[Cialug] Kiosk suggestions?

[Crouse]

Actually, j.bengtson has the best idea.  Live CD is the way to go for
a kiosk. Zero maintence once it's setup, doesn't require a hard drive.
A backup is easy to make.... just copy the cd ;)  Pushing the "off"
button would be the easiest, simplest method to reset your system, and
it's pretty intuitive even for people not used to computers.

My Personal pick: http://www.slax.org/

You should really look at Slax... boots up faster from the cd than
most distro's do from a hard drive, you don't need a hard drive, and
is easily remastered.

HowTo: Create a Boot-From-CD Browser Kiosk with Firefox and SLAX Linux 5.1.8
http://www.ehartwell.com/TechNotes/KioskModeSLAXBootCD.htm

The above article might give some insight and ideas for you as well.

FWIW, Slax is my favorite "Live Linux",   I always have a slax cd
around, it's so handy, and can fit on a 80mm small cd.  Put that in a
52x cdrom drive, and it's really fast ;)  If you haven't actually
tried Slax, give it a shot, see what you think of it's speed.

You want even faster, put the iso file on a usb key and boot from the
usb drive (assuming your computer's bios will allow booting from usb).


A totally different choice:  Don't want to mess with the configuration at all ?
http://webconverger.com/buy/    I think it's $150 plus if you want any
modifications they can do that for you too.
Never tried them, but it's another "option" to think about I guess.

Good luck, I'd be interested to know what you finally end up doing,
and how it works out. Keep us posted  :)

Crouse

USA Linux Users Group
http://usalug.org



On Tue, Jun 29, 2010 at 4:40 PM, Allen Kiddoo <adk at 52761.com> wrote:
> I thought about cd idea but- cd would have to be remastered for secure wifi network.
> And many of the young users would not have the patience for cd boot time.
>
> Allen
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "j bengtson" <j.bengtson at mchsi.com>
> To: cialug at cialug.org
> Sent: Tuesday, June 29, 2010 4:13:08 PM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central
> Subject: Re: [Cialug] Kiosk suggestions?
>
>
> This is my first posting here, so be gentle. I've read through this post and the responses, and it seems to me that you've all overlooked an obvious solution...or else I've missed something. Wouldn't this be the perfect place for a Live CD? Most distributions have a Live CD option, and virtually all of them come with OpenOffice, CUPS, and a browser already installed and configured. Access to the hard drive is not enabled by default, and you could probably remove the hard drive if you wanted to. Configure BIOS to always boot from the CD, lock the BIOS with a password, and keep spare copies of the Live CD handy in case one walks away.
>
> Users would be able to:
> 1) browse the web;
> 2) Use OpenOffice;
> 3) Print documents;
> 4) Save files to a thumb drive.
>
> Users would not be able to access the hard drive. If anyone mucks up the configuration settings in memory, you simply reboot from the LiveCD.
>
> Did I miss something?
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------
> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 25 Jun 2010 11:53:49 -0500 (CDT)
> From: Allen Kiddoo <adk at 52761.com>
> Subject: [Cialug] Kiosk suggestions?
> To: Central Iowa Linux Users Group <cialug at cialug.org>
> Message-ID: <1100452936.281277484827017.JavaMail.iadude at AK-iMac.local>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
>
> I need to lock down a public box used at a local church.
> Want to allow browser, openoffice, and printing.
> Also have access to media player for mp3 and video.
> Limit file saving to external thumb drive.
>
> Has anyone done something similar? Any links?
> Searching has revealed little.
>
> Allen Kiddoo
> Muscatine
> _______________________________________________
> Cialug mailing list
> Cialug at cialug.org
> http://cialug.org/mailman/listinfo/cialug
> _______________________________________________
> Cialug mailing list
> Cialug at cialug.org
> http://cialug.org/mailman/listinfo/cialug
>