[geeks] Linux Web Kiosk

[Jonathan C. Patschke]

On Sun, 2 Mar 2008, Mark wrote:

> I have a small embedded machine that I am developing a web-based quite
> in PHP on and I want to use the box itself as a standalone demo unit.
> I would like to know if it was possible to have Xorg start up with a
> maximized Firefox window with no border or widget controls on the
> screen?  I am running Ubuntu Gutsy (PPC) and have no X desktop
> installed.

Provided that you can get startx to run in an unbreakable loop as a user
other than root, it's simple.  Have an ~/.xinitrc that looks like this

 	xsetroot -solid black
 	exec /path/to/firefox -geometry 1024x768+0+0

User quits firefox, X and firefox restart immediately.  There's no
window manager, so there are no window gadgets.

Now, if you need window gadgets (maybe your web app does popups), you
may want to use one of the WMs that also doesn't have gadgets (like
evilwm or ratpoison).  Just stick it above the exec line with an & at
the end.  If the WM has a built-in feature for launching an xterm,
you'll want to remove that.

As for getting startx to run in a loop, that would probably not be too
difficult, but you'd absolutely not want the user to be running as root,
so the easy-out of making startx run instead of getty wouldn't work.

-- 
Jonathan Patschke | "There is no such thing as a short of reserves...
Elgin, TX         |  one bank can have a problem...the Fed can print
USA               |  money, there is no shortage."
.                 |     --Jim Glassman, US Economist, JPMorgan Chase