Ubuntu 20.04.5 - Booting up system on Firefox in Kiosk mode

Patrik L.

3/6/24, 3:55 PM

What:

Hello everyone, I'm trying to start up my Ubuntu 20.04.5 machine in kiosk mode. I want my system to start up Firefox in kiosk mode right after it boots up. I'm almost done but I have trouble with one thing and that's whenever my system boots up, I can see desktop for a few seconds and then my Firefox starts which is for me unacceptable, because I don't want anyone to access desktop even for 1 second. I've tried to find solution on the internet, but all those tutorials either don't work at all or they just help me half way. I'm also pretty new to Ubuntu and sometimes I get lost pretty easy so please if you will answer, try to type it for someone who has little to none experience.

What I've got:

I have computer with Ubuntu 20.04.5 with small touchscreen.
Currently I have keyboard connected to this PC, but this is just for debugging and later when machine will be used by customer, there will be touch screen only.
Whenever I boot up my computer, it starts Firefox in few seconds in Kiosk mode.
I've removed all gestures so customer can't leave kiosk mode and can't turn on on-screen keyboard

What I need:

I need somehow to not show up desktop whenever system boots up. For example something like forbid to start explorer.exe on Windows

What I've tried:

I've tried to use mir-kiosk (tutorial: https://mir-server.io/docs/make-a-secure-ubuntu-web-kiosk?_ga=2.193564712.409980830.1678117729-728773809.1665391247), but either I'm doing something wrong or I don't since I've followed every step and when I use command "snap set wpe-webkit-mir-kiosk url=https://mir-server.io" it doesn't even open up any window.
I've also tried few other tutorials, but they didn't work either or I felt, that they are too complicated even though this should be that hard or should it?

Thanks in advance to anyone who will give me some answers/help

932

1 + 0

firefox

boot

touchscreen

kiosk

20.04

Score:0

Ubuntu

Patrik L.

3/8/24, 3:34 PM

------UPDATE WITH SMALL WORKAROUND------

While I was waiting for answer, I was still trying to solve my problem and I kinda did but in different way that I originally intended and I want to share this little but easy solution. This solution only works for systems with touch screen and with out usage of any keyboard (Even onscreen keyboard but I haven't tested it so maybe it works too).

I basicly instead of trying to start Firefox/any browser before starting GNOME, I just hid every aspect of GNOME. So let say we are at same point I was in when I wrote this question: Firefox opens up in kiosk mode after boot of system with desired site, onscreen keyboard is disabled, gestures are disabled, you have installed gnome-tweak-tools and chrome-gnome-shell extensions and you also have gnome-shell-integration extension for Firefox. Now you will need to follow these steps:

In Show applications menu open up Extensions application
Turn off Desktop icons and Ubuntu Dock extensions
Install Gnome tweaks extension "Hide Top Bar" https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/545/hide-top-bar/
Reboot system
Open up terminal (ctrl + alt + T) and type: 'sudo apt install gnome-shell-extensions'
Open up Extensions menu again and turn on "Hide Top Bar" extension and then click on configure button (Cog icon next to it)
In first tab "Sensitivity" turn off every option
In "Intellihide" also disable all options

You can enable left sidebar again via terminal with command: Enable: 'gnome-extension enable ubuntu-dock@ubuntu.com' Disable: 'gnome-extension disable ubuntu-dock@ubuntu.com'

Your desktop should be now totally empty

Last thing you should do is to download/create fully black image and use it as background image

Now if you will reboot system, you will just see black screen for a while and then browser with your desire site should open up. You will maybe think, that someone will try to do something when there is that black screen before start up of browser, but it should be safe. User can't click on anything since there is nothing to click on and thanks to touch screen, you can't right click and open any settings menu.

I hope it will help at least someone.

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