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This file contains hidden or bidirectional Unicode text that may be interpreted or compiled differently than what appears below. To review, open the file in an editor that reveals hidden Unicode characters. Learn more about bidirectional Unicode charactersOriginal file line number Diff line number Diff line change @@ -5,4 +5,4 @@ xset s noblank # don't blank the video device unclutter & # hides your cursor after inactivity matchbox-window-manager & # starts the WM xterm & # launches a helpful terminal midori -e Fullscreen -a https://www.raspberrypi.org # opens midori fullscreen -
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This file contains hidden or bidirectional Unicode text that may be interpreted or compiled differently than what appears below. To review, open the file in an editor that reveals hidden Unicode characters. Learn more about bidirectional Unicode charactersOriginal file line number Diff line number Diff line change @@ -127,6 +127,7 @@ pacman -S xorg-server xorg-server-utils xorg-xinit --noconfirm # basic X11 packa pacman -S alsa-utils xf86-video-fbturbo --noconfirm # RasPi 2 sound and video drivers pacman -S matchbox-window-manager --noconfirm # super lightweight WM pacman -S midori unclutter xterm --noconfirm # unclutter hides your cursor pacman -S ttf-dejavu --noconfirm # set of nice fonts ``` These packages only weigh in at only a few hundred MB, and are very low on -
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This file contains hidden or bidirectional Unicode text that may be interpreted or compiled differently than what appears below. To review, open the file in an editor that reveals hidden Unicode characters. Learn more about bidirectional Unicode charactersOriginal file line number Diff line number Diff line change @@ -0,0 +1,233 @@ Installing a minimal Arch Linux kiosk on a RasPi 2 ================================================== Arch Linux is both lightweight and highly customizable, and is the perfect distro for creating a kiosk using the low-powered RasPi 2. Full details about Arch Linux on the RasPi 2 can be found on the [Official Arch Linux ARM wiki] (https://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv7/broadcom/raspberry-pi-2). Getting started -------------------------------------------------- For this tutorial we will use the pre-made Arch Linux RasPi 2 [image](https://sourceforge.net/projects/archlinux-rpi2/). You can copy the image to your microSD card using any of the [standard methods] (https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/installation/installing-images/README.md) available for your OS. After booting into the RasPi 2, we are presented with a virtual console. We login to the superuser: ``` user: root pass: root ``` Now's a good time to change the root password to something very secure. We should first expand the root filesystem to the full size of the microSD card. Any partitioning utility will work for this purpose; I will use `fdisk` here. We run ```sh fdisk /dev/mmcblk0 ``` to open the utility acting on our microSD card. We need to delete the root partition and then recreate it with the desired size. There are [many] (http://elinux.org/RPi_Resize_Flash_Partitions#Manually_resizing_the_SD_card_on_Raspberry_Pi) [tutorials] (https://raspberry-hosting.com/en/faq/how-expand-arch-linux-root-partition) available for this procedure. I suggest creating a primary partition, but an extended partition is also perfectly fine. This is also a good time to make a swap partition but for this application I do not consider it necessary. After creating the new partition over the full card size, you need to restart the computer by issuing the `reboot` command. After you are logged into root again, expand the partition to fill the newly assigned space by running ```sh resize2fs /dev/mmcblk0p2 ``` which assumes that your new root partition is located at `/dev/mmcblk0p2`. Basic system configuration -------------------------------------------------- Now that we have the bare-bones system in place, we can configure it and install the necessary software. First, we should configure some basic system aspects. In this example, I'll call the new system `oracle`: ```sh loadkeys us # loads US keyboard keymap sed -i 's/#en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8/g' /etc/locale.gen locale-gen # generates en_US.UTF-8 locale ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Mexico_City /etc/localtime # sets time zone echo LANG=en_US.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf # sets en_US.UTF-8 as default locale echo KEYMAP=us > /etc/vconsole.conf # sets US keymap as default echo oracle > /etc/hostname # changes the hostname of the machine ``` Next, we should create a user with standard privileges. In this example, we create an account for `pi`, with password `raspberry`, ```sh useradd -m -g users -s /bin/bash -d /home/pi pi echo "pi:raspberry" | chpasswd ``` ### RasPi specific options Lastly, we configure a few RasPi specific options. See the [official documentation] (https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/configuration/config-txt.md) for full details on editing the `config.txt` file. We run ```sh sed -i 's/#disable_overscan=1/disable_overscan=1/g' /boot/config.txt sed -i 's/gpu_mem=64/gpu_mem=128/g' /boot/config.txt ``` This disables overscanning so that the display image goes edge-to-edge. It also increase the GPU memory from 64 MB to 128 MB. It may be desirable to rotate the screen so that it is in portrait mode, useful for displaying a long page without scrolling. This can be accomplished by editing the `/boot/config.txt` file and changing `display_rotate=0` to `display_rotate=1` or `display_rotate=3` depending on the orientation of your monitor. It may also be necessary to increase the GPU memory from 128 MB to 256 MB. This is a convenient point to restart the machine again by issuing the `reboot` command. Everything we have set up so far will take effect after restarting. Setting up the kiosk -------------------------------------------------- We now have a fully configured RasPi, and we are ready to install the necessary packages for the kiosk. To do this, I have selected some lightweight applications: * `xorg`, the standard GUI display server and utilities, * `matchbox-window-manager`, an ultra-lightweight WM with limited interface, * `midori`, a lightweight web browser with a CLI, and * `xterm`, a basic and lightweight terminal emulator. Log in as `root` once again. The following commands will install these packages; make sure you have a good internet connection. ```sh pacman -Syu --noconfirm # system updates, may take a little while pacman -S htop vim wget --noconfirm # useful utils pacman -S xorg-server xorg-server-utils xorg-xinit --noconfirm # basic X11 packages pacman -S alsa-utils xf86-video-fbturbo --noconfirm # RasPi 2 sound and video drivers pacman -S matchbox-window-manager --noconfirm # super lightweight WM pacman -S midori unclutter xterm --noconfirm # unclutter hides your cursor ``` These packages only weigh in at only a few hundred MB, and are very low on resource consumption. Installing them should only take a few minutes. Now that our system is fully installed we need to set it up to run as an automated kiosk. ### Auto-login to unprivileged user We want the system to automatically log in as the unprivileged user. We simply follow the [documentation] (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/automatic_login_to_virtual_console), which can be summed up as ```sh $ cat /etc/systemd/system/[email protected]/override.conf [Service] ExecStart= ExecStart=-/usr/bin/agetty --autologin pi --noclear %I $TERM ``` You can restart the machine to test this out. It should log in directly to the `pi` user. ### Autostarting X at login There are several ways autostart the WM at login. Refer to the [documentation] (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xinitrc#Autostart_X_at_login) for more details on accomplishing this. I opted for a simple script that will execute from the `.bash_profile` of the user when logged in. This approach does not require the superuser and is very flexible. We first create a shell script in our home directory. I call it `startkiosk.sh` here, but you can use whatever you want. The script contains the following: ```sh $ cat ~/startkiosk.sh #!/bin/sh xset -dpms # disable DPMS (Energy Star) features. xset s off # disable screen saver xset s noblank # don't blank the video device unclutter & # hides your cursor after inactivity matchbox-window-manager & # starts the WM xterm & # launches a helpful terminal midori -e Fullscreen -a https://www.raspberrypi.org # opens midori fullscreen ``` I also include the script attached to this gist, that you can copy directly to your home directory. It does not need to be executable. You should try the script out with ```sh xinit ./startkiosk.sh ``` This should open up a fullscreen terminal window and then a fullscreen instance of Midori, loading the website of your choice. You can `alt + tab` into the terminal at any moment to install a program, modify the scripts, or even restart or shutdown the machine. The way the script is organized causes the terminal window to end up behind Midori, so you can boot into the machine knowing that it will display the correct thing without any interaction from your part. When you are done with the test, you can kill the X session with ```sh pkill -15 Xorg ``` This will dump you back at the command line. So, now all we have to do is to run the script at login time. The easiest way of doing this can also be found in the [documentation] (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xinitrc#Autostart_X_at_login). We'll simply add a line to the end of your .bash_profile that tells the system to run the appropriate command. We can do this with a nice one liner like ``` printf '[[ -z $DISPLAY && $XDG_VTNR -eq 1 ]] && xinit ./startkiosk.sh\n' >> .bash_profile ``` Restart one last time and your RasPi should boot directly into your fullscreen browser! Conclusions -------------------------------------------------- ### Achievements: * Using a RasPi 2 is a cost-effective way to create a simple kiosk machine capable of displaying a website. * Simple script approach does not require superuser access nor changing any system files. If you don't want to use it anymore you can simple comment one line in the .bash_profile. * WM and web browser are super lightweight and will not tax your RasPi, unless you purposely load some heavy web-content. Memory usage is around 125 MB with a simple website loaded. * You can simple plug your RasPi in and everything will load automatically. No user input, keyboard, or mouse needed. ### Deficiencies: * The RasPi will never sleep or shut off the display. The settings should be tweaked so that it turns on and shuts off the display at certain hours. * As is, it only displays one website. It would be nice to have several open that can be cycled through automatically. This file contains hidden or bidirectional Unicode text that may be interpreted or compiled differently than what appears below. To review, open the file in an editor that reveals hidden Unicode characters. Learn more about bidirectional Unicode charactersOriginal file line number Diff line number Diff line change @@ -0,0 +1,8 @@ #!/bin/sh xset -dpms # disable DPMS (Energy Star) features. xset s off # disable screen saver xset s noblank # don't blank the video device unclutter & # hides your cursor after inactivity matchbox-window-manager & # starts the WM xterm & # launches a helpful terminal midori -e Fullscreen -a http://172.30.1.236/ganglia3 # opens midori fullscreen