"chrome --kiosk" on OS X Lion or other kiosk solutions

2

How can I switch Google Chrome to work in kiosk mode on OS X Lion?

I've tried:

open /Applications/Google\ Chrome.app http://www.google.com`

from the terminal without luck.

My goal is to obtain a web kiosk with OS X Lion and I'm trying to accomplish it using Chrome but any other suggestion is appreciated.

UPDATE 1 preferably the kiosk don't have to display anything more than a HTML5 website. No toolbars/commands/url/title.

UPDATE 2 the system needs to boot in kiosk mode a.k.a. with just the browser in full screen as written above in UPDATE 1.

microspino

Posted 2011-10-29T08:44:39.567

Reputation: 911

Can you trust your users not to do something stupid? Like, exiting, force quitting ... – slhck – 2011-10-29T14:05:46.533

Is there a particular reason you want to remove all UI elements? Is this for use of a specific web site? – Daniel Beck – 2011-10-29T14:14:39.753

@slhck At the end, the kiosk will have only a touch screen and the browser will display just one specific HTML5 website. It's safe to assume that the user will have no-device control rather than what it's needed to interact with such website by the touchscreen (no-keyboard no-mouse hardened kiosk). This way how they can force-quit? – microspino – 2011-10-29T16:50:50.137

@DanielBeck Yes, it is for use with an HTML5 application, sort-of digital-signage-mode but for museums or monuments commentaries. – microspino – 2011-10-29T16:52:24.847

Do the users have a keyboard? If not, take a look at Firefox. I know some touchscreen terminals that did this successfully -- touch to click a link; otherwise no menus, right click, nothing. – Daniel Beck – 2011-10-29T17:37:41.403

Pinging @slhck maybe he has an idea. – Daniel Beck – 2011-10-29T17:38:00.623

Firefox seems to have kiosk-like addons, and the latest versions are HTML5 ready, so that could do the trick as well? Chrome doesn't seem to allow any extensions that change the user interface as much as Firefox does. @dan

– slhck – 2011-10-29T18:22:35.293

Answers

3

There's a nice little gimmick built into Lion called the "Safari Mode".

According to Apple forums, you can enable it by:

  • Rebooting the Mac
  • Immediately after it turns on, holding cmd-R
  • Choosing the Safari icon from the options

It allows you to run the computer in a mode where only Safari is allowed, and no data is being read or written from/to your hard drive. This is the most effective kiosk mode I can imagine, because there's no way for the user to mess with the system.

Also, Daniel has an answer over there, which suggests that kiosk mode in Chrome is just not enabled in the OS X builds. But there's some kind of a workaround, which automatically enables full-screen.

slhck

Posted 2011-10-29T08:44:39.567

Reputation: 182 472

It could be possible to coming this with Lion's new file vault to prevent even accidental reboots into the installed system. – Daniel Beck – 2011-10-29T13:07:08.590

Isn't possible to set a firmware password or similar? – slhck – 2011-10-29T13:12:26.057

@DanielBeck could you tell me more about using it with file vault feature? – microspino – 2011-10-29T13:19:24.490

@slhck "Safari Mode" could not be an option since requires manual restarting and pressing the two keys. Then end result needs to be more like the Chrome kiosk full screen mode DanielBeck mentions in the answer you pointed me to. – microspino – 2011-10-29T13:23:14.077

Does something similar exists for Windows or Linux? – Juzer Ali – 2012-04-19T04:17:39.307

Asked: 2011-10-29T08:44:39.567

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Active: 2013-05-08T06:47:58.353