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Installing Info Display OS

Write the image to a USB stick or SD card, install, and get to the pairing QR code.

Info Display OS is a minimal Debian 13 system that boots straight into the full-screen player. It handles updates, networking and recovery for you, so it's the recommended way to run a screen.

Downloads

Image For Write with
infodisplay-installer-amd64.img.xz Mini PCs, NUCs, thin clients (x86-64) balenaEtcher, Rufus or dd, to a USB stick (4 GB+)
infodisplay-amd64.img.zst The same system as a raw disk image, for imaging disks directly zstd -dc … | dd of=/dev/sdX
infodisplay-rpi-arm64.img.xz Raspberry Pi 4 / 400 / CM4 (and Pi 5 where supported) Raspberry Pi Imager (Use custom) or balenaEtcher, to an SD card or USB drive

Images are published for every release and come preconfigured for https://signage.8w.fi, so a new screen goes straight to the pairing QR code. Contact us for the current download links.

PC: install from USB

  1. Write the installer image to a USB stick.
  2. Plug it into the PC, power on and open the boot menu (usually F12, F10 or Esc). Choose the USB stick.
  3. The installer runs on screen with a keyboard:
    1. Choose the internal disk. It will be erased.
    2. Confirm the server address. It's pre-filled with https://signage.8w.fi; leave it as it is.
    3. Optionally set up Wi-Fi.
    4. Wait a few minutes while the image is written.
  4. Remove the stick and restart.

Raspberry Pi

  1. Write the Raspberry Pi image to an SD card (or a USB drive for USB boot).
  2. Insert the card and power on.
  3. For Wi-Fi without a keyboard, put a folder named infodisplay on any USB stick containing wifi.txt (line 1: network name, line 2: password) and plug it in. See networking.

First boot

On first boot each screen:

  • gets a unique hostname, infodisplay-xxxx;
  • generates fresh SSH host keys;
  • grows its root partition to the whole disk.

Then it connects to the server and shows a QR code. Continue with pairing.

Tip

No network? After two minutes the screen shows a recovery PIN and a setup page address. See networking.

What's on the system

  • cage (a minimal Wayland kiosk compositor) running Chromium in kiosk mode, showing the player at http://127.0.0.1:7777.
  • infodisplay-agent, running as the unprivileged infodisplay user.
  • NetworkManager, unattended security upgrades and a locked-down root account.
  • A maintenance desktop for on-site troubleshooting — see maintenance.

Something unclear or out of date? Tell us.