OS and script advice

Question

New to raspberry pi's but I want to use them for displaying a slideshow from a web page at work. I was looking for some advice on the best OS for my intended use and if one or two custom things are possible to do.

It will be displayed on a TV and the screen needs to never time out, I've goggled a bit and can see this is possible. However would it be possible to create a script that would essentially turn on / enable the screen at say 7:00am and then disable the screen at 6:00pm?

Is it also possible to show the screen but lock the device in some way? So the screen still displays but it cant be accessed unless someone enters a password?

Thanks

Answer 1

I'd agree with Ghanima's comment that Raspbian is as sensible an option as any. The magic word for your application is 'kiosk'. There's no shortage of existing projects to poach from.

I'd suggest a small amount of Python and a relay to control power to your display. If your Pi is reasonably well secured away from prying fingers and you outfit it with a WiFi dongle you can access it over SSH secured with a username and password to tweak as necessary.

Answer 2

I want to use them for displaying a slideshow from a web page

Easily done and there are various ways to do it, as mentioned the general concept is "kiosk" but I will warn you that the quality and value of material with this label varies greatly.

Any mainstream pi oriented GNU/Linux OS distro will do (Windows IoT is I think a bit more challenging in this context); since Raspbian is the most common one it is probably also the easiest.

The exact method you choose is up to you. Mainstream HTTP servers such as apache, nginx, and node.js are capable and available. There are others.

Excluding the actual web content, not much in the way of programming is required, it is mostly about configuration of the init system, (systemd), and the server software itself.