Porteus Kiosk Edition Changelog

What's new in Porteus Kiosk Edition 4.9.0

Sep 16, 2019
  • Added support for setting default zoom level in the Firefox and Chrome browsers.
  • Session idle function can lock the session instead of restarting it.
  • Its possible to select large mouse cursors theme for the system.
  • Screen locking button can be also present in the 'shutdown menu' if its enabled in the kiosk config.
  • Report remote config name to Porteus Kiosk Server so its easier to find which kiosk is pointed to which config.
  • Upgraded GRUB bootloader to latest version from git. This was needed to boot some CoffeLake and GeminiLake systems which supports EFI firmware only.
  • Resolved issues with parsing specific proxy pac files.
  • Added random delay to the PK Server tunnel initialization script. This is needed to lower the impact on Porteus Kiosk Server resources in case of large number of clients connecting to it at the same time (e.g. when server is rebooted or network is down temporarily).
  • Default to 'client_id=automatic' when 'client_id' parameter is missing, is set to a string instead of a number or the number Eis not in range 1024-65535.
  • Hide 'onscreen buttons' under the screensaver window when browser is restarted through the 'session_idle=' parameter.
  • 'refresh_webpage=' parameter: do not prevent restarting the session when 'session_idle_forced' parameter is enabled.
  • Added 'guest' user to the 'usb' and 'plugdev' groups so it's possible to connect to the mobile phones and photo cameras in order to download the files from them.
  • Added 'guest' user to the 'cdrom' group by default so its possible to play DVDs/Audio CDs in kiosk.
  • 'screensaver_video' parameter: applied a fix so it works properly on rotated screens.
  • Disabled 'Ctrl+Shift+N' key shortcut by default when Chrome works with navigation bar disabled to prevent opening a new browser instance in a new, normal mode window. This bug affected only kiosks with private mode enabled.
  • Disabled 'Ctrl+period' and 'Ctrl+semicolon' key shortcuts by default when Chrome has navigation bar disabled to prevent restarting the browser by the kiosk users.
  • Added '-nomodtweak' switch to the VNC service startup script in order to resolve 'Shift' key related problems.
  • 'homepage_append=mac' parameter: do not proceed with booting until IP address its assigned by DHCP server otherwise MAC address can not be determined.
  • 'screensaver video' parameter: detect screen size properly for the video outputs which are marked as 'primary' in the xrandr output.
  • 'additional_components=07-java.xzm' parameter: removed as Firefox 68 do not support java NPAPI plugin anymore.
  • 'managed_bookmarks' parameter: enable bookmarks toolbar even when when navigation bar is disabled in the Firefox browser.
  • Firefox: disabled hidden files from viewing through the file protocol.
  • Firefox: disabled middle mouse click by default when browser works with navigation bar disabled so its not possible to open new tabs when clicking on the hyperlinks.
  • 'silent_printing' parameter: make it available only for Chrome browser as this function is currently broken on Firefox.
  • 'disable_zoom_controls' parameter: disabled 'Ctrl+0' (zoom reset) keyboard shortcut, this is to prevent the case when zoom level is changed by the admin and kiosk users should not be able to reset it back to default value.
  • 'session_idle_forced' parameter: do not display 'session restart' warning as this parameter is used mostly for digital signage where system notifications are not needed.
  • 'session_idle' parameter: wait up to 30 seconds for the user to cancel session restart/lock, increase from 5 seconds.
  • 'homepage_check' parameter: restart network service approx every 10 minutes if homepage is not found.
  • 'client_id=automatic' parameter: ensure the targeted port on the server side is not already used by other kiosk or server process when registering new client ID.
  • 'client_id=automatic' parameter: execute 'grep' utility with a '-w' flag to properly find and reuse client IDs from deleted kiosks.
  • Citrix Receiver: xorg-server-1.20.x fullscreen issue seems to be fixed in latest version so we have removed our own tweaks for emulating the fullscreen mode.
  • Enabled dictionary on the xvkbd virtual keyboard by default.
  • Initrd: never clear the screen when booting with 'kernel_parameters=debug' parameter enabled. We need to see kernel oopses and crashes caused by drivers loaded later in the booting process by udev.
  • Kiosk wizard: properly list Access Points which contain spaces in SSID. This bug affected only fallback 'iw' utility which is used in environments with over hundred APs in range.
  • Kiosk wizard: moved 'Set time' utility from the wifi setup window to the final network configuration window as incorrect system time may affect also wired connections (kiosk may assume that SSL certificates expired on our domain and prevent connection).
  • Kernel config: set Hyper-V framebuffer to FullHD resolution by default as userspace can not control the screen size on Hyper-V virtual machines.
  • Cloud/ThinClient variants: do not remount the device automatically when 'Eject removable devices' button is pressed.
  • Other fixes and improvements.

New in Porteus Kiosk Edition 4.8.0 (Jan 21, 2019)

  • Added support for the 'onscreen buttons' to the Firefox browser. This feature resolves the case when navigation bar is disabled, user enters a non whitelisted page and is not able to go back to previously viewed page. Other buttons like e.g. launch scanner application, unmount removable media which is mounted read-write, etc ccould be added to the buttons menu in a customized build.
  • Its possible to set default paper size for the printer. 'A4' and 'Letter' sizes are available in the wizard by default but other ones (you need to find which are supported by certain printer driver) are supported too by the 'paper_size=' parameter.
  • Added support for the 'fbdev' (framebuffer) DDX driver which in some cases - depending on the GPU card - offers higher screen resolution than the VESA driver.
  • Its possible to set a custom port number on which the VNC service will be listening. This feature is important for kiosks which are connected directly to the internet (e.g. through the dialup modems) and are not protected by the NAT or the firewall. Non default VNC port helps avoiding brute force attacks performed by the internet bots.
  • Added remote kiosk config name to the debug report. For security reasons we cant reveal full kiosk config location, however - config name should be enough for the admins to figure out which remote config the kiosk is currently using.
  • Set the timezone before the rsyslog and cron daemons are started.
  • Allow 'screensaver_webpage' to work with webpage stored on a local filesystem, e.g. 'screensaver_webpage=file:///opt/www/index.html'.
  • 'screensaver_video' and 'screensaver_webpage' parameters will properly handle URLs containing the '&' sign.
  • Added localization files from the 'libX11' package so Citrix Receiver could work correctly with non english keyboard layouts.
  • Remmina will remember connection passwords (SSH, VNC, RDP, etc) when persistence is set to full.
  • Fixed full persistence not working when kiosk was installed on some eMMC and NVME devices (/dev/mmcblk2 and /dev/nvme0n2 nodes respectively).
  • Fallback to the 'iw' utility for scanning for available wireless networks when there are 100+ Access Points in the range.
  • Wait up to 120 seconds for the gateway as some rare setups require starting the local dhcp server first and many times the kiosk is faster.
  • Wait 4 seconds before rotating the touch input as some screens are slow to initialize.
  • Fixed calibration not working for touch controllers containing '®' symbol in their name.
  • Fixed calibration not working for touch controllers containing additional spaces in their names. Example: "ELO Touch Solutions ELO Touch Solutions AccuTouch 2218" has two spaces between "Solutions" and "ELO" strings.
  • Run Citrix window in maximized mode instead of fullscreen as it causes 100% CPU usage with Xorg Server 1.20.x. Unfortunately all Citrix versions are affected with this bug and its several months old already so we are not sure when it will be fixed by upstream.
  • 'session_idle=' parameter must kill also the Ctirix session.
  • Delete caches folder when screensaver webpage and video is closed to free up the space in the RAM.
  • Start VNC service with 10 seconds delay to allow clipboard sharing between the host and the VNC clients.
  • Added support for xterm-256color terminals for ncurses based apps (alsamixer, Midnight Commander, etc) which could be run over SSH.
  • Added mc="mc -u" alias to disable subshell otherwise Midnight Commander application starts slowly on the ash shell.
  • Added wifi firmware needed for Surface Pro 2s laptops.
  • Initrd: do not search for the GPU driver if PCI bus in not available (Hyper-V Gen2 platform and some ARM boxes).
  • Busybox: added aliases support to the 'ash' shell.
  • Kiosk wizard: ask for confirmation when restarting the wizard, this is to prevent accidental restarts and losses of wizard choices. Make proxy.pac file working in case when it returns the 'DIRECT' connection (no proxy used).
  • Kernel config: enabled support for Hyper-V Gen2 platform.
  • Other fixes and improvements.

New in Porteus Kiosk Edition 4.7.0 (Jun 18, 2018)

  • Porteus Kiosk changes including Cloud and ThinClient variants:
  • Added support for refreshing browser webpage with defined time interval. This is useful for digital signage purposes.
  • Its possible to explicitly set the shutdown options which should be present in the kiosk shutdown menu. You can allow the users to e.g. reboot the kiosk or restart the session but they wont be able to shutdown the PC fully.
  • Screen rotation function has been split from more complex 'screen_settings' parameter. Handy if you want to just rotate the screen on different kiosk setups and want to avoid providing other screen attributes like vide output name, screen resolution, refresh rate or position.
  • Enabled "DRI3" and "TearFree" features on Intel DDX driver by default which should result in a smooth video playback and scrolling on rotated screens.
  • USB devices (e.g. smart cards) are redirected to Citrix session by default.
  • Added vorbis and speex codecs so Citrix Receiver can use them for compressing audio and lowering network usage.
  • ".ica" files are associated with Citrix Receiver in the Chrome browser. Standalone Citrix app opens now automatically after clicking on the ".ica" file.
  • Kiosk wizard: do not ask for the client ID, SSH and VNC details when pointing kiosk to existing remote config hosted on Porteus Kiosk Server. These details does not matter at the installation stage as kiosk will be reconfigured anyway as per remote config settings. Installation of multiple clients is much faster now.
  • Default to first proxy IP in case when multiple proxies are returned by the proxy PAC files.
  • 'haveged' daemon is started by default to remedy low-entropy conditions.
  • Latest 'freerdp' package allows connecting to recently upgraded Windows systems over RDP protocol.
  • System upgrade/reconfiguration notification is be visible all the time so users are aware that there is an action happening in the background.
  • Kernel config: enabled touchpad compatibility layer for older hardware, added support for DM-Crypt so its possible to encrypt partitions or files with cryptsetup, enabled retpoline support.
  • Enabled flashplayer by default for Chrome browser when 'screensaver_url=' parameter is used.
  • Replaced '--start-fullscreen' with '--kiosk' flag for Chrome screensaver to get rid of 'Press F11 to exit fullscreen' notification.
  • Made 'Cancel' button the same size as other buttons in the shutdown menu so its easier to press this button on touch monitors.
  • Kiosk wizard: repeat calibration twice for touch devices with swapped axes. This is needed to get accurate calibration data.
  • Unblock 'Ctrl + left mouse click' during installation so its possible to select multiple devices for calibration.
  • Kill old VNC connections before restarting vnc service.
  • Always rotate touch input if at least one screen is rotated.
  • Make stunnel daemon aware of 'proxy_exceptions=' parameter when connecting to PK Server.
  • Fixed 'managed_bookmarks=' parameter being ignored in the PCID section of remote config.
  • List SDIO devices in the debug report.
  • Other fixes and improvements.
  • Porteus Kiosk Server version "Premium" changes:
  • Implemented 'Send notification' action in the Administration Panel so its possible to send a message to multiple clients. You can define if notification message should disappear automatically after 5 seconds, only after an user click or be displayed in a loop until the kiosk is restarted. Its also possible to play a sound when notification appears on the screen.
  • 'Wake On LAN' function should also wake the kiosks which are in different subnets than Porteus Kiosk Server.
  • Added 'History' function to the 'Custom command' action so its possible to rerun previously executed commands.
  • Its possibile to insert additional info to the 'offline client' notification email.
  • Added option to export client list (with last stored data also for offline clients) to a CSV file.
  • Default firewall rules can be changed in the firewall editor.
  • Keep selected settings persistent in the screen configuration utulity.
  • Added 'Restore default resolution' button to the screen setup utility.
  • Fixed a bug which prevented creating and editing kiosk configs containing the 'Save' string.
  • Remove scripts from persistent storage related to server parameters as these parameters may be are no longer active in case when server was reconfigured.

New in Porteus Kiosk Edition 4.6.0 (Jan 15, 2018)

  • Major software upgrades in this release include: Linux kernel 4.14.13, Mozilla Firefox 52.5.3 ESR and Google Chrome 63.0.3239.132. Packages from the userland are upgraded to portage snapshot tagged on 20180114.
  • Refreshing the client list in the Administration Panel is up to 10 times faster. Porteus Kiosk Server should be able to handle 5000 clients and more depending on it's hardware specification.
  • Porteus Kiosk Server gained support for real time monitoring of the client resources. Following data can be pulled from the clients: current usage of the CPU, RAM, swap, root (virtual filesystem), persistent partition, CPU temperature, downloaded/uploaded data and client uptime. Data are presented in the Administration Panel and updated every 2 seconds. Its possible to sort the client list by specific categories, e.g. highest CPU usage and select which clients and resources should be monitored.
  • VNC daemon can display a popup window prior to establishing a VNC connection and ask the kiosk user if incoming conneciton should be allowed, reject or allowed in a view-only mode. This is required in countries where unnoticed VNC connection are prohibited by law.
  • First run wizard has the ability to run virtual keyboard (xvkbd) which helps to configure the system for touchscreens or when no real keyboard is attached to the PC during the installation.
  • When battery capacity reaches 10% then system plays a notification sound and displays a popup window which must be clicked to disappear.
  • Intel and AMD microcodes are compiled directly into kernel so they loaded early in the booting process. This is a requirement for never CPUs.
  • Full persistence works now when kiosk is installed on NVME devices.
  • Switched i915 Mesa (3D) driver from gallium to classic version as gallium one causes Firefox tabs to crash on Intel Alviso (gen3) GPUs on certain websites.
  • Other bugfixes and improvements.

New in Porteus Kiosk Edition 4.5.0 (Sep 5, 2017)

  • Added support for EAP over LAN (802.1x) authentication on wired connections.
  • VNC and SSH daemons can be limited to listening on localhost interface. This is useful from security point of view as nobody can access the kiosk on public network interface. Mind that you'll have to use another service: Porteus Kiosk Server, Guacamole, NoVNC, etc in order to tunnel VNC or SSH traffic to kiosk's localhost interface.
  • Its possible to calibrate multiple touchscreen devices which are connected to kiosk.
  • Cloud and ThinClient systems no longer expose shutdown options by default. Its required to explicitly enable shuttdown menu in kiosk configuration in order to allow restarting or powering off the PC by the users.
  • WPA supplicant will run on all available wireless network interfaces and not only the first one. This is handy if primary wifi card does not work properly (hardware failure, unstable connection, mising driver/firmware) and you want to use wifi dongle as replacement.
  • Tunneling service to Porteus Kiosk Server is started as a daemon rather than a script. When demonized the tunelling process can survive Xorg session restart and system runlevel change.
  • Added support for email notifications to Porteus Kiosk Server. For now the only supported notification is when client goes offline for specific time period.
  • Its possibe to sort client list by categories (system/kernel version, browser, last connected time, etc) in the view settings of the Administration Panel.
  • Other bugfixes and improvements.

New in Porteus Kiosk Edition 4.4.0 (Jun 11, 2017)

  • Linux kernel 4.9.30, Mozilla Firefox 52.1.2 ESR and Google Chrome 58.0.3029.110.
  • Packages from the userland are upgraded to portage snapshot tagged on 20170526.
  • Online or local webpage can be used as the screensaver.
  • Swap partition has been replaced with more flexible swap file.
  • Its possible to set custom printer name in the system.
  • Added support for hosting SSL certificates directly on Porteus Kiosk Server.
  • Enabled CloudPrinting by default for Porteus Kiosk Cloud/ThinClient variants utilizing Chrome browser.
  • All plugins for Chrome are enabled by default including "Widevine Content Decryption Module" so its possible to watch e.g. Netfilx movies.
  • Create virtual mode on headless kiosks so its possible to connect to them through the VNC service.
  • Compiled 'nvme' driver directly into kernel so our systems can be booted from the NVME devices.
  • Other bugfixes and improvements.

New in Porteus Kiosk Edition 4.3.0 (Mar 13, 2017)

  • paramter 'client_id=automatic' will automatically asign the client ID to the kiosk - no need for manual configuration per device. This parameter makes client installation easier and faster especially for large deployments.
  • activated 'serial' backend for CUPS printing service by default. Some usb printers require it for direct connection.
  • if kiosk installation fails then debug info will be displayed in the browser in order to help identifying the problem, e.g. I/O errors on target device
  • added warning when there may be not enough RAM available on the PC to perform system installation. Kiosks with 512MB of RAM may fail the installation if large components (e.g. Java) are enabled in the wizard.
  • system reconfiguration/upgrade will be skipped if ISO is burned on non writable media
  • system reconfiguration/upgrade will eb skipped if ISO was manually burned on a partition (e.g. /dev/sda1) while it should be burned on a device (e.g. /dev/sda)
  • added OpenDNS as secondary DNS server in the installation wizard for static IP configurations. It will be used as a fallback to Google DNS.
  • if bookmark name is not defined in the 'managed_bookmarks=' parameter and the page title is not available then default to the raw URL for the bookmark name
  • set hostname before starting rsyslog so proper kiosk hostname is saved in the logs
  • dropped obsolete Chrome policies: DisableSpdy, DnsPrefetchingEnabled from default Chrome configuration
  • rotate /var/log/x11vnc.log every day so it wont grow in size too much
  • other fixes and improvements

New in Porteus Kiosk Edition 4.2.0 (Dec 5, 2016)

  • Upgraded all system components to latest version from Gentoo stable branch including Linux kernel 4.4.36, Xorg Server 1.18.4, Mozilla Firefox 45.5.1 and Google Chrome 54.0.2840.100. Full list of packages used for creating this release can be found under this link.
  • Client files: wallpaper, screensaver slideshow images, browser preferences, proxy pac config can be hosted directly on Porteus Kiosk Server - no need to use 3rd party web hosting service anymore. Clients must be configured with relevant parameters and utilize 'server://file_name' parameter value syntax.
  • Its possible to toggle between browser tabs at specific time interval. This feature is available only when navigation bar of the browser is disabled (kiosk works in digital signage mode).
  • Screensaver slideshow can display images in random order instead of alphabetic order.
  • 'C++' and 'C--' keyboard shortcuts are deactivated when 'disable_zoom_controls=yes' parameter is used.
  • Fixed 'vga_driver=modesetting' parameter which works properly now.
  • Recompiled xf86-video-intel driver without DRI3 support as it causes issues on older Intel Alviso (gen3) GPUs.
  • Make sure the SSH tunnel connection is established fully before trying to download remote config from Porteus Kiosk Server.
  • Other fixes and improvements.
  • Porteus Kiosk Server changes:
  • allow rotating Server logs more often than once in a day
  • use Conky to monitor Server resources: CPU, RAM, storage and network utilization
  • removed 'grep' alias from /etc/bash/bashrc as grep applet from bysybox does not support '--colour=auto' option
  • make possible editing of the remote config through the Administration Panel
  • added parcellite utility which works as clipboard manager

New in Porteus Kiosk Edition 4.1.0 (Sep 5, 2016)

  • Upgraded all system components to latest version from Gentoo stable branch including Linux kernel 4.4.19, Mozilla Firefox 45.3.0 and Google Chrome 52.0.2743.116. Full list of packages used for creating this release can be find under this link.
  • In this release we have introduced two new spins of our Porteus Kiosk system: variant Cloud and variant ThinClient
  • Kiosk config can be hosted directly on Porteus Kiosk Server - no need to use 3rd party web hosting service anymore. Clients must be configured with 'kiosk_config=' parameter and utilize 'server://config_name' protocol.
  • Its possible to define custom persistence level for the guest's home folder.
  • When enabled, password manager allows remembering logins and passwords to the websites.
  • Default search engine for the browser has been changed to the Google although its still possible to set DuckDuckGo if privacy is the top priority.
  • Linux kernel used in our system can be tweaked with the help of additional kernel parameters.
  • Its possible to control the slide duration (time between loading new image) for the screensaver slideshow.
  • Managed bookmarks allows to define the bookmark name.
  • DMPS is no longer forced to turn off the monitor after 10 minutes of inactivity and you may define the time after which the monitor goes off.
  • Session idle parameter will restart whole session (Xorg) for the variants Cloud and ThinClient.
  • Wizard: Added option to preserve persistent partition, perform a quick format or completely erease the hard drive before the installation.
  • Enabled bootsplash by default for the post installation ISO.
  • Clients behind the proxy can connect to Porteus Kiosk Server properly.
  • Rsyslog replaced metalog as default logging daemon - its more configurable and supports logging to remote destinations.
  • If association with Porteus Kiosk Server is enabled then bind remote rsyslog port locally (over SSL tunnel). System logs in severity warning and above will be logged on the Server side - this is useful for proactive support.
  • Screensaver slideshow will sort the pictures according to their filename
  • Session idle: notify the user in case when activity was detected and session wont be restarted.
  • If hostname is not specified and if Kiosk Server association is enabled then use client_id as hostname.
  • Automatically eject optical disc after successful installation.
  • Add '--disable-pinch' to Chrome flags if 'disable_zoom=yes' parameter is used.
  • Kiosk config can be hosted on FTP servers.
  • List touch devices in debug report.
  • If SSH service is enabled then allow login to Porteus Kiosk Server as kiosk user only from localhost interface (force using SSL tunnel).
  • When multiple homepages are defined and 'homepage_check=' parameter is enabled then query only first homepage to prevent "homepage is not available" message.
  • Fixed 'scheduled_actions=' parameter not working correctly when hour or minute was staring with '0' number (e.g. 09:04).
  • Make sure that authorized_keys file was copied correctly from Porteus Kiosk Server.
  • Fixed character conversion issue for Citrix Receiver.
  • Stunnel: reduced logging level from "warning" to "critical" to get rid of warning entries flooding the log when remote server is down.
  • Block 'Ctrl+p' key combination if printing component is not enabled.
  • Update DNS settings properly when dialup connection is used.
  • Session idle: prevent very first browser restart if no user activity is detected.
  • Blocked Shift+Enter key combination by default as it was opening a new Firefox window when user clicked on download link and then pressed Shift+Enter.
  • Do not mount removable device and start the browser if session is locked by the "session password" window.
  • Recompiled hplip package with scanner and fax support.
  • Make sure that ssh tunnel was established properly before forwarding client's data to the Server. This is to avoid 'password not found' error which could appear when establishing VNC connection from Administration Panel to the client.
  • Escape '?' character for Firefox's whitelist/blacklist functions so URLs containing this characters are handled correctly.
  • Do not start splash screen if 'debug' kernel parameter is used.
  • Disabled geolocation and OCSP services for Firefox as they make troubles for kiosks which uses proxies with authentication (long wait for a timeout when connecting to Mozilla services).
  • Keep cron logs in a separate file so they wont be flooding main system log.
  • Added following new packages: c_rehash, hicolor-icon-theme, json-c, libestr, liblogging, net-snmp, rsyslog, sane-backends, startup-notification.
  • Enabled new busybox applets: eject, mktemp.
  • Other fixes and improvements.
  • Porteus Kiosk Server changes:
  • added 'Remote Management' tab to the Administration Panel for handling kiosk configs through the Server
  • added second tab for logging system events (warnings and above) from the kiosk clients.
  • added 'Reconnect' button which temporarily drops all client connections to the server. This is useful in case of having connection problems or to update clients data.
  • display browser version in the browser column of the Administration Panel
  • display client's kernel version in the Administration Panel
  • enabled startup notifications for the launchers
  • custom commands are preceded with 'nohup' so they continue executing even when ssh is disconnected
  • added back 'restart session' option (client must run latest kiosk version from automatic updates channel in order to support this feature properly)
  • added confirmation window to 'reboot/shutdown client' options
  • Administration Panel can be resized and maximized. Useful when you want to monitor many clients without scrolling the window.
  • added 'Help' button to the 'Client Logs' and 'Remote Management' tabs in the Administration Panel which points to the webpage which explains how these features work
  • removable devices are mounted with read-write access

New in Porteus Kiosk Edition 4.0.0 (May 30, 2016)

  • Added support for setting default microphone in case you have multiple capture devices in the system.
  • Its possible to download screensaver slideshow ZIP archive every X minutes. This is useful if you need to update the slideshow often and want to do this quickly without rebooting the kiosk.
  • Import certificates function has been extended to support also Citrix Receiver certificates.
  • Added 'launch network wizard' applet to the first run wizard which allows to cancel waiting on the connection and repeat network setup procedure.
  • /media location is displayed in the filepicker left side panel so its easier to find where removable media were mounted.
  • Fallback to 'uvesafb' driver for boot splash when native framebuffer driver is not available.
  • Fixed installation on SD cards which broke after switching to the GRUB bootloader.
  • Disabled 'horizontal overscroll' in Chrome as this feature may cause privacy concerns.
  • Many other bugfixes and improvements.

New in Porteus Kiosk Edition 3.7.0 (Feb 29, 2016)

  • Upgraded all system components to latest version from Gentoo stable branch including Linux kernel 4.4.3, xorg-server 1.17.4, Mozilla Firefox 38.6.1 and Google Chrome 47.0.2526.111. We have moved early to kernel 4.4.x LTS line as we need better support for Intel Skylake processors. Full list of packages used for creating this release can be find under this link.
  • Kernel and userland packages are compiled for i586 architecture, that means Porteus Kiosk does not support i486 CPUs anymore.
  • Added support for RTC wake alarm which allows powering up the kiosk at certain hour:minute within each day of the week. PC motherboard must support this feature and 'Wake up events' must be enabled in the BIOS/EFI firmware in order to get this function working properly.
  • Its possible to protect the kiosk or server session with a password. Only authorized users can access the browser/administration panel and use the system.
  • Zoom controls and "pinch to zoom" touch gesture can be disabled to prevent the users from changing zoom level in the browser.
  • Added support for running custom command during system startup. It can be used for various purposes, e.g. configuring the touchpad, rsyncing offline content, displaying kiosk IP address.
  • In case of problems with the display its possible to use alternate 2D DDX driver: modesetting or vesa.
  • Import certificates function can load certificates directly from .crt and .pem files.
  • Porteus Kiosk Server changes:
  • - when version "Premium" is selected in the installation wizard then allow for setting following system parameters: time zone, keyboard layout, screen resolution, default sound card/sound volume, activate DPMS, disable UEFI support, additional fonts, allow accessing the server through the SSH and VNC protocols
  • - increased support fo simultaneous VNC connections from 99 to 10k
  • - handle VNC connections to the kiosk client properly when VNC access to the server is enabled
  • - added 'Server docs' button to Administration Panel which opens the browser on http://porteus-kiosk.org/server.html (and server related documentation in the future)
  • - added cifs package so its possible to mount SMB shares from server command line
  • - check for server updates every 24h and display notification asking for reboot if new system version is found
  • - added GUI option for sending custom command (e.g. notification) to the client
  • - disabled VBox guest additions version check notification
  • Disabled system messages to make the kiosk booting process quieter. Warnings and errors are displayed only when something goes wrong. Notifications are displayed when kiosk reconfigures/upgrades itself.
  • Use 1MB for the block size when burning the ISO during installation/reconfiguration/upgrade making this operation significantly faster.
  • Added md5sum check of main system components after burning the ISO on the storage media. If md5sum does not match then burning is repeated up to 3 times.
  • Kiosk Wizard: added video tutorial button presenting how to save and load kiosk config/ISO from removable device,
  • PXE Boot: added statically linked SSL helper which allows downloading kiosk config or modules from SSL protected sites.
  • Wizard improvements: added possibility for restarting the main wizard window in case when configuration went wrong.
  • Kernel config: enabled i586 architecture by default, added support for Microsoft Hyper-V virtualization platform, enabled UVESA driver, CIFS protocol (Windows network shares), IP Multicast feature which is needed for receiving RTP/UDP video streams, compiled MPT drivers into kernel so its possible to install kiosk on SCSI/SAS hard drives in VMware and VirtualBox.
  • Enabled following busybox applets: gzip, gunzip, tty, zcat.
  • Added following new packages: attr, coreutils, fbv, libXv, libcap, liberation-fonts, libvncserver, openldap, wmctrl, v86d, xf86-video-amdgpu
  • Fixed kiosk client -> Porteus Kiosk Server communication when ssh services are working on non default ssh port.
  • Generate system report only once when debug mode is enabled.
  • Managed bookmarks: if bookmark title is not discovered automatically then use URL as a title instead of the generic 'Bookmark' name.
  • Eliminated a number of fault conditions when underscore sign was used in kiosk parameter values.
  • Kill the process which hides the mouse cursor properly when exiting screensaver slideshow/video.
  • Fixed touchscreen calibration/rotating for touch controllers which reports two input devices (e.g. PQLabs EN320006897).
  • Remote config: allow for [[GLOBAL]] and [[PCID]] strings with no space between the bracket and data.
  • 'browser_preferences=' parameter appends Firefox preferences to user.js instead of overwriting it.
  • Fixed time calculation in the screensaver script - it can run now continuously for 11 500 days.
  • Remove whitespaces at the end of the parameters in the kiosk config prior to parsing. This bug was breaking for example 'printer_connection=' parameter.
  • Kiosk Wizard: save manual edits to kiosk config when user clicks on the 'save config' button.
  • Run wget with '-U Mozilla' flag when doing the homepage check as some http servers reject connection when user agent is not set for the client.
  • Google Chrome: disable 'pinch to zoom' touch gesture by default when navigation bar is disabled.
  • Handle displays with dash in name (e.g. VGA-0) properly when 'screen_settings=' parameter is provided and screen positioning function is used.
  • Recompiled openbox without xinerama support so applications get maximized across all available screens in mulit seat setup (e.g. video wall).
  • Inject 'file:///tmp' to the whitelist automatically if 'screensaver_video=' parameter is used.
  • Start screensaver video with 'always on top' attribute so its not covered by restarted browser when 'browser_idle=' function is active.
  • Mozilla Firefox: disabled 'restore previous session' feature which shows up when session persistence is enabled and browser crashes or is restarted by the 'browser_idle=' parameter.
  • Other fixes and improvements.

New in Porteus Kiosk Edition 3.6.0 (Dec 1, 2015)

  • Implemented support for associating the kiosk clients with Porteus Kiosk Server - our brand new operating system which allows monitoring, accessing and managing the clients even if they are placed behind a NAT, proxy or firewall.
  • Added support for injecting or replacing default browser preferences with a text file hosted on the network. For Firefox browser you may use all preferences listed in "about:config". All supported Chrome policies can be find here: link.
  • Online video file can be used as a screensaver instead of the 'Ripples' screensaver or the slideshow.
  • Added support for session persistence which prevents wiping user data during browser restarts.
  • Right mouse click state (enabled/disabled) can be controlled through the wizard.
  • Its possible to share kiosk printer in the network so other PCs could use it.
  • Added opensource 3D drivers for playing online games and other WebGL usage.
  • Enabled mp4 (h264 codec) playback in the html5 "video" tag by default in the Firefox browser.
  • Added support for remote management when kiosk is booted over the network.
  • Introduced support for local scripts which should be run once networking is initialized and during kiosk shutdown.
  • System displays a warning when battery reaches 10% and repeats it every 60 secs until AC is connected.
  • Increased Kiosk Wizard window size to 800x600 resolution.
  • Many other bugfixes and improvements.

New in Porteus Kiosk Edition 3.5.0 (Sep 2, 2015)

  • Upgraded all system components to latest version from Gentoo stable branch including Linux kernel 4.1.6, Mozilla Firefox 38.2.1 and Google Chrome 44.0.2403.157. Full list of packages used for creating this release can be find under this link.
  • Implemented support for nested configurations in remote management.
  • Added support for managed bookmarks which enables bookmarks bar in the browser with with predefined set of webpages.
  • SSL certificates can be imported automatically from provided URLs.
  • Slideshow of images can be used instead of default screensaver.
  • Video outputs can be disabled or set in certain position to create for example a 'video wall' for digital signage.
  • Touchscreen calibration can be performed directly through the wizard.
  • Implemented support for "static IP to address mappings" to resolve problems with non fully qualified domain names.
  • Mac address or hostname can be appended to the homepage url - useful for kiosk tracking purposes.
  • Homepage check function will check availiablity of the homepage prior to launching the browser. Predefined notification message is displayed when when the homepage is not available.
  • Added support for restarting the browser periodically when user activity is not detected.
  • Mouse cursor can be hidden after certain number of seconds.
  • Silent printing prevents the users from changing printing related settings.
  • Added support for proxy exceptions.
  • Wizard improvements: its possible to setup keyboard layout early as the very first step of kiosk configuration, MAC address of the wifi card is displayed in the wizard, its possible to setup hardware clock to current date/time, you can test can test additional functions (default sound card, sound volume level, shutdown menu, screen settings, screensaver ripples/slideshow) before creating final configuration, printers list is as split per manufacturers brand, its possible to generate short system report before installing the kiosk.
  • When private mode is disabled for Google Chrome then following functions are enabled by default: form autofilling, editing bookmarks (bookmark bar is always enabled), applications, spellcheck, sync, translate, signing into the profile.
  • Integrated Foomatic database with support for over 4k of new printer drivers and added extra drivers for thermal printers: Bematech, Bixolon, Sato, Star, Zebra.
  • Remote kiosk config is downloaded with PC ID string appended to the kiosk config URL. It allows to find out in the server logs which kiosk downloaded it.
  • Touchscreen input is rotated automatically to the position of the screen.
  • Automatically activate touch gestures in Chrome if touch capable device is found.
  • Save in real time to the kiosk config when doing manual edits in the wizard (*Save Edits* button is no longer needed).
  • Enabled native 'print preview' window for Chrome.
  • If support for removable media is enabled then whitelist 'file:///media' URL automatically.
  • Kernel config: added support for Virtio, namespaces (NET_NS, PID_NS, USER_NS) which are required for Google Chrome sandbox to work, enabled Tun/Tap driver, enabled userspace parallel port printer drivers.
  • EFI support: renamed bootx32.efi to bootia32.efi to make possible direct booting from isohybrid images (no need for EFI shell workaround).
  • Resolved PXE boot issues with gateway not being set by dhcpcd.
  • SSH keys are generated automatically with 'ssh-keygen -A' command
  • Blocked access to Firefox preferences through 'about:preferences#preferences' URL.
  • If kiosk is signed to the 'automatic updates' service then download components directly from such channel to avoid double reburn.
  • Fixed download progress bar not showing on slow networks (20 KB/s and below).
  • Do not download uefi.zip during installation if booting from UEFI ISO.
  • Apply proxy/proxypac settings immediately during installation so its possible to use browsers through proxy.
  • Blocked 'view-source:' protocol in Firefox which was giving an access to some system files (the ones readable by the user 'guest') despite of the 'file://' protocol being disabled. Blocked accessing the Firefox menu through the 'Alt' key when new browser window is opened with the tab dragging gesture.
  • Firefox tweaks: browser is started as maximized rather than fullscreen by default (this allows to launch HTML5 apps like pdf viewer, youtube video player and other in real fullscreen with no firefox navigation bar visible at the top), to restart the browser users must close its last tab - same as in Google Chrome, stop/refresh buttons are back in their original position (right side of the URL bar), disabled openh264 plugin which is needed only for video chats (Firefox Hello communication client) and would have to be downloaded during every browser restart due to license restrictions, disabled Enhanced Tiles by default, disabled HeartBeat rating system and Google SafeBrowsing service, when private mode is disabled then open new tab as 'about:newtab' rather than 'about:blank'.
  • Chrome tweaks: all preferences are managed now through the Group Policy Objects, master_preferences and chrome flags, locked down all browser settings (including chrome://*) so users can not change enything even when navigation bar is enabled, popup windows will open as maximized and decorated so its possible to close them, disabled developer tools, disabled following plugins by default: Chrome Remote Desktop Viewer, Native Client, Widevine Content Decryption Module, enabled controling of the 'file://' protocol through the 'enable_file_protocol=yes' kiosk setting, enabled blacklisting/whitelisting through the 'blacklist=' and 'whitelist=' kiosk settings.
  • Close 'shutdown menu' when going back from sleep.
  • Removed Chinese/Japanese/Korean layouts from the keyboard mapping list in the wizard as they need external input method application not supported in kiosk by default.
  • Other fixes and improvements.

New in Porteus Kiosk Edition 3.4.0 (Jun 1, 2015)

  • Added initial support for Google Chrome as an alternative browser to Mozilla Firefox. Please mind that supported features vary between the browsers.
  • Updated UEFI component to support PCs equipped with 32bit EFI firmware.
  • Kiosk Wizard offers a possibility of loading and saving the kiosk config on removable devices.
  • Kiosk ISO can be saved on removable device rather than uploaded to the online storage in case when generated ISO is meant to run on a different PC.
  • System will discover and scale smaller screen automatically in case when second monitor is connected and there is a mismatch in resolution between internal/external video outputs.
  • Optical media formatted with ISO9660 and UDF filesystems are automounted when 'removable devices' support is enabled.
  • Allowed powering off the PC by pressing the power button if 'shutdown menu' feature is not enabled in the wizard. If user has a physical access to the PC case then can force kiosk shutdown by holding the button for 5 secs. Its better to power off the machine gently.
  • Disabled 'search for text when i start typing' in Firefox preferences so kiosk can work with bar code scanners out of the box.
  • Switched to 'ripples' screensaver which looks nicer and does not leave any distortions on the screen when running for longer periods.
  • Custom resolution is set on all active displays and not just the first one.
  • Many other bugfixes and improvements.

New in Porteus Kiosk Edition 3.3.0 (Mar 2, 2015)

  • Upgraded all system components to latest version from Gentoo stable branch including linux kernel-3.18.8, xorg-server-1.16.4 and mozilla-firefox-31.5.0. Full list of packages used for creating this release can be find under this link.
  • Introduced Central Management which allows to control multiple kiosks from one configuration file stored on your server.
  • Implemented support for WPA2 Enterprise (EAP-PEAP) wireless authentication method and 2G/3G dialup connections. Special thanks to Danielle Otto from University of Wisconsin Whitevater and Dr Viral Bhatt for helping with implementation of these features.
  • Added support for automounting of removable devices formatted with FAT*, NTFS, XFS and ISO9660 filesystems under the /media folder. Internal volumes stays hidden, removable devices are mounted as 'read-only' and opened in a separate firefox tab. This feature allows to view or upload pictures/pdf/text files in kiosk. It's not possible to save anything on removable devices by default.
  • Implemented 'scheduled tasks' which allows to shutdown/reboot the PC or do any other atcion at certain day/hour/minute in the week.
  • Citrix Receiver is now available as an additional component in the wizard. Right mouse click is re-enabled when working with remote applications and stays disabled for other kiosk components.
  • Added an option to allow popup windows in firefox.
  • Its possible to disable 'private mode' for firefox so logins, passwords, cookies, caches, etc are saved during the session. Browser restart still brings a clean session.
  • Added an option to select default system soundcard. This feature comes useful for digital signage purposes when external display is connected to kiosk and you want to pass the sound through the HDMI or Display Port.
  • Added support for automatic proxy configuration through the PAC files.
  • Added possibility for setting custom NTP server which will be used for syncing PC hardware clock.
  • Introduced kiosk 'debug mode' which generates system report during startup.
  • Display EULA prior to activation of additional components in the wizard containing proprietary software (Adobe Flash, Citrix Receiver).
  • Display PC ID directly on the 'automatic updates' page in the wizard.
  • make_iso.sh script: show a warning about proper 'mkisofs' version needed for UEFI ISO creation.
  • Kernel config: added support for debug messages, printk, enabled PAT support which improves 2D/3D performance in some cases, enabled PPP protocol which is needed for 3g connections, enabled USB serial drivers, enabled support for more than 4 com ports which is needed for some touchscreen controllers, enabled usblp kernel module which is needed by some non standard CUPS drivers.
  • Enabled additional busybox applets: env, dirname, dmesg, fgrep, nohup, pkill, printenv, printf, pwd, realpath, seq, touch, uniq, usleep, which, whoami, xargs
  • Added following packages: ca-certificates, dbus-python, gmp, gnutls, icaclient, jimtcl, libevdev, libtasn1, libXxf86vm, nettle, ppp, python, rfkill, tofrodos, usb_modeswitch, wvdial, wvstreams
  • Fixed bug when wifi interface was named as eth1 (ipw220 driver) and kiosk could not initialize wireless connection.
  • Remove /var/log/Xorg.0.log during boot as it contains some important system information: kernel, Xorg, DDX driver version.
  • Fixed bug where homepage could not be set to a webpage chapter: homepage://some_url/#tag or when URL string contain ampersand '&' character.
  • Display notification during installation in case when never version of Porteus Kiosk ISO is available for download.
  • Allow HTML5 fullscreen api on all pages by default.
  • Set system localization to en-US.UTF8.
  • Do not create new ISO prior to installation but burn it 'on the fly'. This allows to install base kiosk ISO (no extra modules added) on a PCs with as little as 128MB of RAM.
  • Hide status bar when navigation bar is disabled.
  • Clear /tmp folder on each firefox restart to make sure that nothing persists there.
  • Unblock all wifi devices during boot with rfkill.
  • Disabled 'slow script' dialog window in firefox preferences.
  • Display a warning that kiosk needs to be reconfigured during last 10 days of the 'automatic updates' trial.
  • Set volume on all audio channels except for "*Mic*" and "*Boost*" to prevent a noise from the speakers.
  • Improved handling of network interfaces which are showing late in the system, e.g.: usb wifi dongle.
  • Save kiosk version in /etc/version so it can be checked through ssh or from URL bar if file:// protocol is enabled.
  • Enabled all firefox plugins (vlc, libreoffice, mozplugin, npica, etc) by default even if they are not available in kiosk.
  • Moved home button on the right side of the URL bar.
  • Allow insecure ntlm authentication which was disabled by upstream in firefox 30.x.
  • Reintroduced 'back/forward' buttons when address bar is disabled.
  • Do not accept VNC passwords longer than 8 characters (upstream limit) in the wizard and keep asking until shorter password is provided.
  • Check for Porteus Kiosk server accessibility before performing system update.
  • Rotate screen on all connected displays and not only on default one.
  • Switched to system proxy so all applications can use it and not only firefox.
  • Allowed outgoing traffic in the firewall on all ports by default. Incoming/forwarded traffic is still blocked as before. This is needed for proxy autoconfiguration service, browsing ftp shares, flovplayer video support, etc ...
  • Fixed listing of devices with spaces in name on the installation page in the wizard.
  • Fixed handling of WPA passwords containing spaces.
  • Fixed race condition between ssh/vnc services during kiosk startup.
  • Other fixes and improvements.

New in Porteus Kiosk Edition 3.2.0 (Dec 8, 2014)

  • Brand new and developed in house 'URL filter' which should resolve a demand for blacklisting or whitelisting certain domains and IPs.
  • Added support for 'Wake On LAN' which allows the kiosks to be powered up remotely. From now on all the kiosks can be controlled from a single PC in your office. Please mind that this is only a first step in our journey to provide a fully fledged central management service which hopefully will be ready for next major kiosk release.
  • Kiosk has improved in the 'digital signage' area: wizard 3.2.0 allows to disable input devices completely and rotate the screen in all possible directions.
  • When booting is finished, system spins down all the block media (hard drives, CDs, usb sticks, SD/MMC cards) to save energy and make the kiosk environment friendly.
  • Improved 'automatic updates' subscription which now can be performed directly on the wizard level. You still have possibility to contact our sales department directly to negotiate all the conditions of the subscription.
  • Added UEFI compatibility. UEFI component has been officially approved so if your PC is shipped with an EFI firmware then please download UEFI varianf of the ISO. To ensure maximum flexibility we have added and option to the wizard which allows to switch between the BIOS/EFI variants when performing the kiosk installation. You can convert BIOS image into UEFI one and vice versa.
  • Extended keyboard layouts with a support for variants and doubled the number of printing drivers available in the kiosk wizard database. Pretty much every printer out there should be supported by Porteus Kiosk.

New in Porteus Kiosk Edition 3.1.3 (Nov 16, 2014)

  • make sure that only .xzm modules are mounted to /union (aufs) and not other files or folders
  • added support for basic authentication for the homepage, e.g: http://user:[email protected]
  • added libwacom and libgudev libraries required by the xf86-input-wacom driver
  • disabled updates of firefox addons by default, we have none in kiosk but this setting comes handy when ISO is customized manually
  • support custom sound level through /etc/rc.d/rc.sound
  • prefer gutenprint drivers for printing but also accept other ones if gutenprint driver is not available for selected printer
  • fixed handling of the lpd:// printer URI containing authorization string
  • automatic updates: display notification that unauthorized component has been added to the ISO and kiosk can't be upgraded
  • automatic updates: display notification about current OS version when there are no updates to download

New in Porteus Kiosk Edition 3.1.2 (Oct 17, 2014)

  • updated make-iso.sh script to create 'eltorito EFI' images when efi component is present in the ISO
  • PXE boot: improved compatibility with IIS and other http servers
  • added quirk for loading 'broadcom' driver during PXE and normal boot when BCM57780 chipset is found
  • display kiosk version during boot
  • added a fix to clean the screen properly after counting (modules/seconds)
  • kernel config: added FB_EFI support
  • kiosk wizard: added possibility for 3 months free trial of the 'automatic updates' commercial service
  • security fix: deactivated 'ctrl+l' keybinding by default. When firefox's 'address bar' is disabled the user could invoke an URL window by pressing 'ctrl+l' key combination and browse to other sites through it
  • switched to MAC based authorization for dhcpcd which is persistent (MAC never changes) unlike duid in kiosk
  • updated 'xzm download' function to resolve remaining md5sum issues. After this upgrade you should never experience them anymore (they may still occur only when there is something wrong with your connection)
  • upgraded to mkisofs-3.01a24 for better UEFI compatibility

New in Porteus Kiosk Edition 3.1.1 (Aug 6, 2014)

  • once kiosk is fully booted delete unneeded and potentially risky for the kiosk stability utilities like 'wget' or 'dd'
  • disabled 'Shift+left mouse button' combination to prevent opening new firefox windows when clicked on hyperlinks. This binding is especially dangerous when the navigation bar is disabled as there is no possibility to close any windows in this mode. Multiple firefox instances could slow down the kiosk or even make it unusable
  • disabled 'Ctrl+Shift+h' keybinding which displays firefox history menu (nothing there as kiosk runs in 'private mode' by default)
  • disabled 'Ctrl+`' keybinding which allows to display previous kiosk notifications
  • export SSID as 'ssid_name=some-name' in the welcome wizard otherwise wifi networking wont be initialized
  • always put wifi interface up before scanning for available networks
  • Alt+Ctrl+Del combination will kill only previous instance of the 'kiosk shutdown' utility and not every gtkdialog application (like e.g. welcome wizard)
  • display wpa password and wep key on the welcome wizard config page
  • fixed non working hidden wifi SSIDs
  • added empty and non-executable /etc/rc.d/rc.local which can be used for running cli commands during boot
  • attended to fix a rare problem with md5sum mismatches caused by proxy which are caching and serving old kiosk components instead of letting the client download fresh ones from our server. If md5sum problem is still not fixed then please contact [email protected] for guidenance.

New in Porteus Kiosk Edition 3.1 (May 26, 2014)

  • 1) Upgraded all system components to latest stable versions: linux kernel-3.12.20, xorg-server-1.15.0, busybox-1.22.1, mozilla-firefox-24.5.0, adobe-flash-11.2.202.359, etc. For full packages list please visit this link.
  • 2) Rewritten 'Kiosk Wizard' into gtkdialog and included directly in the kiosk ISO.
  • Gtkdialog version offers unique features over the web version which are explained on the kiosk wizard page.
  • 3) Introduced an 'Automatic Updates' commercial service which turns the kiosk into a 'rolling release' distribution.
  • More info can be find at this link.
  • 4) Implemented several new functions in the wizard:
  • Added printing support for local and remote printers.
  • Added possibility of removing address bar from the firefox's UI layout. Buttons are still visible so it's possible to navigate back and forth, zoom-in, zoom-out, print, etc but it's not possible to switch to any other webpage than the home page.
  • Added possibility of controlling numlock behavior during boot.
  • Added possibility of enabling incoming ICMP protocol. This is useful when you want to monitor remotely if kiosk is up and running with the help of the ping utility.
  • Disabled DPMS (you can enable it in the wizard) as it's better to keep monitor turned on during kiosk session by default.
  • Added customizable firefox user agent which may be helpful in forcing layouts on some websites which are set to support certain browsers only (like e.g IE6) or identifying kiosk session with an unique string.
  • Added possibility of editing the config file generated by the wizard manually.
  • Added installer to the wizard so it's possible to burn the base kiosk ISO on a CD but install it on hard drive or usb stick after finishing the configuration part.
  • 5) Introduced many changes on the ISO level:
  • Enchanced security with md5sum check of every kiosk component when 'automatic updates' service is enabled. If md5sum wont match the registered value then booting will stop with a message that kiosk has detected an unauthorized access to it's components.
  • Backported multithreaded squashfs patches from kernel-3.13.x to make the kiosk even faster.
  • Updated initrdpxe.xz with firmware which may be necessary to initialize some network controllers.
  • Updated the code responsible for PXE boot which is more verbose now and it should be easier to find the reason of a failure (like http server being down).
  • Removed 'Public Fox' addon and replaced it's functionality with home grown solutions. Porteus Kiosk 3.1 does not contain any 3rd party addon by default to eliminate risk that one day they may get outdated and incompatible with firefox.
  • Added 000-kernel.xzm (split from 01-core.xzm) which should make easier to update/downgrade just the kernel in kiosk.
  • Forced 'copy2ram' by default. Kiosk ISO is very small so should fit into RAM nicely and this feature is needed for 'automatic updates' service to make sure that upgrade process wont be interrupted by the kiosk session.
  • Kiosk ISO content was simplified with three folders only: /boot, /docs and /xzm.
  • PXE boot does not support /rootcopy functionality so this folder was removed. From now on all files must be kept in the xzm modules.
  • Swapped Xdialog messages to dunstify notifications which looks more attractive.
  • Added possibility of rebooting, suspending the PC and restarting X session to the kiosk's shutdown utility.
  • 6) Other fixes and improvements not mentioned here.

New in Porteus Kiosk Edition 3.0 (Mar 12, 2014)

  • Web wizard:
  • Added possibility of shutting kiosk down by pressing a power button
  • Added basic screensaver support
  • Added possibility of setting monitor refresh rate
  • Added support for secondary keyboard layout. Use Alt+Shift key combination to switch between layouts.
  • Added support for setting firefox proxy
  • Kiosk ISO:
  • Added zoom-in and zoom-out buttons to firefox's navigation bar
  • Added up to 60 secs delay before starting wpa_supplicant so drivers have extra time to initialize the hardware
  • Added internet connection watcher which delays opening of firefox up to 30 secs (once connection is established firefox opens immediately)
  • Added missing radeon UVD firmware which was causing unnecessary delay on booting on some AMD cards
  • Added netstat utility for monitoring network connections, sockets, etc
  • Enabled numlock by default
  • Upgraded to: libdrm-2.4.51, libXfont-1.4.7 (security fix), openssl-1.0.1f (security fix), xf86-input-synaptics-1.7.3, xorg-server-1.14.5 (security fix), flashplayer-plugin-11.2.202.335 (security fix), openjre-7u51_b00 (security fix)

New in Porteus Kiosk Edition 3.0 RC2 (Feb 8, 2014)

  • Web wizard:
  • Added possibility of shutting kiosk down by pressing a power button
  • Added basic screensaver support
  • Added possibility of setting monitor refresh rate
  • Added support for secondary keyboard layout. Use Alt+Shift key combination to switch between layouts.
  • Kiosk ISO:
  • Added zoom-in and zoom-out buttons to firefox's navigation bar
  • Added 3 secs delay before starting wpa_supplicant so drivers have extra time to initialize the hardware
  • Added internet connection watcher which delays opening of firefox up to 30 secs (once connection is established firefox opens immediately)
  • Added missing radeon UVD firmware which was causing unnecessary delay on booting on some AMD cards
  • Added netstat utility for monitoring network connections, sockets, etc
  • Enabled numlock by default
  • Upgraded to: libdrm-2.4.51, libXfont-1.4.7 (security fix), openssl-1.0.1f (security fix), xf86-input-synaptics-1.7.3, xorg-server-1.14.5 (security fix), flashplayer-plugin-11.2.202.335 (security fix), openjre-7u51_b00 (security fix)

New in Porteus Kiosk Edition 3.0 RC1 (Jan 8, 2014)

  • Main ISO is based on Slackware-14.1
  • Dialog wizard has been replaced with more user friendly web version
  • Added support for setting time zones
  • Added support for setting password and view only/interactive modes to vnc module
  • Added support for setting custom ssh port, hostname and netmask

New in Porteus Kiosk Edition 2.1 (Aug 9, 2013)

  • Wizard:
  • re-enabled 'Tab' button when 'disable address bar' option is selected
  • implemented support for IP ranges in 'whitelist IP' function
  • added 'Power saving/shutdown' section to the wizard which allows to switch to one of supported power states (freeze, standby, suspend - availability depends on motherboard/BIOS) or power off PC completely after a period of inactivity.
  • ISO:
  • upgraded to linux-3.9.11
  • upgraded to xf86-video-intel-2.12.13 to resolve font rendering issues on Gen2 Intel GPUs

New in Porteus Kiosk Edition 2.0.4 (Jun 5, 2013)

  • Kiosk ISO:
  • disabled firefox's 'file://' protocol by default
  • enabled '-joliet-long' flag in /porteus/make_iso.sh to allow very long filenames to be stored inside the ISO
  • when 'copy2ram' is disabled then the /rootcopy folder is not copied to the live filesystem but injected like an xzm module, this saves RAM in case large files are placed in /rootcopy.
  • disabled Shift-F5 key combination
  • Kiosk wizard:
  • added support for whitelisting specific IPs and IP ranges. please note that the firewall must remain enabled for this feature to work.
  • added support for re-enabling 'file://' protocol. This feature is needed in cases where you want to display an offline website stored locally. The 'file://' protocol brings a security risk as system config files can be accessed from firefox so please use it with caution.
  • disabled the Shift-F6 key combination but only when a user chooses to disable firefox's "navigation bar"

New in Porteus Kiosk Edition 2.0.1 (Apr 10, 2013)

  • upgraded linux kernel to 3.8.6
  • kernel config: added support for touchscreen devices and 10Gb network cards
  • upgraded Firefox to version 20.0
  • upgraded flashplayer to version 11.2.202.275
  • added the following userspace xf86-input drivers: acecad, aiptek, elographics, mutouch, penmount
  • upgraded all xorg drivers (input, video) to latest versions
  • added drivers for better handling Porteus Kiosk in VMware Player
  • ISO fixes:
  • booting media is kept mounted after boot so ejecting the CD manually is not possible
  • fixed firefox url agent so it won't switch to the mobile version of the websites anymore
  • default ISO is no longer in the 'isohybrid' format, due to the bug described here: link.
  • Note that with this change, the default ISO can still be burned to a CD/DVD, but it cannot be installed on a flash or hard drive. For those installations, please run the kiosk wizard and select an option to convert the ISO to the isohybrid format.
  • Wizard fixes:
  • screensaver is disabled with the 'xset' utility
  • brought back the missing 'set kbd layout' and 'disable firewall' options
  • homepage URL can now contain special characters like '&'
  • added statically linked 'mkisofs' utility as Debian systems have it under different name (genisoimage) and wizard did not work under those systems
  • New features in the wizard:
  • option for shutting down firefox after a certain period of keyboard/mouse inactivity. Caches get cleared and the browser restarts when the user moves or clicks the mouse or presses any key on the keyboard.
  • create a hybrid ISO image, please make sure that your motherboard is compatible with the isohybrid format before making your custom Kiosk ISO hybr

New in Porteus Kiosk Edition 2.0 (Mar 11, 2013)

  • Safety: the kiosk edition can be booted only from the iso9660 filesystem, which is read-only by design (preventing any persistent modifications to the system). Shell terminals and VT switching are disabled. Admin and guest passwords are extremely strong, created randomly and are not known to anyone, even the kiosk creators.
  • Privacy: all personal user data is wiped each time firefox is restarted.
  • Small footprint: the kiosk edition should run well on a PC with only 128MB of RAM (when the copy2ram feature is disabled).
  • Speed: the kiosk edition loads into RAM by default, offering a robust and incredibly fast user experience.
  • zRam choice
  • Enable available swap file
  • Customizable: you can tweak settings, passwords, etc. through our "Kiosk Wizard" tool or make changes manually as the administrator (additional modules and the "rootcopy" folder are still supported in the kiosk edition).

New in Porteus Kiosk Edition 2.0 Beta (Oct 9, 2012)

  • This is the first Porteus release based on Slackware-14.0, with the addition of kernel 3.6.1 and Firefox-15.0.1. This is a 32-bit system which is entirely locked down to prevent tampering with any of the components (including the browser), making this a perfect fit for kiosks and other publicly available web terminals. The ISO is 34MB and contains only the libraries and utilities which are required to launch Firefox. Additional software may bring along security risks and affect stability in a restricted environment which is why we have removed everything else from this edition.