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netpoint

Introduction

  • A customizable webkiosk system based on Debian-Live and Firefox (Iceweasel) or seb.

Requirements

  • Debian Linux (Wheezy recommended)
apt-get install live-build live-config live-boot
  • git
apt-get install git

Quickstart

  • get repository
cd ~
git clone https://github.com/hrz-unimr/netpoint
cd netpoint
  • edit basic config files

edit packages

config/package-lists/*.chroot

take a look at the files in the included root filesystem:

config/includes.chroot/*

Copy config.iso or config.net to auto/config. See examples/config.seb.* for Safe-Exam-Browser

cp config.iso auto/config

create image

./build.sh
  • deploy binaries
binary.hybrid.iso

or

binary.netboot.tar

docu in progress...

Documentation of config file

Most of the netpoint settings can be given by kernel paramters in --bootappend-live In a netboot scenario the kernel params can be defined dynamically in the tftp boot file.

xbrowser (recommanded, otherwise no browser starts)
xbrowser=seb|firefox

A current iceweasel (firefox version of debian) and seb (https://github.com/eqsoft/seb) are installed on build time. You can choose the base browser system to use in your webkiosk.

xbrowseropts (optional)

example firefox:

xbrowseropts=-url,http://ipxe.org

example seb (debug):

xbrowseropts=-jsconole,-purgecaches,debug,1

The given option string will be added to the browser process call ("," are replaced by " "). For more infos:

xpanel (optional)
xpanel=0|1

Switches panel on desktop on|off The tint2 panel can be configured in etc/skel/.config/tint2/tint2rc

xexit (optional)
xexit=0|1

Switches exit icon on panel on|off Exit restarts the X System with xbrowser and resets the profile folder to default. Any downloaded files to the profile get lost.

xterminal (optional)
xterminal=0|1

Switches terminal icon on panel on|off The terminal can be used for debugging a client image. You can sudo to the root with rtckey Normally you will only access the clients by root and ssh key. The password login is disabled so your pubkey should be added in etc/ssh/autorized_keys. If "debug " is enabled in kernel params the logfiles in /var/log and the /proc/cmdline will be preserved after image boot. Beware that rtckey and rtcagent are listed in those files, so be sure that there is no way for a user to break off the kiosk or just delete "debug " from kernel params.

xscreensaver (optional)
xscreensaver=0|1

Switches xscreensaver on|off The screensaver can be configured in etc/skel/.xscreensaver

xscreensaverwatch (optional)
xscreensaverwatch=0|1

Switches xscreensaverwatch on|off (see config/includes.chroot/usr/local/bin/start_xscreensaver_watch). The script resets the browser for displaying the startpage on screensaver activation after 10 min inactivity.

username (mandatory!)

example ("npuser" can be changed):

username=npuser

The netpoint user name.

rtckey (mandatory!)

example ("RTCKEY" can be changed):

rtckey=RTCKEY

The RTCKEY (RunTime Config KEY) is used for netpoint and root user password. The key must also be the password for the private key if rtcssh parameter is used.

rtcssh (optional)
rtcssh=0|1

If set to 1 a ssh-agent starts with the identities private key in /etc/ssh/id_dsa|id_rsa|id_dss The password of the private key must be set to the rtckey param.

rtcagent (optional)

example ("RTCAGENT" can be changed):

rtcagent=RTCAGENT

The rtcagent replaces the wget default user-agent from the systems http-requests i.e. fetching the filesystem.squashfs from a webserver in the initrd.img or loading any rtcrepos from a tgz file. So you can restrict the webserver access to the image itself, no other browser or webclienst should be able to download those files.

Beware that the kernel params of the tftp boot files are clear text readable in the network! For a more secure way the rtckey and the rtcagent could be compiled into an ipxe kernel and the ipxe scripts with the emebedded boot params are created dynamically via web script.

rtcrepo (optional)
rtcrepo=git|tgz

The images can be configured on boot time by git repos or just tgz files from a webserver. The files in "fs_overlay/*" are fetched for overlaying the root filesystem. If the ssh-agent is switched on and started successfully the url might be a git ssh call.

giturl example with rtcssh:

giturl=git@github.com:hrz-unimr/nprtc

giturl example without rtcssh:

giturl=https://github.com/hrz-unimr/nprtc

rtcrepo=git also needs some more params: examples (rtcssh=1):

rtckey=RTCKEY
rtcssh=1
rtcrepo=git
giturl=git@github.com:hrz-unimr/nprtc
gitreponame=nprtc
gitbranch=master
githost=0

or (rtcssh=0 and githost=1)

rtckey=RTCKEY
rtcssh=0
rtcrepo=git
giturl=https://github.com/hrz-unimr/nprtc
gitreponame=nprtc
gitbranch=master
githost=1

The format of the git ssh calls are different between some providers (github, gitolite, ...). So to avoid parsing the giturl to get the reponame the gitreponame MUST explicitly be set. First a branch will be loaded (i.e. gitbranch=master). After that the system tries to get a branch with the clients hostname (if githost=1) The branch MUST contain a root folder fs_overlay/* with a root filesystem structure.
So you can define a global rtcrepo loaded by all clients and an additional host repo for a special client which overloads the first global repo.

tgzurl example full url:

tgzurl=https://192.168.16.12/tgzrepo/pool1.tgz
tgzhost=0

tgzurl example with HOSTNAME.tgz:

tgzurl=https://192.168.16.12/tgzrepo
tgzhost=1

A simple way for overlaying the root filesystem on boot time is providing a tgz archive on a webserver with a root folder fs_overly and a root filesystem structure. This can either be a full url to a tgz file or an archive with a HOSTNAME.tgz. This is not as flexible as the git repo, because the clients can only be configured with one tgz file (tgzhost=0) or every client gets his own host tgz file. The wget clients user-agent is set to the rtcagent param, so requests can be restricted to the image itself (see rtcagent)

citrix support

An embedded citrix reciever (ica-client) can be used to establish a windows desktop or single application session via citrix virtual desktop. If you have a Citrix Server infrastructure and you just want to deploy personal windows desktops to your kiosk clients, you can start a seb with the autostart url of your citrix storeweb service with an interactive user login. After user login the embedded citrix client will start the citrix session.

At the Philipps-University Marburg iPads, PCs and Notebooks are using the citrix reciever for the same virtual windows desktop or just browser applications that are running on citrix server farm. Therefore we need an autologin with restricted system accounts without interactive citrix user login. For this purpose you can trigger a PNAgent login with fix user and password settings:

xcitrix (optional)

To automatically login the kiosk clients into a citrix system account, xcitrix hast to be activated with appropriate setting params:

xcitrix=1
xcitrixusername=USERNAME
xcitrixpassword=PASSWORD
xcitrixdn=DOMAINNAME
xcitrixserver=https://CITRIXHOSTNAME/Citrix/Store/PNAgent/config.xml
xcitrixapp=APPNAME

Comment: The PNAgent login is marked depricated and maybe the support will be cancled. So we have to take care on ica-client and CitrixServer updates. Citrix wants to force an interactive userlogin via storeweb but i think they have to sustain an alternative way for session autologins like the PNAgent feature.

Usually you don't want an extra browser, panel or other Linux desktop components to be started:

xpanel=0
xbrowser=0
xterminal=0

Important: in any case you need username and password (rtckey) for your Linux environment (see above)!

To minimize licence costs it is possible to dynamically assign different hardare clients (hosts) to a pool of citrix accounts with a hostname mapping:

xcitrixusername=HOSTMAP

Insert a Hostmap file:

/usr/local/bin/hostmap

with mapping entries like:

hostname1=citrixaccount1
hostname2=citrixaccount2
hostname3=citrixaccount3
......

The citrix username will be replaced with the hostname entry for the citrix session login. The password is the same for all hosts (xcitrixpassword in the kernel params).

Known Issues

  • Booting will fail if the timeserver in usr/local/bin/set_time can not be found! In most cases it is required to change the timeserver to internal ones because of firewall port restrictions. You can also deactivate the set_time script in etc/rc.local (not recommanded)

Further Documentation