[Cialug] Kiosk suggestions?

Wed Jun 30 14:56:27 CDT 2010

>If you can install to a "USB thumb drive" you can install to a the hard 
drive -- they're both just random-access block devices.'

I wonder if it's possible (without jumping through too many hoops) to set up a virtual machine inside of a Linux installation, with the browser, open office, etc. already installed and configured, and then when a user logs of the machine, erase that virtual machine and replace it with a clean image from the template, so that the next user to log on gets a fresh install?  You would have to chroot it so that the user couldn't do anything they're not supposed to do, but since the image is replaced every time a user logs off you don't have to worry about resetting configurations.  It might be slow, though, on an old PC.

> 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. 

That's only an issue when it boots...if you leave it up all day then it's already in RAM and ready to go.

----- Original Message -----
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To: cialug at cialug.org
Sent: Wed, 30 Jun 2010 10:49:22 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: Cialug Digest, Vol 62, Issue 37

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Today's Topics:

   1. Re: Kiosk suggestions? (Allen Kiddoo)
   2. Android Issue? (Josh More)
   3. Re: Android Issue? (Kenneth Younger)
   4. Re: Kiosk suggestions? (Zachary Kotlarek)
   5. Re: Kiosk suggestions? (L. V. Lammert)
   6. Re: Android Issue? (Ed Meacham (@work))

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2010 09:43:57 -0500 (CDT)
From: Allen Kiddoo 
Subject: Re: [Cialug] Kiosk suggestions?
To: Central Iowa Linux Users Group 
Message-ID: <624312790.101277909033573.JavaMail.iadude at AK-iMac.local>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8

not supported on this old hardware.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Matthew Nuzum" 
To: "Central Iowa Linux Users Group" 
Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2010 9:28:27 AM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central
Subject: Re: [Cialug] Kiosk suggestions?

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. 

USB thumb drive boots almost as fast as a hard drive. Ubuntu can make a live usb thumb drive from an ISO. 1GB or larger thumb drive needed. 
-- 
Matthew Nuzum 
newz2000 on freenode, skype, linkedin, identi.ca and twitter 

"Never stop learning" ?Robert Nuzum (My dad) 

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Message: 2
Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2010 15:04:12 +0000
From: Josh More 
Subject: [Cialug] Android Issue?
To: "cialug at cialug.org" 
Message-ID:
    <97D930E86D94FB4E855DE7E58BD65B7504FF67AE at EX01.corp.alliancetechnologies.net>

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

So, for those of you who have Android, do you know of a way to block this:  http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/28/google_remote_android_application_install/

This was one of the reasons I was leaning towards Android over iPhone.  Now they're both back to being kinda sucky.  (Admittedly, from a "company playing a parent" perspective, Apple is a lot worse.)

-Josh More, CISSP, GIAC-GSLC, GIAC-GCIH, RHCE, NCLP
morej at alliancetechnologies.net
515-245-7701

------------------------------

Message: 3
Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2010 10:12:10 -0500
From: Kenneth Younger 
Subject: Re: [Cialug] Android Issue?
To: Central Iowa Linux Users Group 
Message-ID:

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

I was curious about this myself. I would only imagine if you got an unlocked
version of some phone and installed your own ROM, then you could avoid it. I
just don't know though. Being that it's open source, I would doubt this made
it into the core code, but I suppose it's possible.

On Wed, Jun 30, 2010 at 10:04 AM, Josh More
wrote:

> So, for those of you who have Android, do you know of a way to block this:
>
> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/28/google_remote_android_application_install/
>
> This was one of the reasons I was leaning towards Android over iPhone.  Now
> they're both back to being kinda sucky.  (Admittedly, from a "company
> playing a parent" perspective, Apple is a lot worse.)
>
> -Josh More, CISSP, GIAC-GSLC, GIAC-GCIH, RHCE, NCLP
> morej at alliancetechnologies.net
> 515-245-7701
> _______________________________________________
> Cialug mailing list
> Cialug at cialug.org
> http://cialug.org/mailman/listinfo/cialug
>
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Message: 4
Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2010 10:31:18 -0500
From: Zachary Kotlarek 
Subject: Re: [Cialug] Kiosk suggestions?
To: Central Iowa Linux Users Group 
Message-ID: <0AB56AD8-051E-45CD-891E-4BB1249685AA at kotlarek.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

On Jun 30, 2010, at 9:28 AM, Matthew Nuzum wrote:

> USB thumb drive boots almost as fast as a hard drive. Ubuntu can make a live usb thumb drive from an ISO. 1GB or larger thumb drive needed.

If you can install to a "USB thumb drive" you can install to a the hard drive -- they're both just random-access block devices.

    Zach

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Message: 5
Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2010 10:45:21 -0500
From: "L. V. Lammert" 
Subject: Re: [Cialug] Kiosk suggestions?
To: Central Iowa Linux Users Group 
Message-ID: <201006301545.o5UFjMwo018890 at mail.omnitec.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

At 10:31 AM 6/30/2010, you wrote:

>On Jun 30, 2010, at 9:28 AM, Matthew Nuzum wrote:
>
> > USB thumb drive boots almost as fast as a hard drive. Ubuntu can 
> make a live usb thumb drive from an ISO. 1GB or larger thumb drive needed.
>
>If you can install to a "USB thumb drive" you can install to a the 
>hard drive -- they're both just random-access block devices.

Why not just reset permissions on the HD to RO for everything except 
/var/log, .. and then tweak the /home partition so as to prevent 
downloads? A cron job could also blow out a 'stock' user profile if 
anything changed.

         Lee 

------------------------------

Message: 6
Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2010 10:51:35 -0500
From: "Ed Meacham $@work$" 
Subject: Re: [Cialug] Android Issue?
To: "'Central Iowa Linux Users Group'" 
Message-ID: <003301cb186c$1f920930$5eb61b90$@com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

To answer your question: I don't know of a way to block it.

But, I'm sure it possible if you have a root access. Maybe even if you
don't. My first thought is to find out the service name (someone out there
has to know what it is) then write a cronjob to kill it.

I'm not going to try to root my Droid (Milestone) until I get the X. (a
month or so from now) By then, someone should definitely have an answer to
this though. :/ 

In my opinion, Google is pretty relaxed on the app approval process. it's
nice for honest developers, and for getting updates. Maybe this will
motivate them to start/do better unit testing on apps. I wonder if they
could use this kill method on apps that not installed via the Market?
(they'd need to know the package name, but still.)

-emeacham (@work)

From: cialug-bounces at cialug.org [mailto:cialug-bounces at cialug.org] On Behalf
Of Kenneth Younger
Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2010 10:12 AM
To: Central Iowa Linux Users Group
Subject: Re: [Cialug] Android Issue?

I was curious about this myself. I would only imagine if you got an unlocked
version of some phone and installed your own ROM, then you could avoid it. I
just don't know though. Being that it's open source, I would doubt this made
it into the core code, but I suppose it's possible.

On Wed, Jun 30, 2010 at 10:04 AM, Josh More 
wrote:

So, for those of you who have Android, do you know of a way to block this:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/28/google_remote_android_application_in
stall/

This was one of the reasons I was leaning towards Android over iPhone.  Now
they're both back to being kinda sucky.  (Admittedly, from a "company
playing a parent" perspective, Apple is a lot worse.)

-Josh More, CISSP, GIAC-GSLC, GIAC-GCIH, RHCE, NCLP
morej at alliancetechnologies.net
515-245-7701
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Cialug at cialug.org
http://cialug.org/mailman/listinfo/cialug

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