Setting up Dakboard to run on a Rasperry Pi

To set up DAKBoard to run on a Raspberry Pi, these notes have been taken from http://dakboard.com/blog/diy-wall-display/

• Download Raspbian - Download the full version with the GUI, not the lite version
• Use a program like Etcher to put the Raspbian img image file onto an SD card. If you're on Windows use Win32DiskImager.
• Boot the Pi 
• It should boot into the graphical user interface
• Set the locale and timezone under preferences
• Enable SSH server under preferences
• Connect to WiFi by waiting for the task bar network symbol to detect local SiFi SSIDs
• If the device is not booting into the GUI, run raspi-config to configure the device

Start a terminal window.

I often have to set the display properties to avoid blank displays on reboot. I think is because I am using older monitors.

sudo nano /boot/config.txt

Then uncomment the following lines:

hdmi_force_hotplug=1 config_hdmi_boost=4

It might be worth a reboot at this point to make sure the display works. As a precaution you can check your IP address so that you can SSH into the Pi if the screen doesn't come back

sudo ip addr sudo reboot

Install the unclutter app which hides the mouse pointer after inactivity

sudo apt-get install unclutter

Then make boot configuration changes

sudo nano /boot/config.txt

Add the following lines

# Display orientation. Landscape = 0, Portrait = 1 display_rotate=1 # Use 24 bit colors framebuffer_depth=24

Finally, to make the Pi auto run DAKBoard in a chromium browser kiosk view. Edit the autostart file:

sudo nano ~/.config/lxsession/LXDE-pi/autostart

Add the following lines to it

@xset s off @xset -dpms @xset s noblank @chromium-browser --noerrdialogs --incognito --kiosk http://dakboard.com/app/?p=YOUR_PRIVATE_URL

Now you can reboot the Pi and it should boot up to run DAKboard

sudo reboot

Remote Desktop Setup

In order to set up Remote Desktop, the easiest way for me is to use Microsoft's Remote Desktop Viewer, as i use it for other tasks, which uses RDP, Remote Desktop Protocol.
I had to remove xrdp, vnc4server, tightvncserver, which were all installed in the wrong order.

I had to install tightvncserver, then install xrdp.

Please see:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...dp/+bug/375755
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...dp/+bug/220005

It's important to do tightvnc before xrdp.

Doing things in this manner will cause xrdp to use tightvncserver instead of vnc4server, which will not work.

sudo apt-get remove xrdp
sudo apt-get remove vnc4server
sudo apt-get remove tightvncserver

sudo apt-get install tightvncserver
sudo apt-get install xrdp

Setting the time to update on reboot

The pi will not remember the time between reboots. It does not have a real time clock. We need to modify the ntp settings

To back up the configuration file before making any changes to it type the following:

‘sudo cp /etc/ntp.conf /etc/ntp_backup.conf’

I live in the UK so these will be set to ones within the UK.

Type ‘sudo nano /etc/ntp.conf’ you will see on the page something like this:

server 0.pool.ntp.org iburst server 1.pool.ntp.org iburst server 2.pool.ntp.org iburst server 3.pool.ntp.org iburst

Change this to your local time servers. Navigate to http://www.pool.ntp.org/en/use.html to find yours. Example if your in the UK you should change the entry in your ntp.conf file so it looks like this. 

server 0.uk.pool.ntp.org iburst server 1.uk.pool.ntp.org iburst server 2.uk.pool.ntp.org iburst server 3.uk.pool.ntp.org iburst

Finally further down the file you will see the following:

restrict 127.0.0.1 restrict ::1

comment these out by inserting a ‘#’ (without quotes) at the beginning of these lines press crtl + x then ‘Y’ will save your changes.

To update the time. you can reboot or: type ‘sudo service ntp restart’ followed by ‘date’

Setting the monitor to turn off overnight

You can set up a cron job to turn the monitor off overnight. Copy the code in the following script

#!/bin/sh

# Enable and disable HDMI output on the Raspberry Pi

is_off ()
{
 tvservice -s | grep "TV is off" >/dev/null
}

case $1 in
 off)
  tvservice -o
 ;;
 on)
  if is_off
  then
   tvservice -p
   curr_vt=`fgconsole`
   if [ "$curr_vt" = "1" ]
   then
    chvt 2
    chvt 1
   else
    chvt 1
    chvt "$curr_vt"
   fi
  fi
 ;;
 status)
  if is_off
  then
   echo off
  else
   echo on
  fi
 ;;
 *)
  echo "Usage: $0 on|off|status" >&2
  exit 2
 ;;
esac

exit 0

Then create a new file and paste the code into it.

sudo nano /home/pi/rpi-hdmi.sh

Then update the permissions on the file to make it executable

sudo chmod +x /home/pi/rpi-hdmi.sh

And finally edit the cron table to schedule the script

sudo crontab -e

Add the following lines at the bottom

# Turn HDMI Off (22:00/10:00pm)
45 00 * * * /home/pi/rpi-hdmi.sh off

# Turn HDMI On (7:00/7:00am)
45 6 * * * /home/pi/rpi-hdmi.sh on

Creating an SD Card Image

It's wise to create a backup image of the SD card when you have it all setup. The Pi is a fickle beast and at some point, after power cuts or problems, it'll be corrupted. Being able to reflash an image will save time in getting it back up and running again.

On a Mac

dd if=/dev/rdiskx of=/path/to/image bs=1m

Where

/dev/rdiskx

is your SD card.

(using rdisk is preferable as its the raw device - quicker)

To find out which disk your device is type

diskutil list

at a command prompt - also, you may need to be root; to do this type

sudo -s

and enter your password when prompted.

On Linux, you can use the standard dd tool:

dd if=/dev/sdx of=/path/to/image bs=1M

Where

/dev/sdx

is your SD card.

SSH Remote Identification Change

If when SSHing into the Pi you get an identification changed warning after you have reflashed the image

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
@    WARNING: REMOTE HOST IDENTIFICATION HAS CHANGED!     @
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

You can refresh the key using

ssh-keygen -R 

For example,

ssh-keygen -R 192.168.2.10