This document describes how to configure a Raspberry Pi to boot directly into a full-screen Chromium kiosk running a single web page.

Target environment:

• Raspberry Pi OS Desktop (Debian 13 / Trixie)
• Wayland session (Wayfire)
• Chromium
• Auto-login enabled
• No GNOME keyring prompts

Boot → Desktop Autologin → Wayland session → systemd user service → kiosk.sh → Chromium full-screen → single URL

No stored credentials No keyring Auto-restarts on crash

Use Raspberry Pi OS with desktop (not Lite).

Verify:

cat /etc/os-release

Confirm desktop is installed.

Run:

sudo raspi-config

Set:

System Options → Boot → Desktop System Options → Auto Login → Desktop Autologin

Reboot:

sudo reboot

After login (or via SSH):

loginctl

Identify the session attached to seat0, then:

loginctl show-session <SESSION_ID> -p Type

Expected:

Type=wayland

Modern Raspberry Pi OS uses chromium, not chromium-browser.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y chromium

Verify:

chromium --version

Create:

nano ~/kiosk.sh

Example:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail

URL="https://routine-tracker.val.run/"

# Small delay to allow Wayland session to initialize
sleep 1

exec chromium \
  --kiosk \
  --noerrdialogs \
  --disable-infobars \
  --disable-session-crashed-bubble \
  --no-first-run \
  --password-store=basic \
  --use-mock-keychain \
  --incognito \
  "$URL"

Make executable:

chmod +x ~/kiosk.sh

Key flags:

• --kiosk → full-screen mode
• --password-store=basic → disables GNOME keyring integration
• --use-mock-keychain → prevents keyring prompts
• --incognito → prevents persistent session state

Create directory:

mkdir -p ~/.config/systemd/user

Create service:

nano ~/.config/systemd/user/kiosk.service

Contents:

[Unit]
Description=Chromium Kiosk
After=graphical-session.target

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=%h/kiosk.sh
Restart=always
RestartSec=2

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

Enable:

systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user enable kiosk.service
systemctl --user start kiosk.service

Check status:

systemctl --user status kiosk.service --no-pager

sudo reboot

Expected flow:

1. Boot
2. Wayland desktop briefly visible
3. Chromium launches full-screen
4. Kiosk page loads

A short desktop flash before kiosk launch is normal under Wayland.

Chromium on modern Debian attempts to use Secret Service (GNOME keyring).

The flags below suppress it:

--password-store=basic
--use-mock-keychain

If prompts still occur, optional hard removal:

sudo apt purge -y gnome-keyring
sudo reboot

For a single-purpose kiosk, this is safe.

Check kiosk service:

systemctl --user status kiosk.service

View logs:

journalctl --user -u kiosk.service -n 200 --no-pager

Confirm Chromium flags:

pgrep -a chromium

Confirm keyring not running:

pgrep -a gnome-keyring