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PIXILAB Player with developer tools

Sometimes it is useful to create a kiosk with settings that enables some tools for trouble-shooting. SSH access to the kiosk, toolbars and developer tools can come in handy while testing scripts and hardware.

Follow the guide to build a standard kiosk but use the settings provided here.

Kiosk Configuration file

Use the text file method to configer the kiosk, edit and copy the text shown below to another FAT32-formatted USB stick. Put it at the root level of the USB stick, naming it kiosk-config-dev.txt or any other describing name.

connection=wired
dhcp=yes
browser=chrome
homepage_append=mac
homepage=http://pixi.guide/spot
disable_private_mode=yes
homepage_check=PIXLAB Blocks Server can't be reached. Please check your network connections.
wake_on_lan=yes
disable_zoom_controls=yes
persistence=session
primary_keyboard_layout=us
additional_components=uefi.zip initrdpxe.xz 08-ssh.xzm
root_password=pixi
browser_preferences=http://pixi.guide/public/chrome-policies.txt
hide_mouse=no
disable_navigation_bar=no

The differences compared to a standard setting are:

  • Add 08-ssh.xzm module to enable SSH.
  • Set root-password for SSH access.
  • Show the mouse
  • Show the navigation bar
  • Enable a chrome policy file stored on the Blocks server, with this any chrome policies can be set on the kiosks to change browser polices.

Manage Pixilab Player Chrome Policies from the Blocks server

In some cases, when using the Chrome browser with PIXILAB Player, you may need to override the browser's policies. This can be done by storing a text file named chrome-policies.txt in the directory <your-blocks-root>/public/PIXILAB_Player (where "<your-block-root>" is the location of your Blocks root directory).The path to this file is then be specified in the kiosk-config.txt file used when creating the player the, as described above. This example assumes the default domain name pixi.guide (which in your case may be another domain name, or a hardcoded IP address).

browser_preferences=http://pixi.guide/public/PIXILAB_Player/chrome-policies.txt

The "chrome-policies.txt" file must contain the following policy to be able to access the Developer tools in Chrome.

"DeveloperToolsAvailability": 1,

More information on Chrome policies and syntax can be found here.