wallbrowser

Wallbrowser

Web Browser for the Tromsø Display Wall

What

A prototype to figure out if it is possible to get a web browser on the Tromsø Display Wall. It is.

How to use it

Use the cf command in /share/apps/bin/ to start chromium on the tiles, e.g.:

/share/apps/bin/cf 'export DISPLAY=:0 && /usr/bin/chromium-browser --user-data-dir=/tmp/chromer --window-position=-%px,-%py --window-size=7168,3072 --user-data-dir=/tmp/chromera --app="https://maps.google.com &'

The window-size flag opens a browser window as big as the display wall, and the window-position moves the window so that the tile only shows the relevant part of the window. This strategy is similar to what the VNC viewers are doing.

It is possible for users to send keyboard events to the display wall by visiting the /controller url (10.1.1.60:9191/controller in my case). These events are sent using websockets and triggered on the tiles using xdotool.

How to use it.

• Run the wallbrowser.go script on your local machine, to start the service that orchestrates the user inputs.
• Run the inputman.go script on all the tiles: ansible tiles -B 6000 -m shell -a 'export DISPLAY=:0 && go run inputman.go'
• Run a cf command to start the web page that you want to view.

Future development

We need to think of a better way of providing user-input and that.