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Ohto Nordberg
Asked: 2020-01-29 06:35:08 +0800 CST

Kiosk mode computer with the sole purpose of showing one webpage

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Ubuntu-based computer will output the page to a television.

The page in question is not in my control and will sometimes change. Therefore the browser should refresh the page periodically, say once in every 10 minutes.

Maintenance should be minimal, so that booting the computer would always bring up the web page in full screen, no login required.

Optimally no additional software or plugins for browser.

Currently the web page is shown on TV with live Ubuntu via usb stick, no page autorefresh (Firefox).

I will install Ubuntu from the usb stick and set it to auto login, but I do not know how to set Ubuntu to show the page in full screen after boot and refresh the page periodically.

How do I set up Ubuntu to start a browser in a full screen mode and refresh the page periodically?

autostart browser fullscreen kiosk

3 Answers

  1. You can start Firefox in full screen mode like so

    firefox --kiosk ubuntu.com
    • Please notice that it works only if there is no Firefox window already open.

    • How to escape from the kiosk window of Firefox:

      • In Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and the Firefox version in January 2020: Escape from kiosk mode with F11 which is good during the development phase.
      • In Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and the Firefox version in June 2020: F11 no longer works to escape fro kiosk mode, but alt+F4 works (to close the Firefox window).

    This link should help you refreshing the web page in Firefox.

    Firefox also has a number of add-ons available for it to help you refresh your tabs automatically in your browser. Most add-ons will work the same way and here we use one of those called Tab Auto Refresh.

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  2. Best Answer
    1. Install Midori
    2. Open Startup Applications
    3. Click Add
    4. Add Command midori -a https://www.ubuntu.com/ -i 600 -e Fullscreen
      Startup Program
    5. Click Add

    Source

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  3. I don't know if a refresh is possible, but you could autostart firefox with a specific page.

    Take this command 

    /usr/bin/firefox www.yourpage.de

    and create an entry for it. Search for "startup" and enter the command into Startup Applications. It should start firefox with the page provided.

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