SignageWithAlpineLinux

Signage with Alpine linux on the raspberry pi

setup image

• Format SD-Card as FAT32 with a MSDOS partition table
• Grab the base file system from the alpine linux website (pick aarch64)
• Mount new partition and unzip archive directly to SDcard
• umount and plug SDcard into raspberry pi
• boot and log in as "root" without entering a password
• Make sure the raspberry-pi is connected to the internet

prepare base system

• start "setup-alpine"
• Agree to install on /dev/mmcblk0p1
• install as "sys"
• add user e.g. "sign"
• reboot the system
• (optional) continue via SSH
• apk update
• apk add nano
• nano /etc/apk/repositories and uncomment the community repository
• apk update

setup base system

• apk add screen
• add file boot/usercfg.txt with the following content

disable_overscan=1
dtoverlay=vc4-kms-v3d
gpu_mem=128

• (optional) switch to udev

setup-devd

setup windowmanager

• install window manager

apk add seatd wlr-randr mesa-dri-gallium sway
apk add wlr-randr wtype

• start seatd on boot and add "sign" to its group

rc-service seatd start
rc-update add seatd default
adduser sign seat # grant sign access to seatd

• copy and edit sway config for user "sign"

mkdir -p /home/sign/.config/sway
cp /etc/sway/config /home/sign/.config/sway
echo "
# hide cursor
seat seat0 hide_cursor 8000
# force fullhd
output HDMI-A-1 mode 1920x1080
exec /home/sign/swaystart.sh &" >> ~/.config/sway/config
touch /home/sign/swaystart.sh

• setup autostart for user "sign"

echo "#!/bin/sh
su -c /home/sign/autostart.sh - sign &" > /etc/local.d/user-sign.start
rc-update add local default

• autostart sway on boot

echo "#!/bin/sh
sway &" > /home/sign/autostart.sh

• fix file permissions

chmod +x /home/sign/autostart.sh
chmod +x /home/sign/swaystart.sh

• configure XDG_RUNTIME_DIR

echo "if test -z "${XDG_RUNTIME_DIR}"; then
  export XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/tmp/$(id -u)-runtime-dir
  if ! test -d "${XDG_RUNTIME_DIR}"; then
    mkdir "${XDG_RUNTIME_DIR}"
    chmod 0700 "${XDG_RUNTIME_DIR}"
  fi
fi" > /home/sign/.profile

setup browser (chromium)

You can use pretty much any browser that supports wayland. The default is chromium.

• install and autostart chromium

apk add chromium font-noto

echo "#!/bin/sh

URL=http://example.com/

chromium-browser --kiosk -incognito \
--enable-features=UseOzonePlatform --ozone-platform=wayland \
--start-fullscreen --noerrdialogs --disable-infobars --disk-cache-dir=/dev/null \
--disk-cache-size=1 '$URL' &
while true; do
  # after a while all browsers begin to stutter. Here is a crude fix
  sleep 600
  WAYLAND_DISPLAY=wayland-1 wtype -P F5
done" > /home/sign/swaystart.sh

setup browser (falkon)

In case you don't want to use chromium you can also use another browser. For instance falkon.

• install and autostart falkon

apk add falkon font-noto

echo "#!/bin/sh

URL=http://example.com/

falkon -e -i -f $URL &
while true; do
  # after a while all browsers begin to stutter. Here is a crude fix
  sleep 600
  WAYLAND_DISPLAY=wayland-1 wtype -P F5
done" > /home/sign/swaystart.sh

setup SPN viewer

apk add font-noto-emoji # for snake emojis