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I'm looking to set up a simple internet kiosk in the lobby of a motel. For security, I think it's best if I set up a simple Linux distribution whose only user-accessible program is a browser.
Would it be a good idea to take a distro like Ubuntu, set up a limited user account, and uninstall everything except a browser? It might also be possible to use a minimal VM like Blackbox and configure the browser to start when the computer is booted. Alternatively, I've seen some distros that have already been configured for kiosk use - anybody have experience using one?
How would you recommend configuring the system to discard any changes on reboot? It would be nice to allow the browser to be able to write temp files, but I don't want users to be able to make permanent changes to the system.
What browser would you recommend? Firefox is the traditional choice, but there are some other contenders. I know that Arora and Chromium aren't fully baked yet, but I am a fan of the WebKit rendering engine and I am hoping that it's possible to use somehow.
Right, I shouldn't have said "everything", but just those programs in the menus and such. Although the fact that you mentioned window managers leads me to think that it might be possible to use a minimal WM like blackbox and configure the browser to start and maximize at login. – Kyle Cronin – 2009-09-07T00:52:09.327
Opera in kiosk mode will do just that. I'll edit my response to add more info. – Ivan Vučica – 2009-09-07T01:02:26.837
Btw, don't forget to upvote useful answers, and to tick the most helpful one! – Ivan Vučica – 2009-09-07T01:15:24.347
1@Ivan: Yeah, I know the drill. I've been at this longer than you ;-) – Kyle Cronin – 2009-09-07T01:41:49.657
I just checked out kiosk mode. It's good, but it seems to disable the address bar. Any way to get that back? – Kyle Cronin – 2009-09-07T01:50:54.227
n/m, -kioskbuttons seems to have done the trick. – Kyle Cronin – 2009-09-07T01:53:40.807
Regarding "longer than you": ...maybe :-)
See, I'm usually hanging around SO, but people there are too fast in answering most of the questions I know enough about :-) Anyways, glad I could help. – Ivan Vučica – 2009-09-07T13:07:05.030