Installing the agent on Debian

Turn an existing Debian 13 machine into a screen with the infodisplay-agent package.

If you'd rather manage the operating system yourself, install just the agent on Debian 13 (trixie), amd64 or arm64.

Add the package repository

sudo curl -fsSL https://git.8w.fi/api/packages/yesbad/debian/repository.key -o /etc/apt/keyrings/infodisplay.asc
echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/infodisplay.asc] https://git.8w.fi/api/packages/yesbad/debian trixie stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/infodisplay.list
sudo apt update

Use the component beta instead of stable for pre-release builds from the main branch.

Install

sudo apt install infodisplay-agent

The package installs:

a systemd service, infodisplay-agent, running as the unprivileged infodisplay user;
the player files in /usr/share/infodisplay/player;
the configuration file /etc/infodisplay/config.env;
a narrow sudoers rule that allows only reboot, kiosk restart and package updates.

Configure

Set the server address in /etc/infodisplay/config.env:

BACKEND_URL=https://signage.8w.fi

Then restart the agent:

sudo systemctl restart infodisplay-agent

Optional settings in the same file:

Variable	Default	Meaning
`AGENT_PORT`	`7777`	Port of the local player server (bound to `127.0.0.1`).
`HEARTBEAT_SECONDS`	`15`	How often the agent checks in.
`SYNC_SECONDS`	`30`	How often it polls for new content.
`CACHE_MAX_MB`	`8192`	Media cache size before old files are evicted.
`SETUP_AFTER_SECONDS`	`120`	Offline time before the network setup page opens.
`STATE_DIR`	`/var/lib/infodisplay`	Token, cache and state. Delete it to pair again.

Show the player

The agent serves the player at http://127.0.0.1:7777. Point any full-screen browser at it, for example:

chromium --kiosk --noerrdialogs --disable-infobars http://127.0.0.1:7777

The page shows the pairing QR code until the screen is paired. Continue with pairing.

Note

Network recovery, the Wi-Fi hotspot and the maintenance desktop are features of Info Display OS. On a plain Debian install you manage networking yourself.