Kiosk style Chrome OS for laptops

[Sonic007]

Hi everyone,

 

We've got a bunch of laptops from the Covid days which are not the greatest spec but function perfectly fine for students doing basic work on them.

 

Up until a few years back I was running Porteus Kiosk which was free and ran a Chrome Browser session that would erase eevrything each time a new user went on it.

This no longer exists as a freebie.

 

I basically need to be able to boot to Chrome and that is it. The students dont need anything else and can then login to Google drive, etc.

 

ChromeOs is a no-go as we have loads of devices and it would get expensive. Looking for a free option.

 

ChromeOSFlex seems to fit the bill but the problem is it has to be setup for one user. It can't just be passed around and logged in and out easily.

 

Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

Many thanks.

[dhicks]

I've found the X86 version of Raspberry Pi OS to be pretty usable and lightweight, it should install on most things. I have a script from a few years ago that turns it in to a kiosk device, basically replacing the default shell with Chromeium:

 

https://github.com/dhicks6345789/device-config

 

It might need some tweaks to get working with the latest version.

[paulkerton]

Managed guest sessions: https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/3017014?hl=en

[dhicks]

26 minutes ago, Sonic007 said:

ChromeOSFlex seems to fit the bill but the problem is it has to be setup for one user. It can't just be passed around and logged in and out easily.

Multiple users should be able to log on to a ChromeOS Flex device, just like standard ChromeOS, they just need to click the "Add User" button. Might need a bit of explaning to the users, it's not the most obvious way of logging in.

[Sonic007]

Thankyou for your reply.

Yeah I've seen you can add users, but they have to choose a few options and then add an account. It's not feasible when laptops are not allocated to users and go all over the school.