Steps to set up your kiosk with HootBoard OS from an ISO file.

Thank you for choosing HootBoard for your Kiosk solution. This document will explain how easily you can set up a “Powered by HootBoard” kiosk experience by installing HootBoard OS from an ISO file.

Table of contents

1. Required Reading
2. Pre-Requisites.
3. Download the HBOS ISO
4. Burn the ISO onto a Flash drive
5. Install HBOS on your kiosk Hardware
   • Seeded Installation
   • Un-Seeded Installation
6. What’s next?
   • Basic WiFi setup screen
   • Basic Screen ID setup
   • Changing the orientation
7. Legacy Kiosk Admin Dashboard
   • Gaining Access
   • Change Screen Id
   • Changing Network
     • Connect to a new network.
     • Disconnect from a Network
     • Change Network related parameters

Required Reading

1. What is HootBoard OS? HootBoard OS, or HBOS in short, is the custom operating system created by HootBoard for kiosks, built on top of Debian, a popular Linux Operating System. All kiosks powered by HootBoard will have HBOS pre-installed in them.
2. Kiosk Admin UI - This is an admin interface on all kiosks powered by HootBoard to help admins manage basic tasks related to the kiosk. You access this by pressing a key combination and entering a passcode.
3. Terminal: It is an application that lets you interact with the system using specific commands.
4. Captive Portal: It’s a page that interrupts the typical user flow at the start of someone’s involvement in a network. For example, if I join WiFi at the airport, I might accept terms and conditions and view an advertisement. Its purpose varies by registering users, paying, and accepting T&Cs or ads.

Pre-Requisites

1. A fully-formatted USB drive with a minimum of 4GB of capacity.
2. A USB Wireless or Wired Keyboard
3. Kiosk hardware with the following minimum configuration
   • Intel i5 and above or comparable models from AMD
   • 4 GB RAM and above
   • 60 GB SSD and above

Download the ISO

1. Latest ISO Build: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xSZeo7eojMcR4WwsD8Mp6Op3477JbSPR?usp=sharing

These are hybrid-isos and would work by copying the contents onto a flash drive; however, we recommend burning the ISO onto a USB drive to rule out any issues during installation.

Burn the ISO onto a flash drive

Once you’ve downloaded the preferred ISO file, you’ll need to burn the file onto a flash drive so that you can install it on a physical device.

1. To burn the ISO, download and install Balena Etcher (preferred) OR Rufus ISO Burner
2. Follow the three-step simple process as shown in the Etcher UI to burn the ISO.
3. It usually takes less than 10 minutes to burn the ISO.

Install HBOS using the USB drive on your kiosk hardware.

1. Plugin the Keyboard
2. Plugin the USB drive in the kiosk and reboot it.
3. Restart the Kiosk hardware and follow the boot menu key combination to bring up the boot menu. This will be specific to your hardware's boot system software so please watch for prompts. 
4. Once the boot menu shows up, select the USB drive from the list.
5. The kiosk should now start to boot from the USB drive, and you should see the following screen. 
6. You should select the “Start Installer” menu item and press ENTER
7. The kiosk should now automatically go through the various steps if you’ve used a Seeded ISO or prompt you for basic installation questions if you’ve selected a Non-seeded ISO.

Seeded Installation

1. Suppose you’ve not plugged in an ethernet cable. You will get to select the network interface and connect to the network.
2. The Seeded installation uses a flexible logical volume. You’ll get a prompt to decide the size of the installation. You can use the total available space or pick a smaller size to start with, as shown below
3. You can keep the grub that came with the installer or re-create a new one. As a result, you’ll see the following screen.
4. Our recommended option is to go with the “Kepp the local version currently installed.”
5. That should be it. Once the installation completes, it should show you the “Welcome to HootBoard” screen.

What’s next?

Once the installation is complete, you’ll see a “Welcome to HootBoard” page with a button that says “Let’s begin,” as shown below.

Once you click on “Let’s begin,” you’ll either see a WiFi setup screen or a Screen ID setup screen, depending on whether you have a network connection or not.

 

Basic WiFi setup screen

You can do the following here.

1. Connect to the more straightforward home or office WiFi networks that employ WEP, WAP, WAP2, or WAP3 protocols.
2. You can also connect to open networks, but those often come with some caveats. ( For example, many such open networks have captive portals where you have to provide information like a phone number or email to access the Internet).

You can connect to any known network by providing the username/password, and once you’re connected, the kiosk should take you to the next setup screen.

If you’ve already set up your screen with a screen Id, the kiosk will now load your HootBoard; otherwise, it will prompt you to enter a screen Id.

Please note:

1. You must ensure that the WiFi network that you will connect has access to the Internet and not behind a captive portal.
2. The on-screen keyboard is limited, so we recommend you set up using a physical keyboard.

Basic Screen ID setup.

You’ll need a unique code that we call a Screen ID to bring the kiosk to show content from HootBoard. This page allows you to enter a Screen Id.

Once the entered Screen ID is accepted, you’ll be taken to your HootBoard as shown.

 

Changing the Orientation

1. HootBoard kiosk automatically configures the touch interface and provides you with simple keyboard shortcuts to change the screen’s orientation.
2. Please wait until the kiosk has finished loading and shows either a Welcome to HootBoard message or the content itself before trying the keyboard shortcuts.

P.S: To decide which way to you need rotate, you'll need to check in what direction is the content displaying relative to you when first setup, this gives you the default orientation for your display. If the content is flipped 90 to the right, you'll need to rotate left by 90 degrees to get it aligned relative to you and so on.

Tip: If you're confused, you can always try pressing the below combinations one after the other and stop when it matches the required orientation.

Please note that the below commands are all relative to your screen's default orientation.

Rotate Default Orientation by	Keyboard Shortcut	What it does
0 degrees	CTRL + ALT + 1	It keeps the default orientation of the display.
90 degrees to the left	CTRL + ALT + 2	It rotates the display 90 degrees to the left from it's default orientation.
180 degrees to the left	CTRL + ALT + 3	It rotates the display 180 degrees to the left from it's default orientation.
270 degrees to the left or 90 degrees to the right	CTRL + ALT + 4	It rotates the display 270 degrees to the left or 90 degrees to the right from it's default orientation.

These changes persist, so press the required keyboard shortcut if you want to go back to the previous orientation.

 

The Legacy Admin Dashboard

The HootBoard OS comes with an admin UI that allows a kiosk administrator to do some basic admin tasks on the kiosk. In addition, it has the following functionalities.

Please Note: We’re actively rewriting the Admin UI when writing this article, so the experience on the Admin side will get so much better soon and any feedback that you share with us will be super helpful for us.

1. Change Network via Network Manager.
2. Change Screen ID
3. Configure Audio via Pulse Audio Control.
4. Perform Advanced commands via Terminal
5. Reboot

 

Gaining access to the Admin dashboard.

1. Make sure you have a keyboard connected
2. Press CTRL + ALT + RIGHT_ARROW_KEY
3. You’ll see a passcode screen, as shown below
4. Enter the passcode; The default passcode is 1234567890. Please note that you’ll need to enter the passcode via Touchscreen or a mouse pointer. It will not take input from the keyboard.
5. Once you enter the passcode, you’ll see the dashboard as shown below. This is the interface to do basic administration of the kiosk. 

Changing a Screen ID

1. Once you’re in the Terminal, you can select the “change screen Id” menu item. It will bring up a UI, as shown below.
2. You’ll see the details of the existing screen Id, if any, on the device; To change to a different screen Id, click on the Change Screen ID button.
3. You’ll see an input box as shown below.
4. Go ahead, enter your new screen Id and click on change, If everything goes well, the screen Id should get changed, and the kiosk shall take you to the content view.
5. If you’re do not get redirected to the content view or the kiosk view, you can click on exit to go back.
6. If you’re not seeing your screen Id changes reflected; Worry not; sometimes the kiosk needs a reboot to take notice of the new screen Id.

Changing Network

1. Once you’re in the dashboard, click on the Network menu item.
2. Please click on “Advanced” instead of tinkering with the WiFi listing UI directly, as it is deprecated and will not work as expected.
3. It will bring up the following interface.
4. Here the kiosk will show you the available network connections.

Connect to a new network.

Once you’ve followed steps 1 to 4 under Changing Network, you have access to the native network manager.

1. To add a new network not shown in the list, you can click on the + button.
2. In the popup that appears next, select the type of the network. For example, if it is a WiFi network, you can choose WiFi.
3. And then, add the details of the network and hit save.
4. You’ll notice that the network now appears in the list.
5. You can re-order as per the priority, and the kiosk will automatically connect to the network when it is in range.

Disconnect from a Network

Once you’ve followed steps 1 to 4 under Changing Network, you have access to the native network manager.

1. To disconnect from a specific network, highlight the network in the network connections list and click on the - button. The network will get deleted.

Change Network related parameters

Once you’ve followed steps 1 to 4 under Changing Network, you have access to the native network manager.

1. To change any parameters related to a specific network, highlight the network in the network connections list and click on the gear icon; Update the settings as required, hit save, and then reboot.

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