kalkspace-player

Kalkspace Player is a standalone video player solution for SBCs like raspberry pi and the likes.

Building

Clone the https://github.com/armbian/build repo and copy the userpatches directory over to the cloned directory. Then you can build the armbian image like this:

./compile.sh docker BOARD=khadas-vim3 BRANCH=current RELEASE=jammy BUILD_MINIMAL=yes BUILD_DESKTOP=no KERNEL_ONLY=no KERNEL_CONFIGURE=no COMPRESS_OUTPUTIMAGE=sha,gpg,img

A list of supported boards (BOARD variable) can be found in config/targets.conf. This will take quite a while for a new build.

At the end you will find a new image in outputs/images

Installing

Copy the img file to your sd card, insert the sd card in your SBC.

Example with dd under Linux:

sudo dd if=output/images/Armbian_22.11.0-trunk_Odroidc4_jammy_current_5.10.160_minimal.img bs=4M of=/dev/sdb conv=fsync oflag=direct status=progress

For a graphical UI to copy the image use https://www.balena.io/etcher/

Then attach a video output via HDMI, power on the SBC and once booting has been done it should show the KalkSpace logo.

Using Kalkspace Player

Kalkspace player is intended to be used as a standalone video player solution. You should not need to attach a keyboard or whatever. If you deploy it in public make sure that it is not accessible as it is not particulary secure.

Interaction with the player is done via USB sticks. Prepare a USB stick and create a directory kalkspace-player on the USB stick.

Updating the video file

Copy your video file to the kalkspace-player directory on your stick. It must be named video.{avi,mp4,...}. So for example if you have a mp4 file copy it to kalkspace-player/video.mp4. Attach the stick to the SBC. It will copy the video file to the SBC and restart the player. Once the new video file is playing it is safe to remove the stick.

Controlling cage

Kalkspace player uses https://www.hjdskes.nl/projects/cage/ as a wayland compositor. You can control cage by putting the optional cage-options file in the kalkspace-player directory. For example if you want to rotate the screen by 90 degrees create the kalkspace-player/cage-options file on your stick with the following content:

-r

See the cage documentation for more options. Insert the stick into the SBC. Kalkspace player should restart with the new option. Once the new video file is playing it is safe to remove the stick.

Controlling mpv

Kalkspace player uses https://mpv.io/ to play the video. You can control mpv by putting the optional mpv-options file in the kalkspace-player directory.

The options will be appended to the player's command line.

Consult the mpv documentation for options

Accessing the console

When the player updates its state you have a few seconds to stop it from restarting by pressing CTRL-C on an attached keyboard.

To gain super user privileges go to the second tty by pressing CTRL-ALT-F2 and enter root. The standard armbian process will request you to create a new password. To restart kalkspace player just exit the first console (CTRL-ALT-F1) by typing exit or hitting CTRL-D.