This will rig a Raspberry Pi to boot into looping the same video (or videos) over and over forever, e.g. for an art installation. The card is configured to be read-only, so this setup should be fairly reliable in the long-term.

• Install latest Raspberry Pi OS Lite.
• At first boot, set up account:
  • Username: user
  • Set a password.
• Run raspi-config:
  • Set up Wi-Fi and SSH (temporary, for setup only).
  • Set hostname (e.g. videopi).
• Update system:
  • sudo apt update
  • sudo apt dist-upgrade
• Install VLC:
  • sudo apt install vlc

• Obtain video via wget or scp (e.g. with WinSCP).
• We'll assume filename is test.mp4.

• Run:
  • cvlc –loop –no-video-title-show –fullscreen test.mp4
  • Press Ctrl+C to exit.
• Note: You can trigger video playback via SSH; video will display on the connected screen.

• Edit file:
  • sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/getty.target.wants/getty@tty1.service
• Change this line:
  • #ExecStart=-/sbin/agetty -o '-p – \\u' –noclear - $TERM
• To:
  • ExecStart=-/sbin/agetty -o '-p -f – \\u' –autologin user –noclear - $TERM
• Note: This allows full system access to anyone with physical keyboard access.

Create ~/autoplay-on-tty-login:

bash
#!/bin/bash

# This script auto-plays the video on tty1
if [ $(tty) == "/dev/tty1" ]; then
    echo "Running $0..."
    echo -e '\e[93;41m                                                                                       \e[m'
    echo -e '\e[93;41m  Auto-starting video playback in 5 seconds. Hit Ctrl+C to drop back to the terminal.  \e[m'
    echo -e '\e[93;41m                                                                                       \e[m'
    echo
    sleep 5
    bash ~/playvideo
    echo
    echo -e '\e[93;45m                                                                                       \e[m'
    echo -e '\e[93;45m  Video playback aborted. Exiting this shell will restart video playback.              \e[m'
    echo -e '\e[93;45m                                                                                       \e[m'
    echo
else
    echo "$0: This script only runs on tty1."
fi

Create ~/playvideo:

#!/bin/bash

# Loop video playback forever until Ctrl+C
/usr/bin/cvlc --loop --no-video-title-show --fullscreen ~/test.mp4

Append this to ~/.bashrc:

# Launch video if on tty1
bash ~/autoplay-on-tty-login

Reboot and test. You should be able to press Ctrl+C to drop to a terminal.

Use raspi-config to enable TV out instead of HDMI (untested).

First, leave a warning for future people – create ~/CARD-IS-READONLY-BY-DEFAULT.txt:

Note: the system is set up so that, by default, the SD card is never written to.
This means that changes you make will go away with every reboot.

If you want your changes to stick, run:

  sudo mount -o remount,rw /media/root-ro

Then make your changes in /media/root-ro -- NOT the regular directory.
So, to change something in the home directory, you'd go to:

  /media/root-ro/home/user/

For reference, here are the steps that were done to make things this way:
- sudo apt install overlayroot
- Edit /etc/overlayroot.conf: set "overlayroot=tmpfs"
- Edit /boot/cmdline.txt: add "fastboot noswap ro"
- Reboot

To actually make card read-only:

• Install overlay root: sudo apt install overlayroot
• Edit /etc/overlayroot.conf, set: overlayroot=tmpfs
• Edit /boot/cmdline.txt, append (no line break): fastboot noswap ro
• Reboot.