Change Rhel7_client-x64 configure as kiosk
 

I have a RHEL7 machine that uses X11 for display. We have a need to make this sort of like a kiosk machine. We need it to have a solid black desktop background, no desktop icons, and no right-click menu for the community user account configured on the system.

I'm drowning in all the info about X11, Gconf-editor, gnome, etc. etc.

Can someone please point me in the right direction to do this?

Thanking you in advance....

The RHEL 7 docs on the Red Hat knoweldgebase have this:
https://access.redhat.com/documentat...iosk_Mode.html

...a step by step guide for enabling kiosk mode. That said, are you paying for RHEL??? Because if you're not, it's not really a good choice, since you will not have access to bugfixes/security patches/updates, and it will make installing things MUCH harder in the future. If you need a SERVER CLASS distro, like RHEL, use CentOS instead. If you are paying for RHEL support, calling Red Hat would get you going faster.

We are paying for RHEL support but for reasons I can't go into we can't use xguest. We also have to use RHEL7

Well, if you can't give any details and you're locked into RHEL7...not a whole lot anyone here can help you with. Without details, we can't offer much in the way of help. You hint at the fact you've read some of the docs, but don't say what you've done/tried, nor what application this system is going to run.

If you're paying for RHEL7 and you're locked into it, then contact them for assistance. If it's browser based, you have a low-tech option; run the browser in full-screen mode and disable the F11 and F4 keys via the keyboard mapping utility...map them to some CTRL-ALT-SOMETHING that you know option, and disable the right mouse button. Can do both through Gnome or KDE easily. F11 takes the browser full-screen, no border. Disabling that key keeps it that way. Disable F4 so no one can hit ALT-F4 to CLOSE the browser, either. You're left with one window, full screen, no way to do anything but interface with what's on it.

Icon removal/black desktop background
 

DOD requirements - that's why we're locked into RHEL7 and why also it can't be a pure kiosk, has a lot to do with the software that will be installed and run over top of the base OS.

I figured out the right click part. Used the command xmodmap -e 'pointer = 1 2 0 4 5 6 7 8 9' in the .bashrc file within the users' home folder that I'm locking down. Logged out, and in again, no ability to right-click anymore.

As far making a plain black background, have no idea. If I use the gconf-editor command and go to "Desktop", then gnome, then background, I see two choices Primary and Secondary Colors. The values are in hex. Someone speculated that black in hex is ffffff. I changed both of those values to that but nothing happened.

I've read where this can be easily done in Nautilus. I checked and have Nautilus installed. But everywhere I read this it says that if I bring up gconf-editor again, I should see Nautilus as a choice under "Apps". The only choice there is gconf-editor. Nautilus doesn't appear.

As far as removing the Home and Trash icon on the users' desktop, again, supposedly easily done in Nautilus. But again, it's apparently done within gconf-editor again, under App "Nautilus". Don't have that choice there.

I'm well familiar witih DoD requirements. However, it seems VERY odd that a DoD machine doing anything that you can't talk about, would be running in kiosk mode, unattended.
Ok...so that takes care of right-click, but you can still use the keyboard to simulate it. SHIFT-F10 does the trick nicely.
Standard HTML color codes. Try 000000 instead...or creating a totally black JPG image, and scale it to desktop.
Ok, but again, if you're paying for RHEL support, you can call Red Hat and they can walk you through all of this. But I think you're misunderstanding kiosk mode from a locked-down desktop. Kiosk mode means that there is only ONE application visible, and that is the ONLY thing that works, period. Also, using Gnome is more work than you need for a single-application system. There are VERY lightweight window managers, such as lxde...ANY GUI app will go full-screen, no borders, with ALT-F11, which you can simulate in a script that's run upon a user logging in...which takes them to one window.

Which goes back to disabling those keys in the window manager, so it stays there.

Lock-down
 

You're right. It's more of a lock-down than a kiosk. The system is one in which sailors will sit in front of on a ship. That's all I can say. we don't want them being able to bring up a terminal window, no icons on desktop, plain black background.

That's fairly easy.
https://help.gnome.org/admin/deployment-guide/
https://access.redhat.com/documentat...sktop-features

Again, Red Hat support can walk you through all of this. And if you want no icons on the desktop, you'll have to enable the Gnome panel/launcher. Which opens holes of its own. A single-purpose icon on the desktop that can't be modified is far safer.