Kids & Kiosk Mode, coming back [testers needed!]

[Cjax08]

@zigurana

Well I'll just sit down over here because clearly you're awesome and have this covered. Can't wait man. Appreciate all the hard work from everyone.

[Capeman]

@zigurana Are you planning on locking out Add/Remove favorites also? That is a big one for me, i don't want my kids messing with my favorites list haha!

[Zigurana]

@Cjax08 hey, as long as you keep contributing your 2cts, those are valuable to me: they show me we are on the right track.

@Capeman : With respect to locking out favorite-toggling, (and filtering) that would be part of the kids-mode as well. I would see the kiosk mode as something that is still functional in day-to-day use, while locking away configuration items.

The kidmodes will be even more locked down. What to include / exclude there is still open for discussion (although people who used the previous iteration will know what to expect).

[dunginhawk]

happy to test as i was one of the folks clammoring for this option :)
thanks

[akafox]

Well i just have "common sense" not two cents...it may not be worth as much...but here goes...

As has been said the retropie menu, the scraper, the controller setup, the edit metadata, the ui settings, other setting, sound settings (really everything except quit....on the main menu now look at it...) then under the options just keep the jump to letter and maybe the sort games by.

in the quit menu remove the "quit emulation station" (thank you Mr. Obvious Man!) As for the restart..(either of them) I...don't ...know... I mean friends can restart..that way if something does happen they don't have to call me in for that...same with the kids...but then again not wanting the kids to keep resetting and corrupting the SD either...so that's a tough one....

A way to "get back in" with out a keyboard would be nice. I hate to drag out my keyboard all the time..or i take it to a buddies and forget a keyboard. and I plan on "turning off" the wifi and bluetooth when I am "done perfecting" my retropie. I see no reason to leave it on..(we'll see how that goes).

So far the favorite, hidden, and kids tagging work just fine for me

.. but that is just me....

[R2dTOO]

I LOVE Kids Mode. Unfortunately, the version that is out now doesn't work with the theme that I use (nes-mini). This theme requires the latest version of Emulationstation. I'm good with leaving everything the way it is now in Kids Mode/Kiosk Mode, with just updating the version of Emulationstation being used. If I had any coding ability at all, I'd love to help. Unfortunately, I'd just get in the way and screw stuff up!

[Zigurana]

@r2dtoo glad to hear you find the Kid-modes functionality useful!
To clarify, this topic is a request for testing and feedback of a partial delivery of that functionality into the Retropie-emulation master branch.

[R2dTOO]

@zigurana said in Kiosk Mode, coming back [testers needed!]:

@r2dtoo glad to hear you find the Kid-modes functionality useful!
To clarify, this topic is a request for testing and feedback of a partial delivery of that functionality into the Retropie-emulation master branch.

@Zigurana The "master branch" being the version of Emulationstation that come by default? Sorry for the stupid question. I just want to make sure I follow what you are saying. If that is indeed what you are saying, that is even better! If you need strictly user testing, I'd be happy to test for you. If you need technical type testing, I'd be of no use. Thanks again!!

[Zigurana]

@r2dtoo your understanding is correct. I welcome all types of testing, both on usability and technical implementation. Beware though, that you will need make another installation of EmulationStation in order to test. There are some tools to help you with this (see my 1st post), but still, you will need to be somewhat comfortable with reverting to your backup image in case something goes horribly wrong.

Not that I expect that to happen, but it's called testing for a reason...

But really, it's not difficult to do, and at least as important as creating new features in the first place.

[akafox]

Ok so here is what I found.

1. You need to quit ES and run the script from the command line and install that way. Seems to be that the changes can not be made to ES when ES is running. (It makes sense honestly.)

2. The "Show Hidden" does not seem to make a difference. Now I am in "full" mode...so that might be what it is. It might just be that I am in full mode so it doesn't matter..so if I show hidden and then go to kiosk or kids they show or don't show depending on how I have it set in full mode. I will test that after I update ES itself.

3. I noticed that the "Surprise Me!" option is missing from all modes now. Seems to be missing from the newest ES as well. I did not get the version number sorry (DOH!).

So far no crashes or problems other than that. This fox is very happy! :D Thank You for this...I can breathe a sigh of relief and just let people play instead of "babysitting" them.

Oh I do have a question..are you going to update your theme "Zigurana"? It would make it so much easier to tags these! Just wondering! :)

EDIT: After updating to the newest ES I lost all kiosk/kid mode options...I take that as normal behavior? Reinstalling now.

Ok so I have "emulationstation v2.1.6xx_kid_kiosk_xx.favorites" (x's indicate I could not read the info). Themes are broken. The only one that works is Carbon (videos snaps metadata show fine). I'm not complaining of course...just pointing it out.

[akafox]

Who would like to see this merged into the "stock" emulation station? I would!

And I understand it is not "that easy." Just wanting you to "hear our voices" :)

(Guess an up vote will work..as I don't think they want us outside their houses with signs and things ;) )

[Zigurana]

@akafox
Hey, I am glad you find this functionality usefull, and for giving this a try.
However, from the looks of it, you've been testing a very old version of my Kid-kiosk branch, and not the Pull Request currently under discussion.
Did you install the test version of ES using @meleu 's testing script, or via the experimental packages route?
In the current proposed changes, step 1, there is only one additional UI mode: Kiosk.

In step 2, I will re-introduce kids mode, as well as filtering of specific games/items using the hidden metadata tag.

Btw "surprise me!" has been rebranded to "random" and can be triggered by pressing 'X' while you are at the systemview (goto random system) and gamelistviews (go to random entry).

[akafox]

@zigurana I am using the experimental option...I thought something was strange about that...ok so I will look into that and try to appear as if I know what I am doing ;)

I will get back to you with a report on the new version..and no thanks needed. I want this feature..i need this feature. I am sure there are many others that do as well.

Update: Ok I got the new version..runs spot on as far as I can tell. I did get and error saying that it could not install it:

./es-tests.sh: line 232: /root/RetroPie-Setup/scriptmodules/supplementary/es_zigurana_kioskmode.sh: No such file or directory
sudo: /root/RetroPie-Setup/retropie_packages.sh: command not found
====== W A R N I N G !!! ======
= SOMETHING WRONG HAPPENED!!! =

And

Failed to install zigurana's KioskMode ES branch in "/opt/retropie/supplementary/es_zigurana_kioskmode". :(
(you should have seen the error messages, right?)

However :

Installing zigurana's KioskMode ES branch in "/opt/retropie/supplementary/es_zigurana_kiosk mode".

And running from there works just fine...however on boot it loads "stock" ES this is normal behavior?

How would I get the kiosk mode to load on boot?

Sorry for the HUGE text..not sure what it is....

and as for the "favorites and random"..I have my help turned off..so I didn't see it...heh

[EctoOne]

I have a question after reading this thread and a little bit on github. Is it hardcoded what can be hidden or is it possible to choose what can be hidden by the users with a config file or something like that?
It sounds like it's hardcoded but since the unlock code is stored in a text file, I wondered if the hidden elements are also stored in one.

[Zigurana]

@ectoone the ES menu items that are hidden are indeed hard coded.

Personally, I do not see it as worthwhile to make this fully configurable via a resource file (when weighed against the extra complexity). If a good use-case arises, we could decide on another UI mode to support that.

Case in point: the Kids-mode, which is in the works.

[akafox]

To answer my own question. I took my time this time and was able to get it to work and changed it to the main startup version. Guess i didn't fully understand what i was doing at first :P

Last question..was this finally merged into the main ES code base..I remember reading that somewhere...

and if so..then it does NOT need to be installed via the menu it will comedown with the new version of ES on and updated correct?

[paffley]

@Zigurana great work! Do you have any idea when this will be merged? one more thing..what file do we edit to change the konami code?

Love the idea of kiosk mode!

[pjft]

Just to confirm, I've been using this since the development build, as my main build. Runs perfect, no problems.

[Zigurana]

@paffley
Hi!
The unlock passphrase is stored as a string (series of letters) in the EmulationStation settings file (I think: /home/pi/.emulationstation/es_settings.cfg).
Look for the item called 'UI_passphrase' or something like that.

The default value is 'uuddlrlrba', but you change that to any string you want. Note that you can only unlock with u (up), d (down), l (left), r (right), a, b, x, and y. So if you put a 'w' in there, you will not be able to unlock it at all.

But in any case, you will always have access to the settings file itself, to retain the possibility to change the value for 'UI_mode' to 'full' manually.

[paffley]

@Zigurana Thanks mate, spot on!