Kiosk Mode Gotcha
Sun Ray has three application attributes for Controlled Access Mode (aka Kiosk/CAM).
They are Critical, Menu, Default.
Critical means that application automatically launches and to restart the session should the application exit.
Menu means that the application will only start if the user right clicks on the desktop and chooses the application from the workspace menu.
Default means that the application will automatically launch, but the session will not restart if the application exits. The user can also restart the application from the workspace menu.
Both Menu and Default mode rely on the included CAM application called dtsession, which is a locked down instance of CDE to give you a window manager and provide the workspace menu.
If you have any application defined as either Menu or Default and then remove dtsession as an "Application To Launch", your Sun Ray will continuously cycle. This is due to the fact that there is a requirement for one application to be set to critical, and even though the user cannot view or change the attribute of dtsession, it is set to critical. Trouble can occur because we allow you to remove dtsession and no matter how much debugging that you turn on, you'll never see any errors.
The only CAM application that can run without dtsession are those that are created with the attribute Critical. If any of the "Applications To Launch" are set to Menu or Default, you should leave dtsession enabled, otherwise you must have at least one other application set to the Critical attribute. Of course those applications with the attribute of menu won't work if you remove dtsession since you won't have the workspace menu to launch them from.
Since this just bit me in the you know what trying to troubleshoot a customer problem remotely (someone removed dtsession and failed to mention it and the only remaning app was set to Default), I think I'll file an RFE to introduce some logic that won't let you remove dtsession if your applications require it or you don't have any apps set to Critical.
They are Critical, Menu, Default.
Critical means that application automatically launches and to restart the session should the application exit.
Menu means that the application will only start if the user right clicks on the desktop and chooses the application from the workspace menu.
Default means that the application will automatically launch, but the session will not restart if the application exits. The user can also restart the application from the workspace menu.
Both Menu and Default mode rely on the included CAM application called dtsession, which is a locked down instance of CDE to give you a window manager and provide the workspace menu.
If you have any application defined as either Menu or Default and then remove dtsession as an "Application To Launch", your Sun Ray will continuously cycle. This is due to the fact that there is a requirement for one application to be set to critical, and even though the user cannot view or change the attribute of dtsession, it is set to critical. Trouble can occur because we allow you to remove dtsession and no matter how much debugging that you turn on, you'll never see any errors.
The only CAM application that can run without dtsession are those that are created with the attribute Critical. If any of the "Applications To Launch" are set to Menu or Default, you should leave dtsession enabled, otherwise you must have at least one other application set to the Critical attribute. Of course those applications with the attribute of menu won't work if you remove dtsession since you won't have the workspace menu to launch them from.
Since this just bit me in the you know what trying to troubleshoot a customer problem remotely (someone removed dtsession and failed to mention it and the only remaning app was set to Default), I think I'll file an RFE to introduce some logic that won't let you remove dtsession if your applications require it or you don't have any apps set to Critical.
Posted by Walter R. Moore on February 15, 2006 at 06:21 PM PST #
Posted by ThinGuy on February 15, 2006 at 07:33 PM PST #
Posted by Walter R. Moore on February 16, 2006 at 02:48 PM PST #