21 Jun
2013
21 Jun
'13
4:46 p.m.
Thanks for this. I didn't go into too much detail because I wasn't
really looking to solve the problems via the forum, more to get in
touch with someone with appropriate expertise who we can contract to
help.
Lock-down is really only to keep children in their area and disabling
some keyboard shortcuts - not BIOS, hardware, etc.
Main question is about running AIR apps - we have 80 flash games built
already, so if flash is no longer the way to go, too late. I was
looking in the direction of Linux (to move away from Windows) because
I'm keen to:
1. simplify the whole setup
2. boot faster
3. make the disk footprint smaller and therefore faster to re-image
4. stick with one OS version - at the moment we have XP and W7 and
variants of that.
5. have something more stable. For example, we are experiencing a lot
of cases where XP just reboots over and over. When we reimage the
disk, it is fine.
Other thing I forgot to mention is that these are touch screen
computers. Don't know if that is something linux allows for.
Not sure if my email address appears - bouwmeester.chris(a)gmail.com
Happy to make contact with anyone who might be able to assist us further.
Chris Bouwmeester wrote:
Hi. We have an application which at the moment runs on
Adobe
AIR/flash under windows. I'd like to explore the suitability of
running it under Linux instead. The application is for preschoolers
and we also need to make changes to the operating system to lock it
down and prevent them getting out of the application, etc. Are you
able to point me towards someone who can do/assist us with that sort
of thing? Thanks, Chris.
The lockdown part can be achieved mostly by running the app
full-screened in X, enabling DontZap (on by default these days), and
disabling the gettys (or disabling Ctrl+Alt+Fn). Unless the app
itself offers e.g. a shell, you should be fine.
Preventing users from hijacking the boot sequence is harder -- you
have to worry about getting access to the BIOS, the bootloader, the
initrd (esp. recovery shell), plus anything you leave enabled in init.
This is not particularly onerous iff you can get a custom BIOS
compiled by your hardware vendor (if you have homogeneous hardware).
Also you will need to worry about physical security, esp. access to
jumpers and cables to disk &c off the mainboard.
If you're just worried about a preschooler dropping to a shell by
accident and rm -rf'ing the disk, you can probably forego my 2nd and
3rd paras -- it's more concerned with deliberate malice.
I won't even bother to comment on the flash part -- I'm sure plenty of
other people here will have articulate rants about that.
Though, perhaps I should have started by asking: why do you want to
switch from Windows?
_______________________________________________
luv-talk mailing
listluv-talk@lists.luv.asn.auhttp://lists.luv.asn.au/listinfo/luv-talk
21 Jun
21 Jun
7:26 p.m.
New subject: Fwd: [luv-ctte] [general inquiry] Connect with developer
Hello Chris,
On Fri, 2013-06-21 at 16:46 +1000, Chris Bouwmeester wrote:
Thanks for this. I didn't go into too much detail
because I wasn't
really looking to solve the problems via the forum, more to get in
touch with someone with appropriate expertise who we can contract to
help.
You may still get some contact from a developer. I cannot do that, but I
can try to assist with direction.
Lock-down is really only to keep children in their
area and disabling
some keyboard shortcuts - not BIOS, hardware, etc.
The lock down under Linux can provide what you want, and a lot more
besides.
Main question is about running AIR apps - we have 80
flash games built
already, so if flash is no longer the way to go, too late.
Flash is not standard, it is not secure, it will change, and there are
significant security "holes". I would strongly urge you to change before
making any more investment there, throwing away what you have done at
this stage would be a lot cheaper than the whole project. It may be
possible to make it look like it works, but the foundations are on sand.
I was looking in the direction of Linux (to move away
from Windows)
because I'm keen to:
1. simplify the whole setup
2. boot faster
3. make the disk footprint smaller and therefore faster to re-image
4. stick with one OS version - at the moment we have XP and W7 and
variants of that.
5. have something more stable. For example, we are experiencing a lot
of cases where XP just reboots over and over. When we reimage the
disk, it is fine.
All of that is good, and as per previous remark, much more besides. Done
properly, you can run from read only media, and much less maintenance.
Other thing I forgot to mention is that these are
touch screen
computers. Don't know if that is something linux allows for.
Not sure if my email address appears - bouwmeester.chris(a)gmail.com
Happy to make contact with anyone who might be able to assist us
further.
Touchscreen support is around, look at Android. My circumstances mean I
am not playing in that area, yet. You might take a look at Cyanogenmod,
a completely open and independent redoing of Android. My interest is
that it does not come with the extra cruft that the carriers package, I
do not need the games on the mobile, nor the spyware.
In one sense, yes, you do need a developer, but there will be very
pertinent comments from various list participants that can help set the
parameters. You might also consider looking at the Raspberry Pi and
BeagleBone small cheap computers. They run Linux, and some other
variants, and can greatly stretch the budget.
Regards,
Mark Trickett
3570
days inactive
3570
days old
1 comments
2 participants
participants (2)
-
Chris Bouwmeester -
Mark Trickett