Building a Custom Perspective Kiosk on Linux Hardware

Ignition
7

Agreed. The frequent crashes of mir-kiosk made it a non-starter, even though the ease-of-installation/configuration/use was a huge benefit. Firefox has, so far, proven to be more stable, albeit far more complicated to configure. Recent Ignition versions include updates to Java, and recent Perspective Workstation versions include updates to JxBrowser, of which supports Wayland. When time allows...I intend to dabble...

A bash script to migrate from the above mir-kiosk snap to Firefox snap might resemble:

#!/bin/bash
# Store URL used on mir-kiosk:
echo "INFO    | Storing kiosk URL..."
my_Url=$(snap get wpe-webkit-mir-kiosk url)
echo "INFO    | my_Url=${my_Url}"

# Uninstall Mir-Kiosk:
echo "INFO    | Removing webkit-mir-kiosk snap..."
snap remove --purge wpe-webkit-mir-kiosk

# Install Firefox Snap:
echo "INFO    | Installing Firefox snap..."
snap install firefox
snap connect firefox:wayland

# Create Service to run Firefox in Ubuntu-Frame:
echo "INFO    | Creating Service to run Firefox at startup..."
cat > /etc/systemd/system/firefox-frame.service << EOF
[Unit]
# https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd.unit.html#%5BUnit%5D%20Section%20Options
Description=Firefox Wayland Kiosk
After=snap.ubuntu-frame.daemon.service snap.ubuntu-frame-osk.daemon.service ignition.service getty.target
Wants=snap.ubuntu-frame.daemon.service snap.ubuntu-frame-osk.daemon.service ignition.service
Conflicts=display-manager.service
StartLimitIntervalSec=0

[Service]
# https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/environment-variables-for-wayland-hackers/12750
Type=simple
Restart=always
RestartSec=3
Environment=WAYLAND_DISPLAY=wayland-0
Environment=MOX_CRASHREPORTER_DISABLE=1
Environment=GDK_BACKEND=wayland
Environment=MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1
Environment=HOME=/root
Environment=XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/0
Environment=XDG_DATA_DIRS=/usr/local/share:/usr/share:/var/lib/snapd/desktop
ExecStartPre=/snap/bin/firefox --CreateProfile "default"
ExecStartPre=-/usr/bin/sleep 10
ExecStart=/snap/bin/firefox -P default --kiosk --private-window "${my_Url}"
Nice=15

[Install]
WantedBy=graphical.target
EOF

echo "INFO    | Reload daemon, start kiosk, enable service at startup..."
systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl start firefox-frame
systemctl enable firefox-frame

Some notes on the above method:

  • Less-than-elegant 10 second delay added to startup due to Ignition service running, but Perspective module & web page not available (504 Not Found) until additional delay.
  • Default profile used. Custom profile should be created (to limit navigation to specific websites, etc.) Ref: How to customize the firefox snap with enterprise policies - Documentation - Ubuntu Community Hub
  • Edit* The above migration was intended for Ubuntu Server.
  • Edit** Updated Firefox service to move all 'Requires' to 'Wants' to improve reliability.
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