SeniorNet Kiosk — v0.01

A fully locked-down, zero-maintenance browser kiosk for senior users running on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS Server.

Overview

The kiosk presents a single Chrome browser window with a custom floating toolbar. Seniors see only large, friendly navigation buttons and bookmarks — no browser UI, no address bar, no settings. Everything is managed remotely over SSH or Cockpit.

Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  SeniorNet Toolbar (PyQt5 overlay — always on top)  │
│  [ < Back ]  [ Forward > ]  [ HOME ]  [ Bookmarks ] │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Bookmarks Bar (scrollable, nested folder menus)    │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                     │
│           Google Chrome (--app mode)                │
│         No browser UI — content only                │
│                                                     │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

• OS: Debian Trixie
• Display: X11 + LightDM (auto-login) + Openbox WM
• Browser: Google Chrome in --app mode (no tabs/address bar)
• Toolbar: PyQt5 frameless overlay, always-on-top, 142px tall
• Browser control: Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP) over WebSocket on port 9222
• Remote management: SSH + Cockpit (port 9091)
• Remote access: Headscale (self-hosted Tailscale)

Files

File	Purpose
browser.py	Main application — PyQt5 overlay + CDP Chrome controller
bookmarks.json	Nested bookmarks (folders + links) shown in the bookmarks bar
/home/jgitta/kiosk-home/index.html	Home screen with large buttons and live clock

System Configuration Files

Path	Purpose
/etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/50-kiosk.conf	Auto-login as jgitta into Openbox session
~/.config/openbox/autostart	Launches browser.py at session start, auto-restarts on crash
/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-kiosk-hardening.conf	Blocks TTY switching and Ctrl+Alt+Backspace
/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/20auto-upgrades	Automatic unattended security updates

Chrome Launch Flags

Chrome is launched with these key flags:

--app=<HOME_URL>          # No browser UI, content only
--window-position=0,142   # Below the 142px overlay
--window-size=1920,938    # Full width, remaining height
--remote-debugging-port=9222  # CDP for toolbar control
--disable-gpu             # Required on server hardware (no GPU drivers)
--disable-dev-shm-usage   # Prevents shared memory crash
--test-type               # Suppresses unsupported-flag warning banner
--disable-features=OptimizationHints,...  # Prevents ML model cache corruption
--disable-component-update  # No background component downloads
--user-data-dir=~/.config/google-chrome-kiosk  # Dedicated kiosk profile

Hardening

• TTY switching blocked: /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-kiosk-hardening.conf sets DontVTSwitch
• X kill blocked: DontZap prevents Ctrl+Alt+Backspace
• tty2–tty6 disabled: systemctl disable getty@tty2..6
• Keyboard shortcuts blocked: Overlay intercepts Alt+F4, Ctrl+W, Ctrl+T, Ctrl+N, F11, Escape
• Auto-restart: Openbox autostart restarts browser.py within 5 seconds if it crashes
• Profile cleanup: GPU/ML caches wiped on every Chrome launch to prevent corruption

Bookmarks

Bookmarks are stored in bookmarks.json as nested JSON. Top-level items appear as buttons in the bookmarks bar. Items with a children array become folder dropdown menus.

[
  {"name": "Gmail", "url": "https://mail.google.com"},
  {"name": "News", "children": [
    {"name": "BBC News", "url": "https://www.bbc.com/news"}
  ]}
]

Edit bookmarks live through the Bookmarks button in the toolbar, or edit bookmarks.json directly via SSH.

Home Screen Buttons

Defined in /home/jgitta/kiosk-home/index.html:

• Email (Gmail)
• Internet (Google)
• Weather (AccuWeather)
• News
• Facebook
• Facebook Messenger
• YouTube

Remote Management

• SSH: ssh jgitta@192.168.88.44 (local) or ssh jgitta@kiosk-remote (via Tailscale)
• Cockpit: https://192.168.88.44:9091

Installation Summary

1. Install Ubuntu 24.04 LTS Server (minimal)
2. Install packages: python3-pyqt5 google-chrome-stable unclutter xorg openbox lightdm fonts-noto-color-emoji websocket-client
3. Configure LightDM for auto-login
4. Copy kiosk-browser/ and kiosk-home/ to /home/jgitta/
5. Place system config files (see table above)
6. Reboot

Version History

Version	Date	Notes
0.01	2026-05-21	Initial release — working kiosk with toolbar, bookmarks, hardening