downloaded the latest (~~2017-11-29~~ 2018-04-18) raspbian-raspbian-lite image from offical site.
flashed it to my sd using etcher
set up auto console login and changed keyboard layout using sudo raspi-config
following the beginning of this guide, set up wifi and run all updates:

sudo nano /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf Add the bottom of the file

network={
  ssid="YOUR_SSID"
  psk="YOUR_PASSWORD"
}

then sudo apt update and sudo apt upgrade , sudo reboot

i trieds to get this working without needing pixel installed (using openbox and a few other bits but the drivers for my screens didnt work like this - decided its not worth shaving that yak rn. will proceed with a stripped pixel as described above:

download/install pixel + all dependencies for r_e_c_u_r :

sudo apt-get install -y raspberrypi-ui-mods git python3-tk omxplayer libdbus-glib-1-dev python3-pip unclutter python3-picamera gpac 

pip3 install dbus-python omxplayer-wrapper  mido python-rtmidi

now can set up auto desktop login using sudo raspi-config

download the code in this repo:

pull down recur code into home dir ~ : git clone https://github.com/langolierz/r_e_c_u_r.git

quiet x and run my launcher script on boot:

used sudo nano ~/.config/lxsession/LXDE-pi/autostart to add these lines :

@unclutter -display :0 -idle 0 -root -noevents
@xset s off
@xset s noblank
@xset -dpms
@bash /home/pi/r_e_c_u_r/dotfiles/launcher.sh

and remove the line @point-rpi

these are suppose to stop screensaver / hide cursor / remove on screen power warnings etc

i then went into pi item -> Preferences and set a black background , small task bar , no screensaver and went into the file explorer -> Edit -> Preferences -> Volume Managment -> unchecked 'show available options for removable media ...' and made taskbar auto hide...
created internal storage folder in ~/Videos
set a custom splash screen by replacing splash.png an image at /usr/share/plymouth/themes/pix/splash.pngwith my original. i made a copy of the original, and then copied my own from a flash stick...

lcd display drivers

these are the drivers for the waveshare displays that work on the cheep lcd i ordered online ( LCD-show-170703 ).

my screen only needs the LCD35-show-180 and LCD-hdmi scripts. after running both of these scripts the drivers can be deleted since the recur code then handles the switching. (or keep em if you wanna flip the screen or try calibrating the touch screen)

installing raspi2fb

i decided to use AndrewFromMelbourne's raspi2fb to get a approx of output on the lcd screen. following their readme i installed :

sudo apt-get install cmake libbsd-dev

pulled down the code from home dir git clone https://github.com/AndrewFromMelbourne/raspi2fb.git

moved into the folder then ran the following commands :

mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make
sudo make install
sudo cp ../raspi2fb@.service /etc/systemd/system/
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable raspi2fb@1.service

a line to Popen inside the python code toggles this on and off from here.

lines added to config.txt

commenting out hdmi_force to allow composite output: #hdmi_force_hotplug=1
add these lines to the config:

## gives more memory to the gpu for playing 1080 videos (might need to adjust this when using older pis with less memory)
gpu_mem=448
## enables the raspi camera
start_x=1
## fixes bug with playback freezing
audio_pwm_mode=0

## persisting composite settings
sdtv_mode=00
sdtv_aspect=1

## switch for enabling lcd screen (the next line is being used even if its commented out)
##no_waveshare_overlay

changes to the cmdline.txt

quiet splash logo.nologo plymouth.ignore-serial-consoles for quiet boot with splash screen

key mapping and the launcher script:

because the keypad i bought had some special keys (eg numlock) that interact with the others in ways i didnt want , i decided to remap the keys on it to letters a-s in order. to do this i used xmodmap:

you can find the current keymappings using xmodmap -pke and for the specifically numpad related keymappings use:

xmodmap -pke | grep KP > defaultKeymap
xmodmap -pke | grep Nu >> defaultKeymap

which prints only the default numpad keys to a file for reference later. keys can be manually remapped using xmodmap -e "keycode 82=a" for testing.

In order to have the custom keymap work on startup we have added the line xmodmap ~/r_e_c_u_r/dotfiles/.remap to the launcher script where the file .remap has a list of the keycodes that you want to include.

exporting image

first remove my wifi password ! (and git profile if present)

i exported the image using unix command dd from the raspberry pi i wanted an image of.

i had some success using pishrink, following the instructions on readme exactly , i managed to reduce a 3.8gb image down to 2.9gb and then zipped down to 1.15gb, (this would be more useful with larger cards though).

the flow is using dd to copy the image from the pi to an external drive sudo dd bs=4M if=/dev/mmcblk0 of=/media/pi/FLASH DRIVE/recur.img
then use pishrink to reduce this image sudo pishrink.sh -s recur.img it fails the first time but works straight after - not sure why !
then gzip to zip this : sudo gzip recur.img