Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

Today we will see how to set up a GNU / Linux box like internet point in a simple and fast. Our requirements are very few:

• Computer with minimal system resources (pentium 3, ram da 128MB, the record 1GB) or higher,
• GNU/Linux (any distro that supports ".Xsession”, useremo one Debian),
• Un browser web (any browser that supports the "kiosk”, we will use Opera).

Choice fought, but inevitable that of Opera. Despite being free it remains a proprietary software which however supports the "kiosk"Much better than Firefox. And 'the only reason why I adopted Opera instead of Firefox.

We begin with the installation of the necessary software:

root:~# apt-get install x-window-system-core gdm

We will also install the dependencies of these packages to enable thegraphical environment.

The this page we download the version of Opera adapted to our hardware architecture. It is possible to navigate to the desired page in text mode with "elinks”, if it is not included, it must be installed with the command:

root:~ # Apt-get install elinks

Downloads the latest version of Opera installiamola:

root:~# dpkg -i opera.version.deb

Let's create a user that does not have administrative privileges, the user will be "webuser”, no password.

root:~# adduser webuser

Now create the file .Xsession of "webuser”. The file .Xsession is responsible for 'start programs on login User. In this case, all we need is Opera:

cd /user/webuser
nano .Xsession
/usr/bin/opera

Now if we start gdm (“/etc / init.d / gdm start”) and we log in as "webuser”The screen where we usually find the desktop and the menus will be composed, instead of the window full screen of Opera that will not give us the opportunity to resize, decrease the ad icon close the same. The fact remains that this is still possible for the user modify and customize Opera as pleases him most. If we want to remove this possibility we have to go back to editing the file .Xsession for the desired user. That:

/usr/bin/X11/xset -dpms
/usr/bin/X11/xset s off
/usr/bin/opera -kioskmode -kioskresetstation -nochangebuttons -nochangefullscreen -nocontextmenu -nohotlist -nomaillinks -nominmaxbuttons -nodownload -noexit -noprint -nosave -nosplash -nosysmenu -nomenu -resetonexit https://www.thejoe.it

The first two lines disable shutdown Screen (standby mode for example) e lo screensaver. The third line passes parameters to Opera, parameters exhaustively explained by Opera itself in its documentation.

Additional changes can be made to the file of Opera "~ / .opera/opera6.ini”. Even in this case the Opera documentation is very detailed.

If we want to start the user "webuser"Login automatically we have to modify the file"/etc / gdm / gdm.conf" as follows:

[daemon]
AutomaticLoginEnable=true
AutomaticLogin=webuser
TimedLoginEnable=true
TimedLogin=webuser
TimedLoginDelay=3

Everyone love screenshots!

Not that there's much to see, are two beautiful screens work in full screen. In all cases demonstrate the operation of the procedure.

I further an article on software “Pessolus” still blog “Liberamente-Kayowas” For those who want the (almost) full control over the session of the webuser. For those who want full control there is only the command line.