For our small non-profit canine training club I'm seeking a nice slideshow feature for a raspberry pi (v.3).

My plan is to create a USB-flash drive (stick) with the slideshow content. And if a USB-flash drive exist (is plugged) on reboot (or attached when the RPI is powered on) the slideshow should start up automatically and even play the mpg3 tunes on the same USB-stick.

Is that even possible? And what will I need to get this up and running? I have read about feh and xscreensaver - but they are mostly used for IP shared files not files on a USB-stick.

I could see the content placed in certain folders on the USB flash drive example a folder called "slidepics" and "slidempg3s". And maybe a config file for the slideshow parameters (random or not random, slideshow speed, resolution etc.).

Then the RPI could be used for other tasks and if someone wants to start at slideshow - then he/she just plug the desired USB-flash drive into one of the available USB-ports and the slideshow starts up with no user interaction. And if a slidempg3s folder exist it should also start to play the music too.

I could see the cron running a script making this check if a USB-stick is plugged or not and if it is then check if the folders exist on the USB-stick. If the stick is unplugged it either reboot or kill the slideshow and sound playing.

If this is possible I might even have some other crazy plans using Eyefi-cards in cameras and going around the training field taking pictures that would be transferred and shown on a screen in the training classroom.

  • WRT starting automatically when the stick is plugged in, look into udev. There should be various examples online demonstrating how to run a script based on the device node. – goldilocks Dec 4 '16 at 20:14
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    A web search for digital picture frame raspberry pi should give you more than one example – Steve Robillard Dec 4 '16 at 22:04

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