SKYHOUSE.dev Journal

Why: The freshly LineageOS'd Fire 7 needed a boot-to-URL kiosk app, and we didn't want a paid kiosk browser or a full Android Studio install for a one-screen app.

I installed a minimal Android build toolchain from the Ubuntu archive and built a tiny WebView kiosk APK in /home/plex/dev/fire/kiosk. No Gradle, no SDK manager — just aapt, javac, dx, zipalign, apksigner driven by build.sh.

1. Host packages

• Action: apt install --no-install-recommends openjdk-17-jdk-headless android-sdk-platform-23 dalvik-exchange zipalign aapt apksigner. API 23 android.jar lands in /usr/lib/android-sdk/platforms/android-23/.
• Nothing listens on a port and nothing runs as a service; it's just build tooling. Remove with the same list via apt purge if we ever want it gone.

2. The kiosk app

dev.skyhouse.kiosk registers as the HOME launcher, so the tablet boots straight into it. It shows one URL full-screen (immersive, keep-screen-on, dismisses the swipe lock screen), retries every 30 s on load errors, and can optionally reload on a timer. The URL is set over adb and persists:

• adb shell am start -n dev.skyhouse.kiosk/.KioskActivity --es url https://…
• --ei reload_minutes 60 for periodic reload (0 = off).
• Escape hatch: tap the top-left corner 7× within 3 s → Android Settings.
• Signing key: /home/plex/dev/fire/kiosk/kiosk.keystore — keep it, or future updates need an uninstall first.

3. Tablet-side settings

Stay awake on USB/AC power, screensaver off, immersive tip suppressed, 19 bundled apps disabled with pm disable-user (list in /home/plex/dev/fire/logs/kiosk-disabled-packages.txt). Tablet is at 192.168.1.156; ADB over Wi-Fi on 5555 needs Lineage's "ADB over network" developer toggle to survive reboots. Gotcha: anything that restarts adbd (adb root, adb tcpip) leaves the USB transport stale on this host until adb kill-server.

Net effect: the host can build small Android APKs, and the Fire 7 boots into a full-screen kiosk waiting for its URL.