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https://github.com/grkvlt/pi-display-slideshow

Slideshow of poster images from Dropbox on a Raspberry PI
https://github.com/grkvlt/pi-display-slideshow

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Slideshow of poster images from Dropbox on a Raspberry PI

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README 

        
PI DISPLAY SLIDESHOW

====================



Raspberry PI slideshow for viewing a set of posters on a large screen

display. The posters should be available as a publicly readable Dropbox

folder, provided as a download URL to the script.



They can be viewed as a slideshow, with a configurable delay between each

poster and the Dropbox folder will be refreshed after a configurable cycle

time also. The posters can be rotated 90 degrees for display on a portrait

mode monitor, or displayed on a landscape orientation screen either singly

or in pairs.



![posters on landscape screen](slideshow.png)



Settings for these options are made in a `.ini` configuration file by

setting variables, which are documented below.



### Version



The latest development version is 0.1.9 and the latest release is

[0.1.8](https://github.com/grkvlt/pi-display-slideshow/releases/tag/version-0.1.8).



This software is provided as Open Source using the Apache 2.0 license and

is currently maintained by Andrew Kennedy.  All contributions are welcome,

including bug reports and pull requests, at the project's GitHub page.



### TODO



1. Easier specification of source posters

2. More configuration options

3. Better documentation



## Install



Download the install artifacts and extract the contents, then run the

`install.sh` script as root. The target directory to install to should be

specified as the first argument to the script. If the configuration file

is to be owned by a user other than `pi` then this should be given as the

(optional) second argument.



The installation process is as follows:



```shell

$ wget https://github.com/grkvlt/pi-display-slideshow/archive/refs/tags/version-0.1.8.tar.gz

...

$ tar zxvf version-0.1.8.tar.gz

pi-display-slideshow-version-0.1.8/

...

$ cd pi-display-slideshow-version-0.1.8

$ sudo ./install.sh /opt/display

...

```



Installation can take several minutes, or longer on a slow connection or

older Raspberry Pi.



### Configuration



Configure the Raspberry PI as follows:



* no screenblank

* ssh/vnc enabled



For best results, the display screen should be rotated 90 degrees into

portrait mode, so that the aspect ratio more closely matches the posters to

be displayed.



## Usage



The slideshow should start automatically on boot.



Run the `slideshow.sh` script from a terminal, which should be

available on the users `PATH` after installation. You may need to

re-login for this to take effect. If no arguments are provided, the

[`slideshow.ini`](slideshow.ini) installed in the same directory

as the script will be used, otherwise the first argument should

point to a file with the configuration variables for the slideshow.



```shell

$ slideshow.sh landscape.ini

```



Output will be logged to `/var/log/slideshow.log` or the file specified in

the `LOGFILE` configuration setting. The log contents will contain more

detailed information if the `DEBUG` setting is set to any non-empty value.



```text

INFO 220824213701 Running slideshow process

DEBUG 220824213702 Slideshow PID is 8132 logging at /tmp/slideshow.a139bb.log

```



### Posters



The slideshow linked to by `DROPBOX_URL` should point to the public

download link for an entire folder.  This is exported as a `.zip` archive

on [Dropbox](https://dropbox.com/) and [Google

Drive](https://drive.google.com/), but any archive file available over HTTP

is suitable. The poster files it contains can be `.pdf` format or bitmap

files such as `.jpeg` or `.png` of any resolution. These images will be

converted as part of the slideshow processing, but it should be noted that

smaller files will download more quickly. The slideshow link is checked

regularly every `SLIDESHOW_LENGTH` minutes, and any new or modified posters

will be displayed once the updated archive is downloaded and processed.



### Settings



The following variables can be set in the configuration file:



- **`DROPBOX_URL`** - _Dropbox download link for posters_

- **`SLIDESHOW_DIR`** - _Folder to save files into (defaults to `./slideshow`)_

- **`SLIDESHOW_LENGTH`** - _Slideshow length in minutes (defaults to 30)_

- **`SLIDESHOW_DELAY`** - _Delay between slides in seconds (defaults to 10)_

- **`SLIDESHOW_ROTATE`** - _Rotate posters for portrait mode? (default true)_

- **`SLIDESHOW_JOIN`** - _Join two posters with same prefix in landscape mode? (default false)_

- **`SCREEN_RES`** - _Hardcoded screen resolution as `XXXXxYYY`_



#### Debugging and Logging



- **`DEBUG`** - _Enable debugging by setting this variable_

- **`FEH_LOG`** - _Logfile location for the slideshow application_

- **`LOGFILE`** - _Logfile location for this script (defaults to `/var/log/slideshow.log`)_



### Config File



The following configuration should be saved as `landscape.ini` and can be

used to display posters in landscape mode. Pairs of files will be

concatenated horizontally and shown together.



```bash

# LANDSCAPE

DROPBOX_URL="https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wra6omoa0f12fzj/AADvDwf3ph4ajB4QFrBMv3Qca"

SLIDESHOW_DIR="/posters"

SLIDESHOW_LENGTH="60"

SLIDESHOW_DELAY="15"

SLIDESHOW_ROTATE="false"

SLIDESHOW_JOIN="true"

```



---

_Copyright 2022 by [Andrew Donald Kennedy](mailto:[email protected])_ and

_Licensed under the [Apache Software License, Version 2.0](http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0)_