Chromebit Boot Straight to Calendar

[rjf2019]

We have a Chromebit in our reception area attached to a tv, which displays a calendar during the school day with dates for parents of trips etc. At present, if it’s turned off over the holidays it means I need to use a bluetooth keyboard / mouse to log back into the device and then open the calendar.

 

I’ve heard before that we could enable kiosk mode and have it boot straight to the calendar. This would be ideal as then the site manager can flick it on when he opens up, and it will save me a job.

 

Does anyone know how to implement this? We use G-Suite, have paid for a management licence for the device, and see it registered in G-Suite.

 

I’m happy to powerwash the device if it’s easier to start again fresh.

[pete]

I've only done this with the original Chromecasts, but....

 

Go here: https://developers.google.com/cast/docs/registration#RegisterApp

 

and have a read. I know a few museums are using the method above to display specific exhibit info via Chromecasts and I've done it at home for a status screen.

[jmak]

I'm assuming they work in the same way as Chromebooks.

 

If they do, set it up as a kiosk device in the Google admin centre and then set up whichever app you need to startup when the machine reboots. Take a look here for some info on how:

 

https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/3273084?hl=en

 

If they don't work like Chromebooks, sorry to waste your time [emoji854]

[PrimaryNetMan]

Take a look at Chrome Sign Builder - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chrome-sign-builder/odjaaghiehpobimgdjjfofmablbaleem Have it running on a number of ASUS Chromebits in kiosk mode.

[rjf2019]

Take a look at Chrome Sign Builder - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chrome-sign-builder/odjaaghiehpobimgdjjfofmablbaleem Have it running on a number of ASUS Chromebits in kiosk mode.

 

Thanks very much for this. I've taken a look at this a few times, and seem to have hit a brick wall.

 

I have installed the app here:

 

Device Management --> Chrome --> Apps and Extensions --> Kiosks

 

I've set it to allow power management etc, and set it to auto-launch

 

 

On my PC, I have installed the app, configured schedules and downloaded the config file. The problem is that I can't see where to upload it to.

 

When the Chromebit is powered on, it launches the app but comes up with a message about no policy being configured.

 

I can't see anywhere on the Kiosks page to upload the config file, and I'm not sure where to look. I've read 3-4 help guides but haven't found it either.

[keyboards]

Thanks very much for this. I've taken a look at this a few times, and seem to have hit a brick wall.

 

I have installed the app here:

 

Device Management --> Chrome --> Apps and Extensions --> Kiosks

 

I've set it to allow power management etc, and set it to auto-launch

 

 

On my PC, I have installed the app, configured schedules and downloaded the config file. The problem is that I can't see where to upload it to.

 

When the Chromebit is powered on, it launches the app but comes up with a message about no policy being configured.

 

I can't see anywhere on the Kiosks page to upload the config file, and I'm not sure where to look. I've read 3-4 help guides but haven't found it either.

 

Create an ou for the device then in here, then under configure and upload the file

 

[rjf2019]

(I think) that I have that in place already, I just don't see the configure option. Is there something that I'm missing?

[keyboards]

After you exit Chomre sign builder it should load in your default browser the webpage needed

[rjf2019]

Exit Chrome Sign Builder on my own PC?

[keyboards]

Exit Chrome Sign Builder on my own PC?

 

I normally create the file on my desktop using chrome sign builder, upload it through the g suite console then it deploys down to the chromebit, that's how I've always done it

[rjf2019]

I've just found that in the Chrome Sign Builder app there is a link on the left that takes me to the right page and allows the upload.

 

After I rebooted the device it worked the first time, asked me to sign into the calendar page that I'm trying to display and then displayed the calendar. I gave the device a reboot to test that it worked properly, and now it says 'searching for network' and then the screen just goes blue.

 

I'm able to then reboot it from the G-Suite admin console so it is definitely making a network connection. I just can't figure out why it only loaded the calendar once.

[Sanchez]

Don't know if it will make a difference but on the new admin console layout I've also been unable to upload config files. Instead I open the config file in a text editor and copy the contents in to the 'policy for extension' field in the app options. So far this has worked for me. ( Not done it yet for chrome sign builder as my existing configs are still valid but has work for other apps. However the config for chrome sign builder is displayed in the policy field)

 

On a side note I really like the policy option, makes tweaking configurations easy.

 

This is my basic config I used when I was first testing sign builder

 

 

{

"autoReload": 0,

"cachePolicy": "forever",

"content": "https://www.bbc.co.uk",

"duration": 54000000,

"repetition": "d",

"start": "Tue Oct 09 2018 07:00:00 GMT+0100",

"zone": "fs",

"zoneHeight": "30%",

"zoneWidth": "30%",

"zoneXOffset": "0",

"zoneYOffset": "0"

}

],

"name": "New Schedule"

}

]

}

}

 

It just load the BBC homepage, you could try it and see if it works.

Edited November 1, 2019 by Sanchez

[rjf2019]

I'm confident that the file is uploaded now, however the Chromebit is hanging at this screen. I'm not seeing any connections denied on our filtering, so am at a loss as to why it is hanging.

 

I have contacted our ISP to see if there are any additional logs they can see that I can't, but I gave it a quick test over 4G from my phone and it hung too, which makes me wonder whether there is an error with the app.

 

Edited November 1, 2019 by rjf2019