Question

I want to create a C++ application that is to run on some Linux platform on a specific laptop computer. I do however not want the users of this laptop to use any other applications/system features than this program – much like the kiosk modes you would find on computers in a typical internet café.

One issue is that the laptop will be booted by the user, and such has to start my software automatically – leaving as little room as possible for the user to intervene with the process. It does not have to be completely secure, but it should be as close as possible.

What would be the best way to accomplish such a thing? Does there exist (free) Linux distributions specifically made for this (if not, I will probably use Arch Linux)? Are there any steps I could/should take in my program, or can I leave it all to the OS? Would creating my own little Linux distribution specifically for this be worth it?

Answer 1

This shouldn’t be on stackoverflow but anyway:

Run a plain X session with no window manager, into this plain X session start your program in fullscreen. Done.

I run a small XUL application this way:

X :10 &
sleep 10

DISPLAY=:10 xulrunner ~/zkfoxtemp/application.ini