[frgeek-michiana] Re: Kiosk computers and WebKit
- From: Phil Goldbach <shadowvar8541@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: frgeek-michiana@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 24 Jan 2010 18:49:42 -0800 (PST)
That would be in "very old machines" with a minimum of 16MB of RAM, as the
SliTaz team puts it. However, with SliTaz Loram we need only 64MB, so this is
very possible to do. The only way to find out for sure though is to try it on a
couple of old machines or so. Interestingly enough, SliTaz does not call for an
exact minimum processor speed, just says it supports processors based on the
i486 or x86. I will test the Loram and Loram CD-ROM versions tomorrow (Monday)
on my laptop to see what they've all got, we may not have to compile Firefox
into them. The script for the autostart of Firefox will need to be done. It
shouldn't be a problem to setup the homepage of Firefox to the Uplink site and
block out all other sites. Also the script to reboot the machine when Firefox
is closed will also need to be done. As far as writing these custom scripts, I
have no earthly idea on how to do that. If someone who is knowledgeable is
willing to help, it'd be
greatly appreciated, otherwise, I believe with the documentation available, I
might be able to figure it out on my own.
We could also make our own "flavor" of SliTaz and the website does include
instructions on how to do this. There's also a 998 MB (yeah, just under 1 GB)
ISO that includes all of the available packages that is generated every day.
"It also includes a copy of the website and can
be used without an internet connection via the install.sh script." That comes
in handy since we don't have internet at the warehouse. However, that means
we'd probably have to put a DVD-ROM drive in temporarily to utilize that ISO
file. Otherwise, it can just run on my laptop.
However, I think it might take more time than should be necessary to make our
own "flavor" of SliTaz, so if we just setup SliTaz on however many machines
we're going to utilize as kiosks with the custom scripts, then it should be
fine. Which does bring me to a question: With these kiosks, are we donating
them or are we going to maintain ownership of them? If we donate them, then
they are off of our hands. If we maintain ownership, then we could just leave
them at the library until we are asked or decide to pick them up. Which if we
have to pick them up, then we have to decide if we deman them (those that fail
to meet minimum specs for VL 5.9) or refurb them for VL 5.9 or perhaps set
them aside for another kiosk project. I do see that the downside to donating
them is that if a software problem arises, then I doubt anyone at the library
would know how to fix it.
See, there we go, we've taken something relatively simple and complicated
it...that's us geeks for ya. I'm sure we'll figure something out.
Phil Goldbach
"Men cry not for themselves, but for their comrades."
--- On Sun, 1/24/10, chuq jackels <chuq00@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
From: chuq jackels <chuq00@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [frgeek-michiana] Re: Kiosk computers and WebKit
To: frgeek-michiana@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Sunday, January 24, 2010, 8:15 PM
No in the build we would have to compile Firefox into it and setup a script so
when the machine powers up or reboots Firefox is loaded and on the Uplink
website.
Chuq
On Sun, Jan 24, 2010 at 6:49 PM, Mark Neddeau <mln3768@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I do have a question / concern...You said that we would only be able to run a
Text-Only Browser with that solution...I would feel that that may cause a lack
of interest in those that initially would SHOW an interest...("Well I would not
want to use LINUX, if this is the way that it would bring the Web to MY
computer...."). Just a though...
--- On Sun, 1/24/10, Phil Goldbach <shadowvar8541@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
From: Phil Goldbach <shadowvar8541@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [frgeek-michiana] Re: Kiosk computers and WebKit
To: frgeek-michiana@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Sunday, January 24, 2010, 6:30 PM
Ah.
well then, I think we have our kiosk solution. Thanks for clearing that up,
Mike.
Phil Goldbach
"Men cry not for themselves, but for their comrades."
--- On Sun, 1/24/10, Mike Cook <mikecook@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
From: Mike Cook <mikecook@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [frgeek-michiana] Re: Kiosk computers and WebKit
To: frgeek-michiana@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Sunday, January 24, 2010, 6:20 PM
What they mean is that the CD remains mounted after boot and parts of SliTaz
runs from there rather than being completely loaded into memory. That would be
fine for a kiosk, we don't really want the CD ejected anyway. I belive the
loram-cdrom flavor can only be used to install to a hard disk or flash device.
Mike
On Sun, 24 Jan 2010 15:04:36 -0800 (PST)
Phil Goldbach <shadowvar8541@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Just noticed something on the SliTaz website:
>
> "For convenience, the SliTaz team propose some ISO flavors;
> they are based on the Cooking version, but are not always
> syncronized with the standard version. The loram flavor can
> start SliTaz on machines with very little resources and needs only 64 MB
> without disabling the cdrom and
> loram-cdrom can boot using only 10 MB and a little swap memory,
> but is unable to release the cdrom.."
>
> I am unsure of what they mean by the "Loram-CDROM is unable to release the
> CDROM", unless they mean that it is uncapable of ejecting the disc.
>
> Either way, I've downloaded both Loram and Loram-CDROM, so we'll see how
> this goes.
>
> Phil Goldbach
>
>
>
> "Men cry not for themselves, but for
their comrades."
>
> --- On Sun, 1/24/10, Phil Goldbach <shadowvar8541@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> From: Phil Goldbach <shadowvar8541@xxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: [frgeek-michiana] Re: Kiosk computers and WebKit
> To: frgeek-michiana@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Date: Sunday, January 24, 2010, 5:02 PM
>
> So far, I've downloaded the SliTaz ISO, burned it to a disk, and to test it,
> put the disk into my laptop (Dell Inspirion 8200, P4 1.9 GHz processor, 768
> RAM). My laptop is quite capable of running SliTaz, but it was just a test to
> see if the copy was good. While it may be like Puppy Linux in that it loads
> into RAM, it
looks a bit like Vector. I didn't mess with any further than that, but I plan
on doing some more fiddling with it later tonight. It does boot up rather quick
and from what I can tell, this looks very viable for a kiosk OS. I'll look into
the "Slitaz Loram flavor", since that only requires 64 MB of RAM, and if we can
install that for kiosk usage, then I'd definitely put my vote forward for using
it.
>
> I do realize however, our priority is FreeBoxes, so I will focus more on the
> machines that require further testing first.
>
>
> Phil Goldbach
>
>
>
> "Men cry not for themselves, but for their comrades."
>
> --- On Sat, 1/23/10, Phil Goldbach <shadowvar8541@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> From: Phil Goldbach <shadowvar8541@xxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: [frgeek-michiana] Re: Kiosk computers and WebKit
> To: frgeek-michiana@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Date: Saturday, January 23, 2010, 4:37 PM
>
> Quoted from the SliTaz website:
>
>
> "SliTaz GNU/Linux supports all machines based on i486 or x86 Intel compatible
> processors. A minimum 256MB of memory is recommended to use the main LiveCD.
> 64MB is needed for the "slitaz-loram" flavor and 16MB for the
> "slitaz-loram-cdrom" flavor.
>
>
> With the slitaz-loram flavor, the system is less responsive, but allows you to
> graphically install SliTaz on very old machines. Once installed, SliTaz works
> well with a minimum of 16MB memory, but forget about using Firefox to surf the
> web - you'll have to use the text based 'links' for example."
>
> So this could very well work for our kiosks. I think I may download it and
> check it out, but I think we should be able to make it work. We already have
> 3 (I think) systems that can be used for kiosks since they've been difficult
> or are too low for FreeBoxes. Perhaps in addition to the FTs (further
> testing), I'll give this a shot on Tuesday as well.
>
> Phil Goldbach
>
>
>
> "Men cry not for themselves, but for their comrades."
>
> --- On Fri, 1/22/10, Mike Cook <mikecook@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> From: Mike Cook <mikecook@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: [frgeek-michiana] Re: Kiosk computers and WebKit
> To:
frgeek-michiana@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Date: Friday, January 22, 2010, 10:42 AM
>
> #yiv743121042 #yiv1319078980 #yiv1703689062 {font-family:Geneva, Arial,
> Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-family:arial,
> sans-serif;background-color:#ffffff;color:black;}#yiv743121042 #yiv1319078980
> #yiv1703689062 p{margin:0px;}Thanks, I haven't looked at SliTaz for a while.
> Last time I looked it needed 64M of memory to boot and they recommended 256M.
> It is similar to Puppy Linux in that it runs in RAM. I noticed that they have
> some excellent Docs though. Definitely worth looking at some
> more.
>
> http://www.slitaz.org/en/doc/index.html
> http://www.slitaz..org/en/doc/scratchbook/
>
> Thanks,
>
> Mike
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
> From: chuq jackels
>
> Sent: Jan 22, 2010 7:54 AM
>
> To: frgeek-michiana@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> Subject: [frgeek-michiana] Re: Kiosk computers and WebKit
>
>
>
> and here is a link to a guys post that created a kiosk with
> slitaz http://community.slitaz.org/node/74
>
>
>
> Sent from South Bend, Indiana, United States
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ I see I made it back
> home hehe
>
> On Fri, Jan 22, 2010 at 7:44 AM, chuq jackels <chuq00@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>
> Here is a really fast small distro that we could use to build the kiosk
> on. http://www.slitaz.org/en/ 30mb.. w/ gui
>
>
>
> Sent from Espoo, Southern Finland, Finland
>
>
> On Wed, Jan 20, 2010 at 11:20 AM, Mike Cook <mikecook@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>
>
> Yes, very interesting. Thanks
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
> From: Tony Germano
>
> Sent: Jan 20, 2010 10:57 AM
>
> To: frgeek-michiana@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> Subject: [frgeek-michiana] Re: Kiosk computers and WebKit
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Mike, I thought you especially might find this interesting.
>
>
>
> One of the main ports of WebKit is the GTK+
> (http://trac.webkit.org/wiki/BuildingGtk) version. On their Hacker's guide to
> WebKit/GTK+ (http://trac.webkit.org/wiki/HackingGtk) page, it mentions that
> it has been tested with both X11 and DirectFB(!!) windowing systems. I think
> this means we can have a web browser that doesn't require a running x server,
> which would be perfect for a kiosk.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> I found this page
> (http://nanl.de/blog/2009/10/gtk2-running-on-top-of-directfb-on-openwrt/)
> where someone was testing GTK apps, though not WebKit, running on ARM and
> MIPS processors with limited amounts of RAM using DirectFB rendering and
> comparing it to Xorg rendering on the same hardware. The results look
> promising :)
>
>
>
>
>
>
> <snip>
>
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--
Mike Cook <mikecook@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
** This list is PUBLICLY archived. **
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