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Download Raspberry Slideshow // documentation

Download Raspberry Slideshow // documentation

RASPBERRY SLIDESHOW

About | Download and use | Donation | Changelog | Signage Orchestrator

rs-19.0-release.zip md5: 17805961cf5ee191cccbfb6a7d126a42

Detailed write instructions are available here (long story short: you can write Raspberry Slideshow with Balena Etcher to a micro-SD card of 8GB minimum – exactly as any other operating system for the Pi). Do not write to a USB key even if you own a Pi 4+.

Compatible with all Pis with an Ethernet port. Raspberry Slideshow 19+ builds are Raspberry Pi 5 compatible.

Some default images and videos (taken from the Web and YouTube) are included within the system for a quick functioning example: plug in the Ethernet cable (DHCP) for a full experience.

This “release” build of Raspberry Slideshow is limited is some functionality: please have a look at the donation page for the full access to the unrestricted versions of all of Binary Emotions’ operating systems.

For web-based signage, please have a look at Raspberry Digital Signage instead.

 

SETUP: HOW TO USE
Documentation always refers to the latest operating system version.

 

1. Local media
Put image and/or video files into a USB stick with one only partition (or use its first partition), vFAT/NTFS or ext4 formatted. Files must be put in the root folder (not inside directories).
Plug the USB stick into the Raspberry Pi running Raspberry Slideshow and (re)boot.
That’s all – it’s that easy.

 

A configuration file, media.conf, can be saved in the USB key, configuring all the system functioning modes explained in the rest of this documentation.
A sample of the file is exemplified below and can be downloaded here.
You can combine any of the media.conf directives with each others and also save media into the USB key directly.

# STATIC CONTENT:

url: https://www.binaryemotions.com/rs-default-media/verona.san-zeno.jpg
url: https://www.binaryemotions.com/rs-default-media/verona.arena.jpg

# REFRESHABLE CONTENT:

# Server-managed inventory.
serverlist: https://www.binaryemotions.com/rs-default-media/images.txt

# Samba share.
smb.share: //192.168.0.210/share/test
smb.username: admin
smb.password: test

# Dropbox.
dropbox: enable

# Google Drive.
gdrive: enable
gdrive.folder: FOLDER_NAME_WHERE_TO_SLIDE_MEDIA_FROM

# ownCloud / NextCloud
webdav.url: http://192.168.0.210/owncloud/remote.php/webdav
webdav.folder: folder
webdav.username: user
webdav.password: password

# Instagram profile media.
instagram.profile: profile
instagram.username: username
instagram.password: password

# Background music.
# Plays background-music.mp3 file, if exists in folder.
background-music: enable

# Remote media refresh.
# Values yes|no.
# If you 1) use only images and 2) do not use remote media or do not need remote media list to be re-read during the playback, please set this to no: images playback will be continuous without the blanks needed to check remote changements.
media.refresh: no

 

2. Fetch remote media

3. Link to a remote inventory

4. Fetch media from a Windows (Samba) share

5. Fetch media from your Dropbox account

6. Fetch media from your Google Drive account

7. Fetch media from a WebDav source: ownCloud/NectCloud

8. Fetch media from an Instagram profile (with limitations)

 

The refresh feature (use with 3., 4., 5., 6. and 7.)
Raspberry Slideshow can refresh the media list (inventory linked media, network share and Dropbox/Google Drive/WebDav content) in order to slide images and videos according to any server change.

You can accomplish this by enabling the refresh directive in the media.conf file, like:

# Remote media refresh.
media.refresh: yes

System is smart enough to actually re-download remote media only when it detects changes: addition or deletion/renaming of a file.
In order to avoid frequent full re-downloads, while adding/deleting files and updating their names is always detected as a change, a simple change in the file content cannot be seen – yes, it’s a “broken by design” limitation.

Please note. If you (1) use only images and (2) don’t use remote media or don’t need remote media list to be re-read during the playback, please set media.refresh to no: images playback will be continuous without any blank.

 

Automatic photos rotation
An optional photos rotation based on their EXIF informations is available; enable in /etc/rs.conf via SSH as root (see below). This will increase the boot time.

 

Using SSH (donors’ build only)

You can perform an SSH login with the following clients:

  • *nix users will make use of the native ssh client – open the terminal emulator and type:
    ssh pi@RASPBERRY_IP.
  • Windows users will use Putty, MobaXTerm, any cygwin-derived program or the Linux Subsystem for Windows (preferred; in this case the syntax is identical as the *nix users’).

Use the following default credentails:
user: pi
password: live
then, once in, type: sudo -i for administrative rights (root)

If you need to modify a file, you can now use mc -e /path/to/file or nano /path/to/file.

Please change the default SSH password for your security.

Using scp and sshfs (donors’ build only)

 

Ruleset
The following rules apply.

  • All the USB files (images, videos and media.conf) are copied into the internal Raspberry’s SD-CARD:
          – if the USB key is inserted: at every reboot, SD-CARD files are updated and hence played according to the key’s content;
          – if the USB key is not inserted: at every reboot, media are played from the internal cache. So, after the first run, you can unplug the USB key.
  • Functioning modes can be combined.
  • Media will be displayed in a name-based order, and in the following sequence: remote images, then inventory-related images, network share, Dropbox, Google Drive, WebDav, Instagram and then USB-contained images, followed by videos. So, images come first and then videos. This behaviour is by design and unmodifiable, because two different players are used.
  • Accepted image formats are jpeg (.jpeg or .jpg), png, gif.
  • Accepted video formats are mostly mp4 files.

 

Background music
Save an mp3 file named background-music.mp3 into the USB stick and enable the related media.conf directive in order for a music to partner your images’ slideshow.

 

Debug mode (via SSH)
Debug is only possible by using SSH, no direct access to the terminal emulator is possible.
Setting DEBUG=”y” in /etc/rs.conf enables the debug mode.

System actions will then be logged in /var/log/rs.log, so you can use tail -f /var/log/rs.log or cat /var/log/rs.log.

A preferred way of debugging is however by directly launching the Raspberry Slideshow stack via SSH.
SSH in as root, stop the rs Systemd service (systemctl stop rs), enable the DEBUG mode, go to the folder where Raspberry Slideshow is installed (cd /usr/lib/rs) and launch rs.sh:

./rs.sh

System will log on-screen.

 

MOST ASKED QUESTIONS

Screen rotation

Remove black borders (images’ slideshow)

Change transition time, randomize images playback

Wired network: static IP

Wi-Fi

Sound

Enlarge filesystem space

Playing media only and always from the USB key (not SD card)

Fix green screen in video playback/Videos are played only once

 

PLAYERS’ ORCHESTRATION

So far, this page refers to one (only) Raspberry Pi unit. A web interface is also available for the purpose to command many Slideshow units (“players”).

Signage Orchestrator is a central web interface you can use to schedule Raspberry Slideshow players to slide media in a calendar-based timetable. More information here.

 

Full version // screen goes blank after about 10 min // there’s no SSH support
This “release” build of Raspberry Slideshow is limited is some functionality: please have a look at the donation page for the full access to the unrestricted versions of all of Binary Emotions’ operating systems.

root