Display Setup on Debian - noyainrain/wall GitHub Wiki

Setting up Wall

To set up Wall on a box running Debian (or a Debian-like system), do the following:

# install tools and dependencies
apt-get install xdotool

# create a user
adduser wall
su wall

# start Wall and display on graphical log in
cd
#download .xsession from https://gist.github.com/NoyaInRain/6673941
chmod +x .xsession
#adjust .xsession to your needs

# make Wall available on standard HTTP port 80
cd /etc/network/if-up.d
#download forwardhttp from https://gist.github.com/NoyaInRain/8257604
chmod +x forwardhttp
./forwardhttp

Wall and the display should now start when you graphically log in as user wall.

Note for LightDM: to enable custom X sessions, create a file /usr/share/xsessions/custom.desktop:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Custom X Session
Exec=/bin/sh -c $HOME/.xsession

Configuring Firefox

  • set dom.max_script_run_time to 0 (disables unresponsive script warnings)
  • set privacy.popups.showBrowserMessage to false (disables popup blocker notifications)
  • set datareporting.policy.dataSubmissionPolicyResponseTime to 1 (disables data submission policy notifications)

Saving Power

Motion Detection

# install motion
apt-get install motion

# configure motion for display power saving
#download motion.conf from https://gist.github.com/NoyaInRain/8744011
#adjust motion.conf to your needs

# start motion with Wall display
#in .xsession set PRE="motion -c $HOME/motion.conf &"

For good results, the motion detection settings in motion.conf should be adjusted to the environment (camera, lighting, background...). motion's setup mode may be helpful with finding the right settings:

#in motion.conf enable webcam_port
motion -c $HOME/motion.conf -s

In addition to detailed console output, the camera stream, available at localhost:8070, is augmented with useful information.