A digital signage / kiosk system using Raspbian Lite / RPI Zero

I needed headless (well, inputless) system for displaying a slideshow from a USB drive via HDMI. I had a Raspberry Pi 0 with an attached USB hub and a USB WiFi dongle lying around. Here goes…

Install Raspbian Lite 32bit, e.g. via Raspberry Pi imager

Note that you can set up user name, password, SSH and WiFi in Raspberry Pi imager before writing the image to the SD card which can save you some time!

Improve RPI Zero performance

Add these settings to your /bootfs/firmware/config.txt to make your RPI go wroom:

# Disable rainbow splash
disable_splash=1
# Disable GUI start
start_x=0
# Disable hardware TTY
enable_uart=0
# Overclock SD card (careful with this!)
# See: https://lektiondestages.art.blog/2020/01/21/overclocking-sd-cards-on-the-raspberry-pi/
dtparam=sd_overclock=83
# Pi Zero W modest overclock
# See: https://lektiondestages.art.blog/2020/01/23/overclocking-the-raspberry-pi-zero/[pi0]arm_freq=1100
over_voltage=4
core_freq=500
sdram_freq=500
over_voltage_sdram=2

Optional: Set up WiFi and activate SSH

If you haven’t done it yet, use via raspi-config to set everything up. While you’re at it you could update your system:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

and reboot

Optional: Set up Raspberry Pi as an access point

Add a WiFi hotspot connection using nmcli:

sudo nmcli device wifi hotspot ssid "<hotspot name>" password "<hotspot password>" ifname wlan0

Enable WPA3-only security:

sudo nmcli connection modify Hotspot 802-11-wireless-security.key-mgmt "sae"

Enable automatic connections:

sudo nmcli connection modify Hotspot connection.autoconnect yes connection.autoconnect-priority 100

Alternatively use nmtui:

The access point should become available immediately.

Add a splash screen / start slideshow when inserting a USB stick

Follow instructions here.

Hide all boot messages

Add / change these settings (on a single line!) in your /bootfs/firmware/cmdline.txt:

console=tty3 quiet loglevel=3 logo.nologo vt.global_cursor_default=0

Explanation:

• Move the console output to a different console: console=tty3
• Quiet console output: quiet
• Adjust the log level: loglevel=3
• Turn off the Raspberry Pi logo: logo.nologo
• Turn off the blinking cursor: vt.global_cursor_default=0

Hide console login

Turn off your console login on tty1 completely (you can still login via SSH or when switching to tty2 using CTRL+ALT+F2):

sudo systemctl disable --now getty@tty1

Reboot

Insert a USB stick with image files and enjoy your slideshow