[Buildroot] Raspberry Pi: recommendations for web kiosk

[Eric Le Bihan <eric.le.bihan.dev@free.fr>]

On Thu, Jun 26, 2014 at 03:15:25PM +0200, Thomas De Schampheleire wrote:
> Hi Eric,
>
> On Thu, Jun 26, 2014 at 2:42 PM, Eric Le Bihan
> <eric.le.bihan.dev@free.fr> wrote:
> > Hi!
> > On Wed, Jun 25, 2014 at 03:02:29PM +0200, Thomas De Schampheleire wrote:
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> We currently use a Raspberry Pi as a simple web-wall. It cycles every
> >> two minutes between two (non-local) web pages, one of which contains a
> >> few iframes.
> >>
> >> While this can hardly be called a resource-intensive task, the
> >> Raspberry Pi by no means performs this fluently. The pages load
> >> relatively slow, and administration tasks on this pi also suffer from
> >> hickups.
> >>
> >> The pi currently contains a raspbian image (not done by me, I swear!
> >> :-) ) and uses chromium in kiosk mode to display the web pages.
> >>
> >> My basic question is: can I expect to get better performance by
> >> setting up a custom buildroot image, or is rpi so poor in performance,
> >> even for this mundane task?
> >> Which packages should I select to achieve this?
> >>
> >> Do I need an X.org or not really?
> >> If X.org is needed, does 'Kdrive / tinyX' work on rpi, or should I
> >> select modular x.org, and how do these compare.
> >> (as you notice, I have never set up embedded boards with graphical stuff).
> >>
> >> Which browser should/could I use? Preferably something that can run in
> >> fullscreen mode as this is a kiosk-like board.
> >>
> >> Is rpi-userland needed / recommended? How would I benefit from it?
> >>
> >> Any other recommendations/tips are welcome too, of course.
> > Just my two cents: how about using a custom application based on QtWebkit with
> > EGLFS [1]?
> >
>
> This is not a commercial product, but rather an internal information
> screen used on the workfloor. So writing custom applications, which I
> assume is quite some work, is not acceptable. I am hoping for a more
> or less out-of-the-box solution...
Well, thanks to QML and QtWebkit, that is pretty doable. I hacked a quick
example at https://github.com/elebihan/webkiosk, inspired by the Qt examples.

AFAIK, running it with the '-platform eglfs' option should do the trick (not
tested, my RPi is out of order :-( )

Best regards,
ELB