Simple… but good golly it took a lot of searching to track it down:

I muddle through the instructions found here (but watch out, they wont work):

https://www.danpurdy.co.uk/web-development/raspberry-pi-kiosk-screen-tutorial/

Install the software…

The are a couple of reasons that post wont work.  Here are some modified instructions that do:

• Install needed software through apt-get:

sudo apt-get install -y x11-xserver-utils unclutter

• Create/edit the file located here:

/home/pi/.config/lxsession/LXDE-pi/autostart

• NOTE: Some later installs of Raspbian now move the file here:

/etc/xdg/lxsession/LXDE-pi/autostart

So that the file has this in it:

@lxpanel --profile LXDE-pi
@pcmanfm --desktop --profile LXDE-pi
#@xscreensaver -no-splash
#@point-rpi
@xset s off
@xset -dpms
@xset s noblank
@sed -i 's/"exited_cleanly": false/"exited_cleanly": true/' ~/.config/chromium/Default/Preferences
@chromium-browser --incognito --noerrdialogs --kiosk bloggerbrothers.com

Note the bolded portion is the URL.  It contains the location the browser will start at.

Now reboot your pi and boom!  You should be looking at BloggerBrothers.com in full browser mode.

(Success!)

Get rid of that pesky mouse pointer!

The last thing to do to polish this thing off is to remove the mouse pointer when its not in use.  There is a handy program called unclutter:

sudo apt-get install unclutter

Then add this call to your autostart file:

@unclutter -idle 0.1 -root

Poof!  The mouse pointer is hidden.

The whole file now looks like:

@lxpanel --profile LXDE-pi
@pcmanfm --desktop --profile LXDE-pi
#@xscreensaver -no-splash
#@point-rpi
@xset s off
@xset -dpms
@xset s noblank
@sed -i 's/"exited_cleanly": false/"exited_cleanly": true/' ~/.config/chromium/Default/Preferences
@chromium-browser --incognito --noerrdialogs --kiosk bloggerbrothers.com
@unclutter -idle 0.1 -root

Combine this with the article on mounting a net disk to make an UBER picture frame: Mount a Network Share at Boot on your Raspberry PI 3

Breaking out of Kiosk!!!

I was recently asked how to get OUT of the browser once the PI is in this mode.

This is actually pretty hard.  Kiosk Mode for the browser was intended to lock the device as a browser.  The GUI or desktop is blocked.  So you’ll have to go in with SSH…

SSH’ing in…

If you only have one pi on your network, and you haven’t changed its hostname then this will likely get you on:

ssh pi@raspberry.local

If you have changed the hostname – then replace “raspberry” in the above command with the appropriate hostname.

If you are not working on a MAC or another Raspberry PI, and you can’t see the host through mDNS (the thing that enables “.local” to be found.) Then you’ll have to consult your router… typically at “192.168.1.1” to see the “Attached Devices” and see if you can locate the pi’s IP address.  Then:

ssh pi@ipaddresshere

Where “ipaddresshere” would be replaced with something like: 192.168.1.35

Remove the auto-boot to Kiosk:

So to get it out of this mode, you’ll have to modify that same file:

/home/pi/.config/lxsession/LXDE-pi/autostart

And comment out the part about the browser by placing a “#” in front of it:

#@chromium-browser --incognito --noerrdialogs --kiosk bloggerbrothers.com

Then reboot your pi:

sudo reboot

It will now boot without starting up the browser.  Tweak your settings, then remove the “#” symbol when you are ready to have it become a kiosk again on next reboot.

If it isn’t on the net AND you are locked into browser, then we’ll have to get you in via the serial console… article on that later. 🙂