Purpose

This document describes the installation of the binary releases of PiBox systems, starting with the Development System and including all other PiBox System releases. A user guide for all systems is also provided.

Prerequisites

PiBox requires

A Raspberry Pi Model B, B+, 2, 3/3B or Zero/Zero W. Any Model A, Model 4, Pico and Zero 2 W are not officially supported. The Model 3/3B is suggested.
An 4GB or larger SD card.
An RTL5370 wifi * dongle unless using the Model 3/3B.
Favi Wirless keyboard. Other keyboards, especially those of similar design as the FAVI, will also work.
A TFT display and case for PiSentry and PiStore systems.

Recommended hardware for the PiBox Media System:

7 port powered USB hub, with 5V 3A power supply

Optional hardware for PiBox systems:

A USB webcam
An HDMI display. For kiosk systems, the official Raspberry Pi 7" touchscreen display is also supported. Note: Most, but not all, HDMI displays should work in general but touchscreen support is limited to the official Raspberry Pi 7" and the required TFT for PiSentry/PiStore.
One or more USB media sticks

Types of PiBox Systems

System	Description
Development System	Lightweight Linux distribution with minimal functionality used as the core for other systems.
Media System	Consumer oriented system with a Roku-like interface for video and music playback, among other features.
Player System	Lightweight companion to Media System for playback of remote or local media files.
Kiosk System	Stripped down media system used for playback of video and pictures only. Specifically for use with Rasberry Pi 7" touschscreen display.
Auto-kiosk System	Stripped down media system used for playback of video only. Playback starts automatically without any user UI. Intended for use with projectors.
PiSentry System	Webcam system for remote viewing in a browser with TFT low-frame-rate setup.
PiStore System	USB storage manager with TFT displayed usage graphs.

Supported Hardware

PiBox is custom built for two categories of Raspbery Pi systems. This is done to sqeeze as much optimization out of each category as possible.

RPI1 - systems built for this category of Pi hardware support Models B, B+, Zero and Zero W.
RPI2 - systems built for this category of Pi hardware support Models 2, 3 and 3B.

Raspberry Pi has not been tested with Any Model A's, 4's or Picos.

Installation

Starting with the PiBox 2.0.0 release there is one way to install PiBox systems, not including building them manually from source code: Creation of an SD card image using PiBox installation tools.

These instructions assume use of a Linux system to create the SD card used to boot the Raspberry Pi.

Download latest release

The latest release can always be found from the current release directory. File descriptions are available in every directory.

Installation to SD card.

Please see the file install.txt from the release package for instructions on how to install to an SD card.

First boot and opkg installation

After the SD card is created it can be inserted into the Raspberry Pi. Plug in the power supply and let the system boot. The system will start an initial configuration process and the restart itself. Let this process run to completion. When complete, the system will display the default UI for the Development System.

If PiBox system opkg files were installed they will be automatically installed and the platform will boot into the appropriate PiBox System. Systems with TFT displays will not display any text during this process. Please wait for the TFT to display the appropriate system icons.

Installation is now complete. The PiBox system is now ready for any additional configuration and general use.

Deprecated

InstallationGuide

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