[Buildroot] Raspberry Pi: recommendations for web kiosk

[Thomas De Schampheleire]

Hi Eric,

On Thu, Jun 26, 2014 at 2:42 PM, Eric Le Bihan
<eric.le.bihan.dev at free.fr> wrote:
> Hi!
> On Wed, Jun 25, 2014 at 03:02:29PM +0200, Thomas De Schampheleire wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> We currently use a Raspberry Pi as a simple web-wall. It cycles every
>> two minutes between two (non-local) web pages, one of which contains a
>> few iframes.
>>
>> While this can hardly be called a resource-intensive task, the
>> Raspberry Pi by no means performs this fluently. The pages load
>> relatively slow, and administration tasks on this pi also suffer from
>> hickups.
>>
>> The pi currently contains a raspbian image (not done by me, I swear!
>> :-) ) and uses chromium in kiosk mode to display the web pages.
>>
>> My basic question is: can I expect to get better performance by
>> setting up a custom buildroot image, or is rpi so poor in performance,
>> even for this mundane task?
>> Which packages should I select to achieve this?
>>
>> Do I need an X.org or not really?
>> If X.org is needed, does 'Kdrive / tinyX' work on rpi, or should I
>> select modular x.org, and how do these compare.
>> (as you notice, I have never set up embedded boards with graphical stuff).
>>
>> Which browser should/could I use? Preferably something that can run in
>> fullscreen mode as this is a kiosk-like board.
>>
>> Is rpi-userland needed / recommended? How would I benefit from it?
>>
>> Any other recommendations/tips are welcome too, of course.
> Just my two cents: how about using a custom application based on QtWebkit with
> EGLFS [1]?
>

This is not a commercial product, but rather an internal information
screen used on the workfloor. So writing custom applications, which I
assume is quite some work, is not acceptable. I am hoping for a more
or less out-of-the-box solution...

Thanks for the feedback!
Thomas