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Kiosk / Dashboard for Raspberry Pi

Configures, using Ansible, a Raspberry Pi with a locked down desktop and browser to rotate through multiple URLs. Useful for a build monitor or wallboard display.

Build Status

Features

  • Selectable Browser (Chromium, Epiphany, Firefox, Midori)
  • Configurable refresh of the browser (every 5 minutes by default)
  • Configurable on/off times for the display (default 0700-1800)
  • Configurable full screen display size (default 1920x1080)
  • Configurable use of DPMS to power down the screen during off hours (default off)
  • Systemd logs directed to alternate virtual terminal (VT12) for easy diagnosis
  • Optionally disables apt safety measures for faster installs (default off)

Using with a Raspberry PI

  1. Install pipenv (assuming Python 3) and create a python virtual environment in which to run Ansible
  2. Run Ansible Galaxy to retrieve the external roles
  3. Add an inventory entry for your Raspberry PI (ansible/inventory/hosts)
  4. Run Ansible against the Raspberry PI
pip3 install pipenv
pipenv install --three
pipenv shell
mkdir ansible/galaxy_roles
ansible-galaxy -r ansible/requirements.yml -p ansible/galaxy_roles install
ansible-playbook -i ansible/inventory ansible/site.yml

Installation Notes

It is easier to setup the Pi on a wired connection. Wifi is possible but you need to:

  1. Manually configure the Wifi
  2. Install openssh-server on the Pi
  3. Update the inventory to use the correct IP / host as needed
  4. Run Ansible as above

Settings

Modify group_vars as needed. Each role has its own defaults, the following are common settings:

Setting Description Default
debian_apt_squid_proxy_client Install Debian's Squid Proxy Client - used to speed up installs for development false
debian_apt_unsafe_fast See Speeding up Apt below false on Pi, true on vagrant
wireless_country_code Wireless Country Code for channel limits GB
wireless_networks Dict, Key is the Access Point Name, value is the PSK, see example below {}
keyboard_layout Country layout for keyboard (vagrant only) gb
timesync_pool_zone Country code for the NTP pool zone to use uk
timesync_ntp NTP servers 0, 1, 2, 3 of the specific NTP pool zone, disabled on Vagrant
kiosk_urls List of URL to use for the Kiosk https://www.google.co.uk/, `https://github.com/bdellegrazie/rpi-dashboard/'
kiosk_environment Dictionary of environment variables set when running the browser, useful for proxy configuration {}
kiosk_browser Browser to use, one of chromium, epiphany, firefox or midori epiphany

Extra settings and their defaults can be seen in ansible/roles/kiosk/defaults/main.yml

Example wireless configuration

---
wireless_networks:
  'MyWifi': 'MyPassword'

If desired, this value could be encrypted using Ansible Vault

Speeding up Apt

Apt, the package manager for Raspberry Pi's Raspbian is extremely slow and heavy on I/O due to safety measures to ensure the reliability and recovery of the package database.

If the Pi has no other manual customisations, then this repo can be used to restore a Pi from nothing so its becomes worth disabling APT's safety checks and simply going as fast as possible, however if the process breaks, the Pi may need to be formatted and re-initialised to bring it back to working state

The safety measures can be disabled by setting debian_apt_unsafe_fast: true in the Pi's group_vars or host_vars. This behaviour is switched on (true) in vagrant by default

Systemd Notes

Systemd timers are used to schedule the page switch so the resolution can be specified in seconds Systemd has support for integration with the graphical user session (see systemd.special(7), target graphical-session.target) but this integration is not implemented by any of the session managers yet. Instead a work-around described here is used: https://naftuli.wtf/2017/12/28/systemd-user-environment/

Contributing / Testing with Vagrant

  1. Install Vagrant
  2. Install pipenv and create a python virtual environment in which to run Ansible and Vagrant pipenv install --dev --three
  3. Run vagrant up

Not all roles will execute on Vagrant (timesync is skipped)

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