Xibo

Linux Client for Simple Text and Graphics

Asked by P.V.Anthony

Our church need a digital signage. About 5 screens. We intend to buy some simple consumer tv screens to be used as the display.

We are going to use an atom based motherboard. Something like this on,
http://www.intel.com/products/desktop/motherboards/D945GSEJT/D945GSEJT-overview.htm

Cost is an issue so we would really like to use the linux clients. The church has very simple requirements. Just text with pictures. Nothing else for now.

The question is, can we use the alpha linux client safely with just text and pictures?

I really hope we can. There is huge saving going with linux.

Please advise. If just for text and pictures can we use the linux client?

P.V.Anthony

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Alex Harrington
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Alex Harrington (alexharrington) said : 		#1

Yeah - you should be OK with that, so long as you understand that it's not production code so there may be issues you find with it.

I'd be happy to help you work through those though.

I'm not sure if they're available in the US yet but the Acer Aspire Revo makes a really good and inexpensive basis for a digital signage client. http://aceraspirerevo.com/ says they are but with the ION LE chipset.

I've not had a chance to test on ION LE - I know it works fine on the standard ION chipset - so if you can get a similar machine based on ION chipset that works with Ubuntu then great.

The Intel 945 graphics on the board you suggest will work, but they're very underpowered - they won't play back any kind of high definition video going forwards.

Cheers

Alex

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P.V.Anthony (anthony-mindmedia) said : 		#2

Sorry for the delay in the reply and thank you very much for the reply.

I am currently looking for something similar with the nvidia ION. In Singapore, Acer does not what to bring it in.

Will update once I get one.

Thank you again for the reply and offer to help.

P.V.Anthony

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P.V.Anthony (anthony-mindmedia) said : 		#3

Found a similar product with the Nvidia ION chipset. It is called Qinada. It is made in China. Very thin. The good news is that Ubuntu installed into it very smoothly. Even the wireless works.

Followed the instruction as per wiki to install the python client. The client is working.

Did a test with 5 pictures and text. Each for 10 secs. Left the client running for 3 days. After three days, the client did hang. Checked to see if Ubuntu hanged. Ubuntu was running fine, only the python client hung. It is ok since the church will be shutting down xibo everyday.

Need some advise on how to setup for portrait screen. Have already configured the xorg.conf to show the Ubuntu desktop in portrait mode. Switched the setting in python client config to, width to short side and height to the long side. Also set to full screen to true. Is this the way to setup portrait mode?

Some how the portrait mode does not look correct. The images and text just stays to only one side of the screen. It does not seem to come full screen in portrait mode. Please advise.

P.V.Anthony

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P.V.Anthony (anthony-mindmedia) said : 		#4

Forgot to mention that the layout chosen for the screen in the Xibo server is also set to portrait.

P.V.Anthony

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Best Alex Harrington (alexharrington) said : 		#5

> Did a test with 5 pictures and text. Each for 10 secs. Left the client running for 3 days. After three days, the client did hang.

In what way did it hang? What was it or wasn't it doing? What happened when you pressed "i" to get to the menu? What state were the indicator lights in?

> Need some advise on how to setup for portrait screen.

Xibo does the rotation for you. You need to turn off the changes you made in your xorg conf and then have a look at this thread which has more information.

https://answers.launchpad.net/xibo/+question/103974

Alex

Revision history for this message
P.V.Anthony (anthony-mindmedia) said : 		#6

Thank you very much for the solution to make xibo linux work in portrait mode.

It is working great and it is not hanging now. The upgrade to the latest preview is great.

Thank you for sharing this software.

P.V.Anthony

Revision history for this message
P.V.Anthony (anthony-mindmedia) said : 		#7

Thanks Alex Harrington, that solved my question.