As was foretold, we've added advertisements to the forums! If you have questions, or if you encounter any bugs, please visit this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/240191/forum-advertisement-faq-and-reports-thread/
Options

Old Laptop -> Digital Picture Frame? Ubuntu?

TL DRTL DR Not at all confident in his reflexive opinions of thingsRegistered User regular
edited May 2011 in Help / Advice Forum
Hey, H/A!

I have an older Dell laptop that I had previously mounted under my kitchen cabinet.

dscn0127l.jpg

It was kinda cool as a concept, but since the laptop is older (512ish RAM) and took awhile to boot and had lousy sound quality, I never really used it. Since I already reversed the monitor, though, I wanted to see about making it a picture frame of sorts.

Question: Can anyone speculate as to a way to have a laptop boot into Ubuntu and immediately proceed to cycling between pictures either on the local machine or a (Windows) network share? I'm handy around computers, I just lack the working knowledge of Linux.

Any help here is greatly appreciated!

TL DR on

Posts

  • Options
    AtomBombAtomBomb Registered User regular
    edited May 2011
    I don't have any help for you, but I wanted to say that was pretty slick. I think I have that same laptop, and my wife uses it on our kitchen table. I might steal your current idea with a few modifications :)

    AtomBomb on
    I just got a 3DS XL. Add me! 2879-0925-7162
  • Options
    aperlscriptaperlscript Registered User regular
    edited May 2011
    ....that is a brilliant way to mount a laptop!

    Looks like (according to Google) this is pretty easy to do with Ubuntu and a tool called gthumb. I'd just dive right in with Ubuntu, it's a really really easy OS to get up and running.

    aperlscript on
  • Options
    MichaelLCMichaelLC In what furnace was thy brain? ChicagoRegistered User regular
    edited May 2011
    ....that is a brilliant way to mount a laptop!

    Looks like (according to Google) this is pretty easy to do with Ubuntu and a tool called gthumb. I'd just dive right in with Ubuntu, it's a really really easy OS to get up and running.

    Good find.

    I just got it up and running in about 10 mins. since reading this thread. edit: Well, on a - also Dell - laptop running Ubuntu. Install took 1hr+ due to slow machine.

    Install Ubuntu 11.04, the latest version, and once installed, switch to Ubuntu Classic mode.

    Install gthumb from the Software Center (Applications -> Ubuntu Software Center -> search for 'gthumb'.

    Use the info in that thread, to add the auto-start item, use:
    Name: gthumb
    Command: gthumb -s --slideshow /home/[YOUR ACCOUNT]/Desktop/[YOUR ACCOUNT]/Pictures

    You'll have to set up the auto-login, but that's pretty easy as well with info in thread.

    MichaelLC on
  • Options
    illigillig Registered User regular
    edited May 2011
    replacing the old hard drive with something solid state will go a long way to making it boot and run faster, especially with a slim OS like linux

    check if that thing can boot from a USB drive, or even CD - that might broaden your options.

    illig on
Sign In or Register to comment.