Linux joins Heathrow's grounded fleet of information screens
Anything Windows can bork, the penguin can bork sideways
London's Heathrow Airport faced more than just fog this week, as a malfunctioning information screen displayed a Linux boot log instead of the usual walking times and terminal maps. The screen, located in Terminal 2, provided a glimpse into the inner workings of the machine, revealing messages related to systemd, an Intel PRO/1000 network adapter, and an EXT4 filesystem on a logical volume named LV_ROOT. The cause of the issue remains unclear, whether it's a problem with mounting the filesystem or something else entirely.
Heathrow Airport has been experimenting with various technologies for its information displays, including recent examples running Microsoft Windows which also experienced issues. The airport has been deploying Raspberry Pi-based signage, although the Intel PRO/1000 adapter in this particular display leaves the hardware aspect somewhat uncertain.
The choice of Raspberry Pi for these displays is logical due to its affordability and low power consumption compared to a full-fledged Windows PC. Heathrow's senior product owner for displays emphasized the reliability, security, and significantly lower hardware costs and energy efficiency of this approach. The airport has been re-engineering its content distribution system to be flexible and device-agnostic, allowing for a mix of Windows and Linux systems to coexist seamlessly.
The success of this diverse setup hinges on the displays being able to handle more than just virtual coughing and spluttering during boot.
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- Linux joins Heathrow's grounded fleet of information screens theregister.com
