The release of Porteus Kiosk 5.4.0 has taken place, based on Gentoo and designed for equipping standalone internet kiosks, demonstration stands, and self-service terminals. The bootable image of the distribution is 140 MB (x86_64).
The basic build includes only the minimum set of components necessary to run a web browser (Firefox and Chrome are supported), which has limitations to prevent undesirable activities in the system (for example, changing settings is not permitted, downloading/installing applications is blocked, and access is limited to selected pages). Additionally, specialized Cloud builds are offered for comfortable web application usage (Google Apps, Jolicloud, OwnCloud, Dropbox) and a ThinClient for functioning as a thin client (Citrix, RDP, NX, VNC, and SSH) and Server for managing the network of kiosks.
Configuration is done through a special wizard that merges with the installer and allows for the preparation of a customized version of the distribution for placement on a USB flash drive or hard disk. For example, you can set a default homepage, define a whitelist of allowed websites, set a password for guest access, determine an inactivity timeout to end the session, change the background image, customize browser appearance, add additional plugins, enable wireless network support, configure keyboard layout switching, etc.
During boot, system components are verified against checksums, and the system image is mounted in read-only mode. Updates are automatically installed using the mechanism for creating and atomically replacing the entire system image. Centralized remote configuration of a group of standard internet kiosks is possible with network-based configuration loading. Due to its small size, by default, the distribution loads entirely into RAM, significantly increasing operational speed.
In the new release:
- Software versions are synchronized with the Gentoo repository as of March 20. This includes updated packages with Linux kernel 5.15.28, Chrome 98.0.4758.102, and Firefox 91.7.1.
- Support has been added for importing certificates in DER format via the parameter 'import_certificates='.
- Hardware acceleration for video decoding has been utilized when displaying videos and web pages during screen locking.
- The ability for dynamic external configuration generation has been implemented, which can be loaded by passing the parameter 'kiosk_config=URL', for example, 'kiosk_config=https://domain.com/kiosk-config.php?device=nuc&sound=0.3'.
- By default, the OpenH264 plugin is enabled in Firefox, which can be useful for video transmission using WebRTC.
- The 'cec-client' utility has been added for managing screen connections via the HDMI port.
- The number of network connection clients installed during boot to the Porteus Kiosk Server has been reduced from 5 to 3, which has allowed for a reduction in load when running multiple clients simultaneously. server when multiple clients are launched.
- Using keyboard shortcuts that are blocked by default in the system to switch keyboard layout is prohibited.
- The order of loading backup graphics drivers in case of failure when starting the X server has been changed to: modesetting, fbdev, and vesa.
Source: opennet.ru
