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Ubuntu-based computer will output the page to a television.

The page in question is not in my control and will sometimes change. Therefore the browser should refresh the page periodically, say once in every 10 minutes.

Maintenance should be minimal, so that booting the computer would always bring up the web page in full screen, no login required.

Optimally no additional software or plugins for browser.

Currently the web page is shown on TV with live Ubuntu via usb stick, no page autorefresh (Firefox).

I will install Ubuntu from the usb stick and set it to auto login, but I do not know how to set Ubuntu to show the page in full screen after boot and refresh the page periodically.

How do I set up Ubuntu to start a browser in a full screen mode and refresh the page periodically?

karel
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Ohto Nordberg
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  • Yes, as I am able to install Ubuntu to the machine. Or some other Linux based OS. I am not able to install Windows or other OS. – Ohto Nordberg Jan 28 '20 at 14:43
  • There is not really anything here that tells me you need to do anything specific. Most you ask about is how to edit a html page. location.reload(); to reload a page. – Rinzwind Jan 28 '20 at 15:16
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    I clarified the question about that, the page is not under my control and I cannot edit it. – Ohto Nordberg Jan 28 '20 at 15:28
  • Not really an issue: you create you own webpage with location.reload(); and then load that website. Otherwise you will need external tools. – Rinzwind Jan 28 '20 at 15:58

3 Answers3

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You can start Firefox in full screen mode like so

firefox --kiosk ubuntu.com
  • Please notice that it works only if there is no Firefox window already open.

  • How to escape from the kiosk window of Firefox:

    • In Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and the Firefox version in January 2020: Escape from kiosk mode with F11 which is good during the development phase.
    • In Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and the Firefox version in June 2020: F11 no longer works to escape fro kiosk mode, but alt+F4 works (to close the Firefox window).

This link should help you refreshing the web page in Firefox.

Firefox also has a number of add-ons available for it to help you refresh your tabs automatically in your browser. Most add-ons will work the same way and here we use one of those called Tab Auto Refresh.

sudodus
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  • Will the page reload/refresh periodically? – Ohto Nordberg Jan 28 '20 at 15:20
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    @OhtoNordberg you do that inside the webpage. – Rinzwind Jan 28 '20 at 15:26
  • @OhtoNordberg, This link should help you fix it: – sudodus Jan 28 '20 at 15:28
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    Can't you bypass the "works only if there is no Firefox window already open" restriction with the --no-remote flag? – pomsky Jun 05 '20 at 18:26
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    @pomsky, I tried this in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, but it did not work. Let us know if it works for you in 18.04 LTS. - I noticed something else too. F11 no longer works to escape fro kiosk mode, but alt F4 works (to close the Firefox window. – sudodus Jun 05 '20 at 19:01
  • @pomsky, Maybe you need that secondary profile too (not only --no-remote). I did not try that, and I have no secondary profile. – sudodus Jun 05 '20 at 19:20
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    Yeah, sorry, when I first mentioned --no-remote I was thinking of running the kiosk window from a secondary profile, forgot to mention it. But rather surprisingly it seems --no-remote is not needed for this at all. Just firefox --kiosk -P <secondary-profile-id> askubuntu.com also works even when my primary profile is running. – pomsky Jun 05 '20 at 19:23
  • I made a secondary profile and ran it according to your instructions, but no, not in 20.04 LTS. I get a pop up window saying: "Firefox is already running, but is not responding. To open a new window, you must first close the existing Firefox process, or restart your system." – sudodus Jun 05 '20 at 19:29
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    @pomsky, when I remove --no-remote and keep kiosk and secondary profile, I get a window (not full screen). -- And yes, the previous answer is with --no-remote . So it seems to work differently in 20.04 LTS. – sudodus Jun 05 '20 at 19:35
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    BTW I forgot to mention doesn't work for me on 18.04 either ( and do). Probably this one is dependent on Firefox version, not Ubuntu release. – pomsky Jun 05 '20 at 20:33
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  1. Install Midori
  2. Open Startup Applications
  3. Click Add
  4. Add Command midori -a https://www.ubuntu.com/ -i 600 -e Fullscreen
    Startup Program
  5. Click Add

Source

pomsky
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Ohto Nordberg
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    +1; So you found an easy way: If I understand your answer, Midori needs no plug-in (and I know since before that it is light-weight, which helps if you use a weak computer). Congratulations :-) – sudodus Jan 28 '20 at 17:28
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I don't know if a refresh is possible, but you could autostart firefox with a specific page.

Take this command 

/usr/bin/firefox www.yourpage.de

and create an entry for it. Search for "startup" and enter the command into Startup Applications. It should start firefox with the page provided.

s1mmel
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