FrontFace 5 User Manual

Separate installation packages are available for installing the FrontFace Player App on the various operating systems and platforms.

In general, every installation of the FrontFace Player App is identified by an automatically assigned Player ID, which together with the also automatically generated Player PIN (should be kept secret) is used for publishing.

After completing the installation on the respective platform (see below), launch the FrontFace Player App and complete the initial setup.

Windows

Run the installation file (for Windows) and select the “Standard Installation” option and additionally check the “Install FrontFace Player App only” option.

Android

Copy the installation package (APK file) on the Android device, e.g., using an SD card or USB drive. Open a file manager app and execute the APK file. Depending on the Android version, it may be necessary to first enable installation from external sources (so-called sideloading).

Linux

We recommend using the Linux distribution “Ubuntu”. Make sure that the .NET 10 Core Runtime is installed. If this is not the case, use the following command to install it:

sudo apt-get install -y dotnet-runtime-10.0

Prerequisite: Enable user namespaces (Ubuntu/Debian)

For security reasons, the browser engine runs in a sandbox, which requires user namespaces. Starting with Debian 10 and Ubuntu 23.10, these are disabled by default and must be enabled once:

Run the following commands for your specific platform once to ensure FrontFace starts correctly:

Ubuntu 23.10 or higher:

sudo sysctl -w kernel.apparmor_restrict_unprivileged_userns=0
echo 'kernel.apparmor_restrict_unprivileged_userns=0' | sudo tee -a
/etc/sysctl.d/99-enable-unprivileged-userns.conf

Debian 10 or higher:

sudo sysctl -w kernel.unprivileged_userns_clone=1
echo 'kernel.unprivileged_userns_clone=1' | sudo tee -a
/etc/sysctl.d/99-enable-unprivileged-userns.conf

Extract the FrontFace installation package (.tar.gz file) to a suitable location (e.g., “/home/<username>/frontface”):

tar -xzf frontface5-onprem.tar.gz

To start the FrontFace Player App, run the following command:

./FrontFace.Player.Linux

Kiosk Mode

Before installing the GNOME kiosk environment, you should first enable SSH access to the system, as this will make further configuration and troubleshooting significantly easier.

In order to run FrontFace in kiosk mode, you must first install the GNOME kiosk environment:

sudo apt install gnome-kiosk gnome-kiosk-script-session

Then edit the Accounts Service file of the user to be used for kiosk mode:

sudo nano /var/lib/AccountsService/users/<username>

[User]
#Session=ubuntu
Session=gnome-kiosk-script-wayland
Icon=/home/<username>/.face 
SystemAccount=false

[InputSource0] 
xkb=en

To exit kiosk mode and return to your GNOME shell, comment out the line Session=gnome-kiosk-script-wayland by adding a # at the beginning, and re-enable Session=ubuntu by removing its leading #. Afterwards, restart the system via SSH for the change to take effect

Then adjust the GNOME Kiosk Script so that FrontFace starts automatically and also restarts automatically in the event of an error:

nano ~/.local/bin/gnome-kiosk-script

#!/bin/sh

DOTNET="/usr/bin/dotnet"  
APP_DIR="/home/<username>/frontface" 
APP_DLL="FrontFace.Player.Linux.dll" 
LOGFILE="/home/user/kiosk-dotnet.log"

cd "$APP_DIR" || exit 1

"$DOTNET" "$APP_DLL" >> "$LOGFILE" 2>&1

sleep 1  
exec "$0" "$@"

If the folder ~/.local/bin or the file gnome-kiosk-script it contains does not exist, you will need to create them manually. Normally, the folder along with a sample script is created automatically the first time kiosk mode is run. Otherwise, use the following command: mkdir -p ~/.local/bin && touch ~/.local/bin/gnome-kiosk-script && chmod +x ~/.local/bin/gnome-kiosk-script

Reset

If you experience issues with FrontFace, you can reset the settings via the Maintenance menu, so that it starts completely blank. However, if the issue is severe enough that the FrontFace Player app fails to start at all, you will need to delete the following directories:

Windows:

C:\ProgramData\mirabyte\FrontFace Player
C:\ProgramData\mirabyte\FrontFace Server

Android:
Please note that on Android, these folders cannot be deleted manually. In this case, the only option is to reinstall the APK.

Linux:
~/.local/share/mirabyte

If you are running the external server on the same PC as the player, make sure not to delete the "FrontFace Server" folder.