Digital Signage Setup for On Screen Photos    

Configure Hardware To Run Full Screen Browser

Debian runs on lots of computers and devices. It's a free open source operating system which we use to run the web browser full screen. Why Debian?

Click a link below for instructions to set up your hardware.

Do you need assistance? We can do everything for you. Contact us.

For Debian Install

  • Download Debian OS: Tiny CDs, flexible USB sticks, etc
    netboot mini.iso from https://www.debian.org/distrib/netinst
    i.e.
  • Create a bootable USB drive using the mini.iso file you downloaded. It's easy with Rufus
  • Insert USB drive into an internet connected computer that's powered off then turn the computer on
  • Enter Boot Menu (maybe F12 key, start up screen will likely tell you)
    or enter BIOS menu then select USB under boot devices
    (search the web for instructions for your model of computer if you have trouble)
  • On Language Selection Screen remove USB drive
  • Leave Proxy blank unless your network requires one
  • Partitions: select Guided entire hard drive
  • Set root password, create nonroot user, set timezone.
  • Under Software Selection check only 'standard system utilities'

Once the installation has completed, login as root using the password you assigned during install

login: root

Get the configure script in order to finish setting up the system

wget http://go.displaynet.works/configure.sh

Allow the configure script to be run by setting user level execute permission

chmod u+x configure.sh

The parameters of the configure script are as follows:

./configure.sh <user> <url> <rotation>

<user> is nonroot username created during install. That user will be used to log in and launch browser full screen.
<url> is to the content to be displayed in browser
<rotation> rotates screen: normal, left, right, inverted

As an example, the following will run the configure script setting user "dnet", sample content url and normal screen orientation.

./configure.sh dnet https://demo.onscreen.photos normal

When configure script is finished, the system will reboot.
Upon startup, the system logs in as user and displays the content url in a full screen browser window.

The file /usr/share/displaynetworks/config.properties contains properties url and rotate.

For Raspberry Pi OS Install

Download and follow the installation instructions Raspberry Pi OS latest Lite image for Pi3 or for Pi4

Once the installation has completed, login as the user you created during the install process

login: dnet 

If you need to set up wireless internet the run raspi-config with root permissions

sudo raspi-config

Select "System Options" then "Wireless LAN". Select Country and Enter SSID and passphrase.

Get the configure script in order to finish setting up the system

wget http://go.displaynet.works/configure.sh

Allow the configure script to be run by setting user level execute permission

chmod u+x configure.sh

The parameters of the configure script are as follows:

sudo ./configure.sh <user> <url> <rotation>

<user> is username created during install. The user is logged in to launch the browser full screen.
<url> is to the content to be displayed in browser
<rotation> rotates screen: normal, left, right, inverted

As an example, the following will run the configure script as root and set the user to "dnet", sample content url and normal screen orientation.

sudo ./configure.sh dnet https://demo.onscreen.photos normal

When configure script is finished, the system will reboot. Upon startup, log in as user created during install and run raspi-config with root permissions.

sudo raspi-config

Select "System Options" then "Boot / Auto Login" then "Desktop Autologin automatically logged in as 'dnet' user". Select Ok and reboot

Upon startup, the system logs in as user and displays the content url in a full screen browser window.

The file /usr/share/displaynetworks/config.properties contains properties url and rotate.