slt/localstore.rdf knoppix_files/localstore.rdf.k
50c50
< hidden="true" />
---
> hidden="" />
55c55
< hidden="true" />
---
> width="202" />
69c69
< <RDF:li>www.openoffice.org</RDF:li>
---
> <RDF:li>de.openoffice.org</RDF:li>


I would like to add the following to the list
1. I want to have the kiosk "reset" itself after N minutes of inactivity. I.e. if nobody is keyboarding/mousing then refresh/restart X11 back to the browser window. I would also like to shutdown (or reboot) the clients in the evening (something remote other than a cronjob) as I can etherwake them in the morning or when I install a new image.

I also have troubles with NFS if I stop/replace image and restart all the clients will eventually fail. Is this not possible to do?

2. I am also seeing a problem when my "kiosk" is left running overnight (>6-10hrs) where I get cloop errors at the clients and my network activity goes to 100%. This is a bad/showstopper and I am not sure why it happens.

My equipment is all good and resonably fast. Server P4;1Gb and Clients: PII;128Mb or more.

I'm really looking for help/assistance to get this going.

Cheers
Stephen

Can anyone provide mirror for firefox livecd - version2 ? It's < 200Mb

While I'm not in a position to provide an FTP mirror, I would like to download the new .iso when a mirror is available.

Thanks,

Bob

:D

Hello, I am interested in building a KIOSK build of knoppix as well. I have been mastering rebuilds of knoppix since December. I have quite a bit of linux OS experiece. Please let me know what I can do to help this effort along. There are several options for preventing the system from talking outside a range of servers, if that is what you want.

thanks.

Some time ago there was some interest about firefox only livecd. Here is second version.

Brief changelog:
- updated to latest debian unstable package
- added chatzilla extension
- added bandwith tester extension
- added some other nice extension that make life easier
- automatic detection of cups printers on your network and inclusion of them into firefox print menu
- added bookmarks to some morphs
- it is now fully autobuilt by scripts so it is very easy to create custom versions (public release of build environment scripts will follow up tommorow)
- added win32 version of firefox and thunderbid installers to root of cd

Size: ~185M
MD5sum: c514fb757968ac76c5f2a4f95de3492d
(please always check md5sum of downloaded livecd's. You can't otherwise guarantee the quality and saftey of livecd)

Download link: http://www.kiberpipa.org/~gandalf/firefox2.iso

A few days I ago I promised that I will post publicly scripts that were used to autobuild firefox2 livecd.

They can be found at: http://ibuild.livecd.net . Inside 0.23 release is config/firefox2.xml which is configuration file used for this livecd.

Data files are published here: http://www.kiberpipa.org/~gandalf/data-firefox2.tar.bz2

A howto is a bit outdated, revised version with GUI instructions will follow up soon (in next few days). If you have trouble with scripts you can always use our mailing list (found at homepage of ibuild project) or you can find me channel #morphix on irc.freenode.org

Scripts are by no means finished but are begining to get very useful so I would welcome all contributions and comments to bring a bit of automation into world of creation of livecds with some time.

Hello Bob,

I am having exactly the same requirements you mentioned in this thread.

Could solve your problem?

Many thanks in advance

Uwe

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by oitsubob

Well, I'm not usually one to cross post, but since I started this thread a couple months ago and found it again, I figured what's the harm in adding to it.

Anyway, I took Ghandalfar's advice and downloaded the Morphix/Firefox iso. After spending the day fooling around with it, it appears to be just about what I'm looking for. I would, however, need to make a few changes.

1) Change start-up background image and color of progress bar to match,
2) Boot Firefox into fullscreen mode less the title tab, add the printer icon and remove address/search bars,
3) Change default home page,
4) Disable the Firefox window resize while in full screen mode and/or take steps to prevent user from clicking on desktop to open a new Firefox window.
5) Disable Ctrl+Alt+Fn keys, and
6) Edit inittab to force user to login if they are able to crash X.

I'd like to try to do this myself if at all possible but don't really know where to start. Would someone be willing to guide me through the process? Any help would be very much appreciated.

Thanks,

Bob

---

Spectackle,
Check out www.livecd.net. I was able to achieve my objectives using the LiveInfo CD.

Thanks,

Bob