Kiosk display on a Mac Powerbook

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--D. Thiebaut 10:37, 10 April 2013 (EDT)

A series of step to create a kiosk on a PowerBook mac.

Setup and Platforms

The idea is to have the Powerbook download a Quicktime movie from a server when a new version of it has been created, and automatically run it in a loop, full screen.

The mac used for displaying the endless loop is an old Powerbook PowerPC G4 running Mac OS X 10.5.8 that was collecting dust. It is connected to an external display.

The original .mov movie that is to be displayed is located a server, at a given URL, and the Powerbook will check regularly (in our case every 10 minutes) to see if that file has been recently updated. If it has been, the Powerbook uses wget (downloaded from here) to download the movie, and the Powerbook is restarted (automatically) so that Quicktime can restart with the new movie.

Account

The account is "New Account", no password, admin privileges.

Setup

  • "New Account" is set to automatic login
  • The movie to play at startup in a loop is put on Desktop, in DisplayCase.mov.
  • In the Users pane of the Systems Preference app, with New Account selected, click on Login Items and put the movie DisplayCase.mov in the window. Do not click on the Hide box.















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