Grafana Kiosk

A very useful feature of Grafana is the ability to display dashboards and playlists on a large TV.

This provides a utility to quickly standup a kiosk on devices like a Raspberry Pi or NUC.

The utitilty provides these options:

• login
  • to a Grafana server (local account)
  • to a grafana server with anonymous-mode enabled (same method used on play.grafana.org)
  • to a hosted grafana instance
• switch to kiosk or kiosk-tv mode
• display the default home page set for the user
• display a specified dashboard
• start a playlist immediately (inactive mode enable)

Additionally, an initialize option is provided to configure LXDE for Raspberry Pi Desktop.

Installing on Linux

Download the zip or tar file from releases

The release file includes pre-built binaries. See table below for the types available.

Extract the zip or tar file, and copy the appropriate binary to /usr/bin/grafana-kiosk:

# sudo cp -p grafana-kiosk.linux.armv7 /usr/bin/grafana-kiosk
# sudo chmod 755 /usr/bin/grafana-kiosk

Usage

--URL

• URL to a Grafana server

--playlist

• designates the URL as a playlist, allowing instant "inactive" user vs waiting for the timeout

--login-method (default anon)

• anon (anonymous)
• local (local user)
• gcom (Hosted Grafana)

--username used with local and gcom login methods

--password used with local and gcom login methods

--ignore-certificate-errors used with local and anonymous login methods

--kiosk-mode

• full (no sidebar, top navigation disabled)
• tv (no sidebar, top navigation enabled)
• disabled (sidebar and top navigation enabled)

--autofit scales panels to fit the display (default is true)

• true
• false

--lxde enables initialization of LXDE

--lxde-home specifies home directory of LXDE user (default $HOME)

Using a configuration file

The kiosk can also be started using a configuration file, along with environment variables. When using this option, all other arguments passed are ignored.

general:
  kiosk-mode: full
  autofit: true
  lxde: true
  lxde-home: /home/pi

target:
  login-method: anon
  username: user
  password: changeme
  playlist: false
  URL: https://play.grafana.org
  ignore-certificate-errors: false

grafana-kiosk -c config.yaml

Environment variables can be set and will override the configuration file. They can also be used instead of a configuration file.

  KIOSK_AUTOFIT bool
      fit panels to screen (default "true")
  KIOSK_LXDE_ENABLED bool
      initialize LXDE for kiosk mode (default "false")
  KIOSK_MODE string
      path to home directory of LXDE user running X Server (default "/home/pi")
  KIOSK_MODE string
      [full|tv|disabled] (default "full")
  KIOSK_IGNORE_CERTIFICATE_ERRORS bool
      ignore SSL/TLS certificate errors (default "false")
  KIOSK_IS_PLAYLIST bool
      URL is a playlist (default "false")
  KIOSK_LOGIN_METHOD string
      [anon|local|gcom] (default "anon")
  KIOSK_LOGIN_PASSWORD string
      password (default "guest")
  KIOSK_URL string
      URL to Grafana server (default "https://play.grafana.org")
  KIOSK_LOGIN_USER string
      username (default "guest")

Hosted Grafana using grafana.com authentication

This will login to a Hosted Grafana instance and take the browser to the default dashboard in fullscreen kiosk mode:

./bin/grafana-kiosk --URL https://bkgann3.grafana.net --login-method gcom --username bkgann --password abc123 --kiosk-mode full

This will login to a Hosted Grafana instance and take the browser to a specific dashboard in tv kiosk mode:

./bin/grafana-kiosk --URL https://bkgann3.grafana.net/dashboard/db/sensu-summary --login-method gcom --username bkgann --password abc123 --kiosk-mode tv

This will login to a Hosted Grafana instance and take the browser to a playlist in fullscreen kiosk mode, and autofit the panels to fill the display.

./bin/grafana-kiosk --URL https://bkgann3.grafana.net/playlists/play/1 --login-method gcom --username bkgann --password abc123 --kiosk-mode full --playlist --autofit

Grafana Server with Local Accounts

This will login to a grafana server that uses local accounts:

./bin/grafana-kiosk --URL https://localhost:3000 --login-method local --username admin --password admin --kiosk-mode tv

If you are using a self-signed certificate, you can remove the certificate error with --ignore-certificate-errors

./bin/grafana-kiosk --URL https://localhost:3000 --login-method local --username admin --password admin --kiosk-mode tv --ignore-certificate-errors

Grafana Server with Anonymous access enabled

This will take the browser to the default dashboard on play.grafana.org in fullscreen kiosk mode (no login needed):

./bin/grafana-kiosk --URL https://play.grafana.org --login-method anon --kiosk-mode tv

This will take the browser to a playlist on play.grafana.org in fullscreen kiosk mode (no login needed):

./bin/grafana-kiosk --URL https://play.grafana.org/playlists/play/1 --login-method anon --kiosk-mode tv

LXDE Options

The --lxde option initializes settings for the desktop.

Actions Performed:

• sets profile via lxpanel to LXDE
• sets pcmanfs profile to LXDE
• runs xset s off to disable screensaver
• runs xset -dpms to disable power-saving (prevents screen from turning off)
• runs xset s noblank disables blank mode for screensaver (maybe not needed)
• runs unclutter to hide the mouse

The --lxde-home option allows you to specify a different $HOME directory where the lxde configuration files can be found.

Automatic Startup

Session-based

LXDE can start the kiosk automatically by creating this file:

Create/edit the file: /home/pi/.config/lxsession/LXDE-pi/autostart

/usr/bin/grafana-kiosk --URL https://bkgann3.grafana.net/dashboard/db/sensu-summary --login-method gcom --username bkgann --password abc123 --kiosk-mode full --lxde

Session with disconnected "screen"

Alternatively you can run grafana-kiosk under screen, which can very useful for debugging.

Create/edit the file: /home/pi/.config/lxsession/LXDE-pi/autostart

screen -d -m bash -c "/usr/bin/grafana-kiosk --URL https://bkgann3.grafana.net/dashboard/db/sensu-summary --login-method gcom --username bkgann --password abc123 --kiosk-mode full --lxde"

Desktop Link

Create/edit the file: /home/pi/.config/autostart/grafana-kiosk.desktop

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Exec=/usr/bin/grafana-kiosk --URL https://bkgann3.grafana.net/dashboard/db/sensu-summary --login-method gcom --username bkgann --password abc123 --kiosk-mode full --lxde

Desktop Link with disconnected "screen"

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Exec=screen -d -m bash -c /usr/bin/grafana-kiosk --URL https://bkgann3.grafana.net/dashboard/db/sensu-summary --login-method gcom --username bkgann --password abc123 --kiosk-mode full --lxde

Systemd startup

# sudo touch /etc/systemd/system/grafana-kiosk.service
# sudo chmod 664 /etc/systemd/system/grafana-kiosk.service

[Unit]
Description=Grafana Kiosk
Documentation=https://github.com/grafana/grafana-kiosk
Documentation=https://grafana.com/blog/2019/05/02/grafana-tutorial-how-to-create-kiosks-to-display-dashboards-on-a-tv
After=network.target

[Service]
User=pi
Environment="DISPLAY=:0"
Environment="XAUTHORITY=/home/pi/.Xauthority"
ExecStart=/usr/bin/grafana-kiosk --URL <url>  -login-method local -username <username> -password <password> -playlist true

[Install]
WantedBy=graphical.target

Reload systemd:

# sudo systemctl daemon-reload

Enable, Start, Get Status, and logs:

# sudo systemctl enable grafana-kiosk
# sudo systemctl start grafana-kiosk
# sudo systemctl status grafana-kiosk

Logs:

journalctl -u grafana-kiosk

Building

A Makefile is provided for building the utility.

make

This will generate executables in "bin" that can be run on a variety of platforms.

TODO

• Support for OAuth2 logins
• RHEL/CentOS auto-startup
• Everything in issues!

References

• TV and Kiosk Mode
• Grafana Playlists

Thanks to our Contributors

• Michael Pasqualone for the session-based startup ideas!
• Brendan Ball for contributing the desktop link startup example for LXDE!
• Alex Heylin for the v7 login fix - and also works with v6!
• Xan Manning for the ignore certificate option!