surf-display(1)

📦 version 0.0.5, in debian bookworm, debian trixie, nixpkgs unstable, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💖 surf-display — okay bestie, let's talk 💖

so like… this is the surf-display(1) page, from the Surf Kiosk Display manual. it's giving "I turned a whole computer into a browser and you literally cannot escape it" and honestly? iconic. 🎀

✨ NAME ✨

surf-display — Fullscreen WWW Display Session Manager 🦋

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

surf-display

no args, no flags, no drama. she just goes. periodt. 💅

👑 DESCRIPTION 👑

okay so surf-display is a wrapper around Surf. that's the whole vibe. it can turn a system into a browser based display terminal in KIOSK mode. kiosk mode means the user gets the website and nothing else, no cap. 🔥

surf-display registers itself as an x-session-manager alternative and provides a very minimal X11 session. the way it works: it launches matchbox-window-manager, plus pulseaudio (if requested) and unclutter (if requested), and then it starts the fullscreen browser session. slay. ✨

then it locks down the mouse pointer right-click behaviour and disables various keyboard shortcuts, all so the user can't peek behind the curtain and see what Surf can actually do. our goal is literally to not let users break out of the given entry WWW site's browsing design. it's a velvet rope, bestie. 🚫🐭

oh and also — you can combine surf-display with a local tinyproxy setup to configure access to specific sites, and to configure which sites to block user access from. very "we control the door AND the guest list". 💜

💅 OPTIONS 💅

ngl, surf-display can easily be configured system-wide via /etc/default/surf-display. and if you want per-user energy, overrides can be configured on a per-user basis via $HOME/.surf-display/config. two layers, both cute. 🫶

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

  • /etc/default/surf-display

that's the whole list, she's a short queen. 👑

🧚 AUTHOR 🧚

this manual has been written by Mike Gabriel <mike.gabriel@das-netzwerkteam.de> and Benjamin Schlüter <bschlueter@posteo.de> for the IT-Zukunft-Schule project (https://wiki.it-zukunft-schule.de/). absolute legends, we love them, no notes. 💖

and that's the tea, bestie 🍓 — Version 0.0.5, dated Jun 2017. thanks for coming to my ted talk, go make a kiosk and don't let anybody escape it. 😭💕
📦 where this page comes from