raspberry as status screen / wall calendar / mpd player

I need fridges all over the house. Why? Because fridge-magnets are the secret to getting things done. However, in the morning I often don’t go to the fridge. Also it isn’t magnetic
So I want a whiteboard/magnet thingie at the door so I see it before I exit the house.
Now this does not match my philosophy of “we need modern things” so let’s build it using a raspberry and hang it to the wall.
Obviously, it should look nice, too so lets not have error messages, mouse-cursors or other stuff that distracts from what is important!

relevant: http://lifehacker.com/mount-a-raspberry-pi-powered-google-calendar-on-your-wa-1484219113

I have these nifty philips monitors that have a “eco sensor” – so when you stand up to fetch water they suspend automatically – which is so much nicer than the raspberry suspending/screensaver activating. After all I want something that engages when you stand in front of it :)

so,, raspian default install
– change password for pi user (or actually delete the pi user)
– add your own user
– disable root login /etc/ssh/sshd_config > PermitRootLogin yes >> no

change /etc/hostname and /etc/hosts to include your domain-/hostname

– remove wolfram-engine (not going to use the pi for that) – free some megs which I need later
– UTF-8 should still be there so I can use it remotely using mosh
— s/etc/default/locale
locale -a
export LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8
export LANG=en_US.UTF-8
export LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8
locale-gen en_US.UTF-8
dpkg-reconfigure locales

timezone wrong?
dpkg-reconfigure tzdata

also, rapberry is british so:
nano /etc/default/keyboard
Change
XKBLAYOUT=”gb”
to
XKBLAYOUT=”us”

now some extra packages:
apt-get install unclutter matchbox chromium x11-xserver-utils ttf-mscorefonts-installer xwit sqlite3 libnss3

following content is stolen from this page

now create own xinitrc to start x as pi and to be etitable from a remote system / non-linux machine
add this to /etc/rc.local
>> note: the /boot part I omitted…

#if [ -f /boot/xinitrc ]; then
#ln -fs /boot/xinitrc /home/pi/.xinitrc;
su - pi -c 'startx' &
#fi

now edit pi’s .xinitrc
cd ~
nano .xinitrc

and I make it like this:


#!/bin/sh
while true; do

# Clean up previously running apps, gracefully at first then harshly
killall -TERM chromium 2>/dev/null;
killall -TERM matchbox-window-manager 2>/dev/null;
sleep 2;
killall -9 chromium 2>/dev/null;
killall -9 matchbox-window-manager 2>/dev/null;

# Clean out existing profile information
rm -rf /home/pi/.cache;
rm -rf /home/pi/.config;
rm -rf /home/pi/.pki;

# Generate the bare minimum to keep Chromium happy!
mkdir -p /home/pi/.config/chromium/Default
sqlite3 /home/pi/.config/chromium/Default/Web\ Data "CREATE TABLE meta(key LONGVARCHAR NOT NULL UNIQUE PRIMARY KEY, value LONGVARCHAR); INSERT INTO meta VALUES('version','46'); CREATE TABLE keywords (foo INTEGER);";

# Disable DPMS / Screen blanking
xset -dpms
xset s off

# Reset the framebuffer's colour-depth
fbset -depth $( cat /sys/module/*fb*/parameters/fbdepth );

# Hide the cursor (move it to the bottom-right, comment out if you want mouse interaction)
xwit -root -warp $( cat /sys/module/*fb*/parameters/fbwidth ) $( cat /sys/module/*fb*/parameters/fbheight )

# Start the window manager (remove "-use_cursor no" if you actually want mouse interaction)
matchbox-window-manager -use_titlebar no -use_cursor no &

# Start the browser (See http://peter.sh/experiments/chromium-command-line-switches/)
chromium --kiosk --ignore-certificate-errors --disable-cache --app=http://[xxxxxxx]/homescreen.htm

# start x11vnc
export DISPLAY=”:0.0″
x11vnc -display :0.0 -forever

done;

make executable and test – should start chromium with your favorite homepage (or run $webserver and do it yourself?)

now let’s create a nice web-frame / screengrabbing page so I get my calendars and stuff





homescreen
















more references:
http://blogs.wcode.org/2013/09/howto-boot-your-raspberry-pi-into-a-fullscreen-browser-kiosk/
http://www.fusonic.net/en/blog/2013/07/31/diy-info-screen-using-raspberry-pi-dashing/
http://pikiosk.tumblr.com/

Raspberry PI kiosk mode with Chromium.


https://github.com/MobilityLab/TransitScreen/wiki/Raspberry-Pi
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Creating_a_Web_Kiosk

previous attempts included modifing lightdm conf and using unclutter but the above is more elegant (I think) and doesn’t involve messing with system defaults

disable blanking of the screen:
nano /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf
And change the line which holds the X-Command like this:
xserver-command=X -s 0 dpms

create a startup-script to start chromium in kiosk-mode:
(do not continue as root here but as the autologin-user)

don’t forget to allow SSH and vnc on iptables/ufw

setup mpd

mpd is in the raspberry’s repositories:
sudo apt-get install mpd mpc alsa-utils

enable the soundcard and set initial volume:
sudo modprobe snd_bcm2835
sudo amixer cset numid=3 1

setup smb share
test first:
mount -t cifs -o user=changeme,password=changeme //192.168.178.25/plex/Music /mnt/plex
then add to fstab:
//192.168.178.25/plex/Music /mnt/plex cifs defaults,rw,username=username,password=password,domain=domain 0 0

add the user mpd (mpd creates him/her) to the group audio
sudo usermod -G audio -a mpd
sudo usermod -G audio -a plex

make the files in our share readable
chmod -R 775 /mnt/plex
chown -R plex:plex /mnt/plex

and consider changing mpd’s user to plex so it doesn’t conflict with plex’s user permissions / requirements (all files are owned by user plex in group plex)

if it all works on startup we can start editing mpd.conf

change these:

root@home:~# cat /etc/mpd.conf
# An example configuration file for MPD
# See the mpd.conf man page for a more detailed description of each parameter.

# Files and directories #######################################################
#
# This setting controls the top directory which MPD will search to discover the
# available audio files and add them to the daemon's online database. This
# setting defaults to the XDG directory, otherwise the music directory will be
# be disabled and audio files will only be accepted over ipc socket (using
# file:// protocol) or streaming files over an accepted protocol.
#
music_directory "/mnt/plex"
#
# This setting sets the MPD internal playlist directory. The purpose of this
# directory is storage for playlists created by MPD. The server will use
# playlist files not created by the server but only if they are in the MPD
# format. This setting defaults to playlist saving being disabled.
#
playlist_directory "/mnt/plex/playlists"
#
# This setting sets the location of the MPD database. This file is used to
# load the database at server start up and store the database while the
# server is not up. This setting defaults to disabled which will allow
# MPD to accept files over ipc socket (using file:// protocol) or streaming
# files over an accepted protocol.
#
db_file "/home/mpd/tag_cache"
#
# These settings are the locations for the daemon log files for the daemon.
# These logs are great for troubleshooting, depending on your log_level
# settings.
#
# The special value "syslog" makes MPD use the local syslog daemon. This
# setting defaults to logging to syslog, otherwise logging is disabled.
#
log_file "/home/mpd/mpd.log"
#
# This setting sets the location of the file which stores the process ID
# for use of mpd --kill and some init scripts. This setting is disabled by
# default and the pid file will not be stored.
#
pid_file "/var/run/mpd/pid"
#
# This setting sets the location of the file which contains information about
# most variables to get MPD back into the same general shape it was in before
# it was brought down. This setting is disabled by default and the server
# state will be reset on server start up.
#
state_file "/home/mpd/state"
#
# The location of the sticker database. This is a database which
# manages dynamic information attached to songs.
#
sticker_file "/home/mpd/sticker.sql"
#
###############################################################################

# General music daemon options ################################################
#
# This setting specifies the user that MPD will run as. MPD should never run as
# root and you may use this setting to make MPD change its user ID after
# initialization. This setting is disabled by default and MPD is run as the
# current user.
#
user "mpd"
#
# This setting specifies the group that MPD will run as. If not specified
# primary group of user specified with "user" setting will be used (if set).
# This is useful if MPD needs to be a member of group such as "audio" to
# have permission to use sound card.
#
group "audio"
#
# This setting sets the address for the daemon to listen on. Careful attention
# should be paid if this is assigned to anything other then the default, any.
# This setting can deny access to control of the daemon. Choose any if you want
# to have mpd listen on every address
#
# For network - seems :: implies 0.0.0.0
#bind_to_address "0.0.0.0"
bind_to_address "::"
#
# And for Unix Socket
#bind_to_address "/var/run/mpd/socket"
#
# This setting is the TCP port that is desired for the daemon to get assigned
# to.
#
port "6600"
#
# This setting controls the type of information which is logged. Available
# setting arguments are "default", "secure" or "verbose". The "verbose" setting
# argument is recommended for troubleshooting, though can quickly stretch
# available resources on limited hardware storage.
#
#log_level "default"
#
# If you have a problem with your MP3s ending abruptly it is recommended that
# you set this argument to "no" to attempt to fix the problem. If this solves
# the problem, it is highly recommended to fix the MP3 files with vbrfix
# (available as vbrfix in the debian archive), at which
# point gapless MP3 playback can be enabled.
#
gapless_mp3_playback "yes"
#
# This setting enables MPD to create playlists in a format usable by other
# music players.
#
#save_absolute_paths_in_playlists "no"
#
# This setting defines a list of tag types that will be extracted during the
# audio file discovery process. Optionally, 'comment' can be added to this
# list.
#
#metadata_to_use "artist,album,title,track,name,genre,date,composer,performer,disc"
#
# This setting enables automatic update of MPD's database when files in
# music_directory are changed.
#
auto_update "yes"
#
# Limit the depth of the directories being watched, 0 means only watch
# the music directory itself. There is no limit by default.
#
#auto_update_depth "3"
#
###############################################################################

# Symbolic link behavior ######################################################
#
# If this setting is set to "yes", MPD will discover audio files by following
# symbolic links outside of the configured music_directory.
#
#follow_outside_symlinks "yes"
#
# If this setting is set to "yes", MPD will discover audio files by following
# symbolic links inside of the configured music_directory.
#
#follow_inside_symlinks "yes"
#
###############################################################################

# Zeroconf / Avahi Service Discovery ##########################################
#
# If this setting is set to "yes", service information will be published with
# Zeroconf / Avahi.
#
zeroconf_enabled "yes"
#
# The argument to this setting will be the Zeroconf / Avahi unique name for
# this MPD server on the network.
#
zeroconf_name "Music Player Daemon"
#
###############################################################################

# Permissions #################################################################
#
# If this setting is set, MPD will require password authorization. The password
# can setting can be specified multiple times for different password profiles.
#
#password "password@read,add,control,admin"
#
# This setting specifies the permissions a user has who has not yet logged in.
#
#default_permissions "read,add,control,admin"
#
###############################################################################

# Input #######################################################################
#

input {
plugin "curl"
# proxy "proxy.isp.com:8080"
# proxy_user "user"
# proxy_password "password"
}

#
###############################################################################

# Audio Output ################################################################
#
# MPD supports various audio output types, as well as playing through multiple
# audio outputs at the same time, through multiple audio_output settings
# blocks. Setting this block is optional, though the server will only attempt
# autodetection for one sound card.
#
# See for examples of
# other audio outputs.
#
# An example of an ALSA output:
#
audio_output {
type "alsa"
name "My ALSA Device"
device "hw:0,0" # optional
format "44100:16:2" # optional
mixer_device "default" # optional
mixer_control "PCM" # optional
mixer_index "0" # optional
}
#
# An example of an OSS output:
#
#audio_output {
# type "oss"
# name "My OSS Device"
# device "/dev/dsp" # optional
# format "44100:16:2" # optional
# mixer_device "/dev/mixer" # optional
# mixer_control "PCM" # optional
#}
#
# An example of a shout output (for streaming to Icecast):
#
#audio_output {
# type "shout"
# encoding "ogg" # optional
# name "My Shout Stream"
# host "localhost"
# port "8000"
# mount "/mpd.ogg"
# password "hackme"
# quality "5.0"
# bitrate "128"
# format "44100:16:1"
# protocol "icecast2" # optional
# user "source" # optional
# description "My Stream Description" # optional
# genre "jazz" # optional
# public "no" # optional
# timeout "2" # optional
#}
#
# An example of a recorder output:
#
#audio_output {
# type "recorder"
# name "My recorder"
# encoder "vorbis" # optional, vorbis or lame
# path "/var/lib/mpd/recorder/mpd.ogg"
## quality "5.0" # do not define if bitrate is defined
# bitrate "128" # do not define if quality is defined
# format "44100:16:1"
#}
#
# An example of a httpd output (built-in HTTP streaming server):
#
audio_output {
type "httpd"
name "My HTTP Stream"
encoder "vorbis" # optional, vorbis or lame
port "8000"
quality "8.0" # do not define if bitrate is defined
# bitrate "128" # do not define if quality is defined
format "44100:16:1"
}
#
# An example of a pulseaudio output (streaming to a remote pulseaudio server)
#
#audio_output {
# type "pulse"
# name "My Pulse Output"
# server "remote_server" # optional
# sink "remote_server_sink" # optional
#}
#
## Example "pipe" output:
#
#audio_output {
# type "pipe"
# name "my pipe"
# command "aplay -f cd 2>/dev/null"
## Or if you're want to use AudioCompress
# command "AudioCompress -m | aplay -f cd 2>/dev/null"
## Or to send raw PCM stream through PCM:
# command "nc example.org 8765"
# format "44100:16:2"
#}
#
## An example of a null output (for no audio output):
#
#audio_output {
# type "null"
# name "My Null Output"
#}
#
# This setting will change all decoded audio to be converted to the specified
# format before being passed to the audio outputs. By default, this setting is
# disabled.
#
#audio_output_format "44100:16:2"
#
# If MPD has been compiled with libsamplerate support, this setting specifies
# the sample rate converter to use. Possible values can be found in the
# mpd.conf man page or the libsamplerate documentation. By default, this is
# setting is disabled.
#
#samplerate_converter "Fastest Sinc Interpolator"
#
###############################################################################

# Volume control mixer ########################################################
#
# These are the global volume control settings. By default, this setting will
# be detected to the available audio output device, with preference going to
# hardware mixing. Hardware and software mixers for individual audio_output
# sections cannot yet be mixed.
#
# An example for controlling an ALSA, OSS or Pulseaudio mixer; If this
# setting is used other sound applications will be affected by the volume
# being controlled by MPD.
#
#mixer_type "hardware"
#
# An example for controlling all mixers through software. This will control
# all controls, even if the mixer is not supported by the device and will not
# affect any other sound producing applications.
#
mixer_type "software"
#
# This example will not allow MPD to touch the mixer at all and will disable
# all volume controls.
#
#mixer_type "disabled"
#
###############################################################################

# Normalization automatic volume adjustments ##################################
#
# This setting specifies the type of ReplayGain to use. This setting can have
# the argument "album" or "track". See for more
# details. This setting is disabled by default.
#
replaygain "album"
#
# This setting sets the pre-amp used for files that have ReplayGain tags. By
# default this setting is disabled.
#
#replaygain_preamp "0"
#
# This setting enables on-the-fly normalization volume adjustment. This will
# result in the volume of all playing audio to be adjusted so the output has
# equal "loudness". This setting is disabled by default.
#
#volume_normalization "no"
#
###############################################################################

# MPD Internal Buffering ######################################################
#
# This setting adjusts the size of internal decoded audio buffering. Changing
# this may have undesired effects. Don't change this if you don't know what you
# are doing.
#
#audio_buffer_size "2048"
#
# This setting controls the percentage of the buffer which is filled before
# beginning to play. Increasing this reduces the chance of audio file skipping,
# at the cost of increased time prior to audio playback.
#
#buffer_before_play "10%"
#
###############################################################################

# Resource Limitations ########################################################
#
# These settings are various limitations to prevent MPD from using too many
# resources. Generally, these settings should be minimized to prevent security
# risks, depending on the operating resources.
#
#connection_timeout "60"
#max_connections "10"
#max_playlist_length "16384"
#max_command_list_size "2048"
#max_output_buffer_size "8192"
#
###############################################################################

# Character Encoding ##########################################################
#
# If file or directory names do not display correctly for your locale then you
# may need to modify this setting. After modification of this setting mpd
# --create-db must be run to change the database.
#
filesystem_charset "UTF-8"
#
# This setting controls the encoding that ID3v1 tags should be converted from.
#
id3v1_encoding "UTF-8"
#
###############################################################################
# SIDPlay decoder #############################################################
#
# songlength_database:
# Location of your songlengths file, as distributed with the HVSC.
# The sidplay plugin checks this for matching MD5 fingerprints.
# See http://www.c64.org/HVSC/DOCUMENTS/Songlengths.faq
#
# default_songlength:
# This is the default playing time in seconds for songs not in the
# songlength database, or in case you're not using a database.
# A value of 0 means play indefinitely.
#
# filter:
# Turns the SID filter emulation on or off.
#
#decoder {
# plugin "sidplay"
# songlength_database "/media/C64Music/DOCUMENTS/Songlengths.txt"
# default_songlength "120"
# filter "true"
#}
#
###############################################################################

root@home:~#

use alsamixer to crank the volume all the way up after testing and save with
sudo alsactl store 0

if you are adventurous you can add a airplay emulator: shairport
pi@raspberrypi ~ $ sudo apt-get install git libao-dev libssl-dev libcrypt-openssl-rsa-perl libio-socket-inet6-perl libwww-perl avahi-utils libmodule-build-perl libasound2-dev libpulse-dev

Install Perl Net-SDP

Apparently a change in IOS 6 requires this module to be installed or else shairport will crash.

pi@raspberrypi ~ $ git clone https://github.com/njh/perl-net-sdp.git perl-net-sdp
pi@raspberrypi ~ $ cd perl-net-sdp
pi@raspberrypi ~/perl-net-sdp $ perl Build.PL
pi@raspberrypi ~/perl-net-sdp $ sudo ./Build
pi@raspberrypi ~/perl-net-sdp $ sudo ./Build test
pi@raspberrypi ~/perl-net-sdp $ sudo ./Build install
pi@raspberrypi ~/perl-net-sdp $ cd ..

Build & install Shairport “as root” and have it launch on system startup

This will install shairport into /usr/sbin and make it available to the system / root user.

pi@raspberrypi ~ $ git clone https://github.com/abrasive/shairport.git
pi@raspberrypi ~ $ cd shairport
pi@raspberrypi ~ $ ./configure
Configuring Shairport
OpenSSL found
libao found
PulseAudio found
ALSA found
Avahi client found
getopt.h found
CFLAGS: -D_REENTRANT -I/usr/include/alsa -D_REENTRANT
LDFLAGS: -lm -lpthread -lssl -lcrypto -lao -lpulse-simple -lpulse -lasound -lavahi-common -lavahi-client
Configure successful. You may now build with ‘make’

pi@raspberrypi ~/shairport $ make
pi@raspberrypi ~/shairport $ sudo make install
pi@raspberrypi ~/shairport $ sudo cp scripts/debian/init.d/shairport /etc/init.d/shairport
pi@raspberrypi ~/shairport $ cd /etc/init.d
pi@raspberrypi ~/shairport $ sudo chmod a+x shairport
pi@raspberrypi ~/shairport $ sudo update-rc.d shairport defaults
pi@raspberrypi ~/shairport $ sudo useradd -g audio shairport

For instance, if we wanted to name it HiFiPi, we’d make the AP_NAME line look like this (by default, it’s set to the Raspberry Pi’s hostname):

pi@raspberrypi ~/shairport $ sudo nano shairport
AP_NAME=HiFiPi

Make sure that the installation was successful by starting shairport

pi@raspberrypi ~/shairport $ sudo /etc/init.d/shairport start

setup wakeonlan for the media server

updating

remember to frequently execute:

  • rpi-update
  • and

  • apt-get dist-upgrade
  • one more thing: Why does airplay not work from my ubuntu desktop???
    let’s see – install paprefs (pulse audio preferences)
    Check “Make discoverable PulseAudio devices available locally”
    but one option will be greyed out, the one about AirTunes

    why?
    the answer was found here:
    http://westmarch.sjsoft.com/2014/04/streaming-audio-linux-to-raspbmc/

    let’s install:
    apt-get install pulseaudio-module-raop

    done!

    pulseaudio