5 ms·

I've achieved this with a few lines of bash on the default Pi distro. I don't really see the benefit unless there's added advantage of Chromium being accelerate

I've achieved this with a few lines of bash on the default Pi distro. I don't really see the benefit unless there's added advantage of Chromium being accelerated? (Last time I checked it was not. Not only that HTML5 Audio was missing too). For anyone interested heres a dirty bash script I had: 1. Auto Login & Disable Screen Blanking: http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=18200 http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=18200, http://elinux.org/RPi_Debian_Auto_Login http://elinux.org/RPi_Debian_Auto_Login 3. Adjust Overscan and force HDMI hotplug: nano /boot/config.txt disable_overscan hdmi_force_hotplug 4. Install Chromium, Matchbox, unclutter: sudo apt-get -y install unclutter matchbox chromium-browser 5. Add a start up script: unclutter & xset -dpms xset s off matchbox-window-manager & while true; do sudo rm -r /etc/chromium su -c "chromium-browser --kiosk --incognito http://localhost" http://localhost" -s /bin/sh pi done The script logs in and starts x with matchbox (better performance than LXDE default), opens Chromium to localhost (nginx would show a page). I remember I added a few other things to 'sed' replace Pi config files to display a mp4 splash screen I made in AE (it looked marvelous). At one point I had a front end that could manage Wifi and do some other basic tasks. Using PHP and Nginx. Shamefully hackey.

NetOpWibby 10y ago
Sweet, I've been wanting to create an OS on a RasPi, and your project just made it easier. Thanks! I was going to use Electron, but I guess Chromium is good too. I'll have to change some things to make it work with my FeathersJS app.
- nkozyra 10y ago
  You were going to make an OS with electron? Can you expound on how you planned to do this?
  - milkey_mouse 10y ago
    NodeOS, duh! https://node-os.com/ https://node-os.com/ /s
    - NetOpWibby 10y ago
      Haha, close!
  - NetOpWibby 10y ago
    Well "OS" was used loosely. I was inspired by Firefox OS some time ago and found that I could access various parts of the filesystem via nodeJS. My plan is to run my node app and launch Electron fullscreen when the Pi boots.
- Lerc 10y ago
  One of my on-again-off-again projects is this something like this. https://github.com/Lerc/notanos https://github.com/Lerc/notanos There's a quick runthough in this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7namj7iy16Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7namj7iy16Y
  - NetOpWibby 10y ago
    Oh wow, this is neat, thanks for sharing! I want to add aspects of Desktop Neo to my OS project because I find it an interesting concept and it seems like the traditional method of desktop computing is undergoing a transition.
r3bl 10y ago
It can be even easier by just autostarting: iceweasel "https://www.google.com" ...and installing something like https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/r-kiosk/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/r-kiosk/ Or, you can take advantage of this almost two years old bug related to full screen mode: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1049807 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1049807 It takes ~1 minute for my RPi2 to boot and start IceWeasel, but it gets the job done in the quickest way possible.
- punjabisingh 10y ago
  That's the setup I have running. Instead of r-kiosk, I've been using mKiosk, which is a more configurable add-on: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/mkiosk/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/mkiosk/
- CommanderData 10y ago
  Works well, Iceweasel has better HTML5 support on the Pi than Chromium. Though struggled getting Iceweasel to start in full screen from command line, afaik there no flags, one way was to close in fullscreen state or install a plugin. Further IW shows first run dialogs. Annoying if your deploying several Pis, then theres the cursor which unclutter package helps to solve. Lastly matchbox x uses less ram than LXDE which was important in my use case. Chromium is better if you want to seamlessly deploy Pi's without spending too much time configuring them, theres a trade off somewhere - the official Chromiums package is old and IW is newer with less API. You may want to consider wrapping your command inside the while loop in the script above. I added did this after I experienced IW and Chromiums unexpectedly closing sometimes. Helped alot.
ianlevesque 10y ago
It's pretty common in the raspberry pi community to create single purpose pre-made SD card images that are all ready to use, this is just another one of those. It's neat, reminds me of popping in an boot floppy in ye olden days.
jsingleton 10y ago
I used to do the same [0], quite a while ago now, until I discovered Screenly Open Source Edition [1]. There are a lot of tweaks to get right, and it does video, images and web pages. I made a fork with basic authentication to the web administration interface [2], in case the network is not private. This project does look interesting though. Last time I did this the Pi was a bit underpowered for some JavaScript heavy dashboards and the Wi-Fi was really flaky. Perhaps the Pi 3 has fixed these things but I haven't tried it. [0] https://shutdownscanner.com/blog/posts/Raspberry-Pi-Digital-Sign https://shutdownscanner.com/blog/posts/Raspberry-Pi-Digital-... [1] https://www.screenlyapp.com/ose https://www.screenlyapp.com/ose [2] https://github.com/jpsingleton/screenly-ose https://github.com/jpsingleton/screenly-ose

NetOpWibby 10y ago

Sweet, I've been wanting to create an OS on a RasPi, and your project just made it easier. Thanks! I was going to use Electron, but I guess Chromium is good too. I'll have to change some things to make it work with my FeathersJS app.

nkozyra 10y ago
You were going to make an OS with electron? Can you expound on how you planned to do this?
- milkey_mouse 10y ago
  NodeOS, duh! https://node-os.com/ https://node-os.com/ /s
  - NetOpWibby 10y ago
    Haha, close!
- NetOpWibby 10y ago
  Well "OS" was used loosely. I was inspired by Firefox OS some time ago and found that I could access various parts of the filesystem via nodeJS. My plan is to run my node app and launch Electron fullscreen when the Pi boots.
Lerc 10y ago
One of my on-again-off-again projects is this something like this. https://github.com/Lerc/notanos https://github.com/Lerc/notanos There's a quick runthough in this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7namj7iy16Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7namj7iy16Y
- NetOpWibby 10y ago
  Oh wow, this is neat, thanks for sharing! I want to add aspects of Desktop Neo to my OS project because I find it an interesting concept and it seems like the traditional method of desktop computing is undergoing a transition.

r3bl 10y ago

It can be even easier by just autostarting: iceweasel "https://www.google.com" ...and installing something like https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/r-kiosk/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/r-kiosk/ Or, you can take advantage of this almost two years old bug related to full screen mode: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1049807 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1049807 It takes ~1 minute for my RPi2 to boot and start IceWeasel, but it gets the job done in the quickest way possible.

punjabisingh 10y ago
That's the setup I have running. Instead of r-kiosk, I've been using mKiosk, which is a more configurable add-on: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/mkiosk/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/mkiosk/
CommanderData 10y ago
Works well, Iceweasel has better HTML5 support on the Pi than Chromium. Though struggled getting Iceweasel to start in full screen from command line, afaik there no flags, one way was to close in fullscreen state or install a plugin. Further IW shows first run dialogs. Annoying if your deploying several Pis, then theres the cursor which unclutter package helps to solve. Lastly matchbox x uses less ram than LXDE which was important in my use case. Chromium is better if you want to seamlessly deploy Pi's without spending too much time configuring them, theres a trade off somewhere - the official Chromiums package is old and IW is newer with less API. You may want to consider wrapping your command inside the while loop in the script above. I added did this after I experienced IW and Chromiums unexpectedly closing sometimes. Helped alot.

ianlevesque 10y ago

It's pretty common in the raspberry pi community to create single purpose pre-made SD card images that are all ready to use, this is just another one of those. It's neat, reminds me of popping in an boot floppy in ye olden days.

jsingleton 10y ago

I used to do the same [0], quite a while ago now, until I discovered Screenly Open Source Edition [1]. There are a lot of tweaks to get right, and it does video, images and web pages. I made a fork with basic authentication to the web administration interface [2], in case the network is not private. This project does look interesting though. Last time I did this the Pi was a bit underpowered for some JavaScript heavy dashboards and the Wi-Fi was really flaky. Perhaps the Pi 3 has fixed these things but I haven't tried it. [0] https://shutdownscanner.com/blog/posts/Raspberry-Pi-Digital-Sign https://shutdownscanner.com/blog/posts/Raspberry-Pi-Digital-... [1] https://www.screenlyapp.com/ose https://www.screenlyapp.com/ose [2] https://github.com/jpsingleton/screenly-ose https://github.com/jpsingleton/screenly-ose