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OpenKiosk - A web kiosk application

Description

OpenKiosk can be set up as a standalone kiosk or a workstation kiosk.

A standalone kiosk will boot up to a display only or an interactive kiosk that requires no login. This is useful for a system that is to be used interactively by multiple people or will be in a public place displaying automatically updating information non-interactively (digital signage).

A workstation kiosk is one that can be used on a normal workstation by users who log in normally and would like to be able to run a kiosk style browser or pdf viewer in a full screen or windowed configuration only on demand.

Dependencies

Before using OpenKiosk, you will need:

  • For standalone configuration:

    • A working Debian based installation configured as a text-only system (no X server or Wayland).

  • For a workstation configuration:

    • A working Debian based installation configured as a normal graphical workstation.

These can be any Debian based Linux distribution. Debian, Linux Mint, Ubuntu, and Raspberry Pi OS are examples.

Instructions

Installation

  1. Download OpenKiosk

    The easiest way is to run wget https://gitserver.thermionic.net/rod.wright/OpenKiosk/releases/download/2.0.1/OpenKiosk-2.0.1.tar.gz

    or visit https://gitserver.thermionic.net/rod.wright/OpenKiosk/releases to download the specific package version you'd like to use.

  2. Extract the package

    tar -zxvf OpenKiosk-2.0.1.tar.gz

  3. Change to the extracted package directory

    cd OpenKiosk-2.0.1

  4. Run the installer as superuser

    sudo ./kiosk-setup.sh

During installation, you will be prompted to install Webmin, a web based system administration tool for Unix-like servers. This is completely optional, but for standalone configurations of OpenKiosk, this tool makes it easy to administer your kiosk, since there is no way to log in to the system directly. Without webmin, you'll need to log in with ssh to administer the system. You will also be prompted to install the CUPS print server. If the web application you use the kiosk to access supports printing from within the application, and you wish to be able to do so, you will need to have a print server installed. You may also need to manually install other printer drivers if your printer is not natively supported by CUPS.

Configuration

OpenKiosk operates through the use of configuration files. The format of the file is documented in the file itself.

  • For standalone installations, this file is located at: /etc/openkiosk/openkiosk.conf

  • For workstation installations, this file is located in each user's home directory at : .config/openkiosk/openkiosk.conf

The configuration files will be given their initial settings during installation.

Usage

For standalone installations, the system will boot automatically to display the site or file specified in the config file.

  • If this is a standalone kiosk, many of the normal key combinations have been disabled to prevent misuse of the kiosk. However, there are some that you should know about.

    • Pressing <alt>-<F4> will kill and restart the display app, reloading the target URL.

    • Pressing <ctrl>-<alt>-<shift>-<del> will shut down the kiosk.

    • Pressing <ctrl>-<alt>-<shift>-<ins> will reboot the kiosk.

For workstation installations, users will log in normally, and type openkiosk in a terminal window. The executable is located at /usr/local/bin/openkiosk if the user wants to create a launcher.

How to report problems

To report an issue with OpenKiosk, email me at software@rodsplace.net.

Terms of use

OpenKiosk is licensed under the GNU General Public License v2

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