Setup simple KIOSK on Raspbian 12 (Bookworm) with Wayland/Wayfire

README.md

Prereqs

0. Burn raspios image on card - the one with desktop (no need to additional software) - tested using 2023-12-05-raspios-bookworm-arm64.img on RPi4 & RPi5.
1. Install few additional packages to build a wayland plugin that hide cursor

   sudo apt install libglibmm-2.4-dev libglm-dev libxml2-dev libpango1.0-dev libcairo2-dev wayfire-dev libwlroots-dev libwf-config-dev meson

2. Clone github repo: https://github.com/saper-2/wayfire-plugins-extra , and compile plugins (but not install them)

   git clone https://github.com/WayfireWM/wayfire-plugins-extra && cd wayfire-plugins-extra
   meson build --prefix=/usr --buildtype=release
   ninja -C build
   

3. Copy compiled plugin and it's config to designated dirs so wayfire can find it.

   ~/wayfire-plugins-extra $ sudo cp build/src/libhide-cursor.so /usr/lib/aarch64-linux-gnu/wayfire/
   ~/wayfire-plugins-extra $ sudo cp metadata/hide-cursor.xml /usr/share/wayfire/metadata/

Kiosk script

Create kiosk.sh script that will launch chromium-browser - it's content is in next file. Set your <kiosk-url> . I'm using pi user.

nano /home/pi/kiosk.sh
chmod +x /home/pi/kiosk.sh

Config Wayland/wayfire

1. Edit wayland/wayfire user configuration file so when desktop load it will lauch kiosk.sh script and start chromium in full-screen mode.

   nano ~/.config/wayfire.ini
   

   Find section [autostart] , if not exists then create at end file this section and add option - option name can be anything (without spaces & special characters) - I just used kiosk . as option value enter full path to the kiosk.sh script.

   [autostart]
   kiosk = /home/pi/kiosk.sh
   

2. Now look for section [core] if it's not exists create it, and tell wayland what plugins you want for it to load:

   [core]
   plugins = autostart hide-cursor
   

   This'll also disable all bars, desktop background, app menu (a.k.a. from M$win 'Start menu') & quick launch toolbar, clock, tray, etc..., you'll have only chromium-window launched. So there is no need to to fiddle with LXDE-pi config files and disable menus, desktop bg, etc... 👍

3. Save file and reboot, should work.

kiosk.sh

#!/bin/bash
#Disable DPMS. In Bookworm (deb12) & Wayland DPMS is disabled by default (for now)
#xset -dpms
#xset s off
#xset s noblank
#unclutter only for X11, don't work in wayland anymore
#unclutter & 
#Lets remove a lock file that could be caused due to a crash.
rm /home/pi/.config/chromium/SingletonLock

while true; do
    # Clean up previously running apps, gracefully at first then harshly
    killall -TERM chromium-browser 2>/dev/null;

    sleep 2;
    # still runnning? slay it!
    killall -9 chromium-browser 2>/dev/null;

    # Launch window manager without title bar.

    # Run unclutter
    # unclutter &

    # Launch browser. 
    # If you want use AppMode then don't forget for maximized and fullscreen otherwise window with browser won't show up itself.
    # Replace <kiosk-url> with your URL
    # You might want to remove incognito argument if you need to log-in into page and keep it logged up.
    chromium-browser --incognito --start-fullscreen --start-maximized --kiosk --noerrdialogs --disable-default-apps --disable-single-click-autofill --disable-translate-new-ux --disable-translate --disable-cache --disk-cache-dir=/dev/null --disk-cache-size=1 --reduce-security-for-testing --app=http://<kiosk-url>/

done;