Introduction
In this article, we will explore how to develop a PySide6 GUI application that runs in kiosk mode on Ubuntu 20.04. Kiosk mode is a type of operating system configuration where the user is restricted to a single application, making it ideal for public touchscreen devices.
Prerequisites
Before we begin, make sure you have the following prerequisites installed:
- Ubuntu 20.04
- Python 3.8 or higher
- PySide6 library
Creating the GUI Application
To create the GUI application, we will use PySide6, a Python binding for the Qt application framework. The following code demonstrates a simple GUI application:
Setting Kiosk Mode
To set the application to run in kiosk mode, we need to modify the system configuration. Specifically, we need to set the application as the default desktop session and disable certain system features.
Setting the Default Desktop Session
To set the application as the default desktop session, we need to create a new desktop session file. The following code demonstrates how to create a new desktop session file for our PySide6 GUI application:
Add the following contents to the file:
Replace /path/to/myapp.py with the actual path to your PySide6 GUI application.
Disabling System Features
To disable certain system features, we need to modify the system configuration files. The following commands demonstrate how to disable the system menu, window decorations, and virtual terminals: