I found a way use Firefox instead because I wanted to avoid fullscreen mode:
A kiosk solution with Ubuntu+Firefox:
Install Ubuntu/Lubuntu/whatever
Make user admin
Make user kiosk
Set kiosk to autologin, no password
Fix permissions (so kiosk cannot ctrl-s and peep into /home/admin)
cd /home
sudo chmod 700 *
Check if printer and other hardware, you might need, works.
Install Firefox add-ons: “R-kiosk” and “Reset Kiosk” (search for “kiosk”), optionally: “Easy Whitelist”.
Create a file called ‘[profile]/user.js’ (profile is the name of your firefox profile directory, probably ‘.default’ ) and add these lines to it:
user_pref("rkiosk.navbar", true);
user_pref("browser.fullscreen.autohide",false);
user_pref("browser.link.open_newwindow", 3);
user_pref("browser.link.open_newwindow.restriction", 0);
user_pref("privacy.popups.policy", 1);
(The last 3 lines may require explanation: I had to use this for a particular web application designed for IE that relied on popup windows, so I wanted Firefox to open all popups the way IE does.)
Create a file called ‘[profile]/chrome/userChrome.css’ and add these lines to it:
#bookmarks-menu { display: none !important;}
#window-controls { display: none !important;}
#personal-bookmarks { display: none !important;}
#autohide-context { display: none !important;}
#urlbar { display: none !important; }
#searchbar { display: none !important; }
This will remove all unwanted icons/menus from the window. In case I forgot any, use the customize function to remove items from the toolbar or move them to e.g. the bookmark toolbar that will be hidden from view.
You may want to set firefox to never save history.
Set default homepage and restart Firefox.
Remember you can still close Firefox with alt-f4 and start it with “firefox -safe-mode” to disable kiosk mode.
Install Openbox (sudo apt-get install openbox obconf)
Use obconf to remove extra windows – it will only confuse the user.
Edit openbox menu (/etc/xdg/openbox/menu.xml) to remove all unwanted menu items. That will probably leave you with only “exit” or nothing at all. If you leave in “exit” the kiosk user can log out and get to the login screen, but he can only log in again as kiosk unless he can guess the password for admin. If you remove it completely it is possible that you yourself won't be able to log out of kiosk (e.g. in order to log in as admin and do maintenance). On my ubuntu-installation both ctrl-alt-backspace and ctrl-alt-sysrq-k are disabled, so I can only reboot with ctrl-alt-sysrq-b. Alternatively you can log in remotely or use ctrl-alt-f1 and do your maintenance work from the command line.
Edit file ~/.config/openbox/autostart:
# run firefox:
while true; do firefox; sleep 5s; done &
What the user can do on this setup:
Close Firefox with alt-f4 (but it restarts after a few seconds).
Use alt-tab to switch between programs (but Firefox is the only program).
He can only follow links from the homepage, so he cannot abuse the internet.
Reboot machine (but password in bios)
ctrl-alt-f1 – but he doesn't know the password to login as admin.
If he can log out of openbox and get to lightdm, he can log in again as kiosk and choose another window manager and get full control, so you need to delete all other .desktop entries from /usr/share/xsessions/ except openbox.desktop. I don't know of any way you can tie a user to a particular wm. :-(
Advantages of using Openbox instead of just a browser on top of Xwindows:
Chromium/Firefox in kiosk mode is always maximized. When I don’t use a wm, it never fills out the whole screen.
I get the Exit menu option (optional).
What is it good for?
A fullscreen kiosk is good for browsing a particular website e.g. a school, a library, or a museum's website. However it is nice to be able to get back to the main/start page in case you get lost, so the website needs to be designed with a big home button and very easy navigation. And you cannot have any links leading users offsite since they cannot get back. Of course the browser will reset after a period of inactivity or if you close it with alt-f4, but most users won’t know that and will become very frustrated. That is why fullscreen mode usually isn't always that userfriendly and that’s why I wanted to keep some toolbar functionality and only Firefox could give me that, not Chrome. Alternatively give Openkiosk a try, it didn’t work for me because of the popup issue, but it might work for you.