Command Line

• Running From Command Line
  • Pi3
  • RPi4
• Command Line Options
• Data Files

Running From Command Line

For testing purposes you can run PictureFrame from command line. But for generall usage we highly recommend to run PictureFrame as a service.

Pi3

Assuming you ran the install operation to create picframe_data/ in your home directory:

picframe ~/picframe_data/config/configuration.yaml

RPi4

From the desktop with attached keyboard this will be the same as for the Pi3. However over ssh or without the desktop (which will need to be turned off when starting automatically i.e. set boot to command line) it is required to start X (the windows system) and, for the moment, that needs to be done by root to enable the correct graphics drivers:

sudo xinit /usr/bin/python3 /home/pi/picframe_data/run_start.py /home/pi/picframe_data/config/configuration.yaml

Command Line Options

While the configuration of PictureFrame is done in a separate config file ('configuration.yaml'), there are still some command line options you might need to get started.

Exactly how you do this will depend if you did a 'PIP install' or using the sources.

For example, with 'PIP install' you can run picframe from anywhere on the console, because a starter script is installed under ~/.local/bin/picframe To get a short help for the command line options just type:

picframe -h

Standard installation to ~/picframe_data (note the . period at the end) This command will ask various questions and modify the configuration.yaml file for you.

cd ~
picframe -i .

If you downloaded the source using git clone you have to do this:

cd /path/to/my/sources/picframe
python3 -m picframe.start -h
python3 -m picframe.start -i ~/

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You can see all possible options your version supports by starting picframe with the -h option.

Short	Long Name	Command	Example
-h	--help	shows all command line options
-v	--version	print version info of picframe and its required packages	picframe -v picframe version: 1.0.0 Checking required packages...... PIL : 7.2.0 exifread : 2.3.2 pi3d : 2.42 aml : 5.3.1 paho.mqtt : 1.5.1 iptcinfo3 : 2.1.4 numpy : 1.19.5 ninepatch : installed, but no version info Checking optional packages...... pyheif : 0.5.1
-i DESTINATION_DIRECTORY	--initialize DESTINATION_DIRECTORY	creates standard file structure for picframe in destination directory	picframe -i . creates the folder picframe_data in current directory which contains the required data files
configfile		configuration.yaml which contains all the configuration for picframe	picframe ~/picframe_data/config/configuration.yaml

Data Files

The data files folder picframe_data contains all the required data

Folder	Content	Description
config	configuration_example.yaml configuration.yaml	Open file configuration.yaml in an editor and configure it to your needs. This is needed to start picframe.
html	html code	html content to control picframe over a simple browser interface.
data	data files like fonts, shaders, mats, 'no image' image	If you are adventurous, you can modify these files. But be warned, picframe may no longer work properly.

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NOTE

If you are running picframe from source you don't have to run the -i option necessarily. But ensure, that your configuration.yaml entries point to the corresponded folders in your source code structure.

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