Screen | ForgeIEC

Affects: Screen Hearth

The kiosk browser

Screen is the industrial HMI-panel browser of ForgeIEC. A lean application that sits between the hardware display and the web HMI: it runs fullscreen, opens any HTTP HMI URL (typically Hearth, alternatively 3rd-party HMIs) and at the same time offers a built-in settings UI for device configuration (network, WireGuard, time zone, language).

Written in Rust with the Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF) and winit as window manager. Runs on X11, Wayland and Windows — on Linux amd64 + arm64 and on Windows x64.

What Screen does

Area	What Screen does
CEF integration	Full Chromium browser as an embedded window
Fullscreen + windowed	Default: borderless fullscreen; `--windowed` for test/debug
Kiosk mode	`--kiosk <URL>` — no address bar, no tab switch, just the HMI
Settings UI	Integrated Rocket web server on port 8080 with Tera templates
D-Bus backend	NetworkManager + timedated + localed via zbus
Local settings	SQLite store for device-specific configuration
WireGuard	Multi-tunnel VPN management via NetworkManager (config import or key generation)
80+ languages	i18n with Project Fluent (incl. RTL: Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Urdu)
DCP client	HTTP/WebSocket client for an external settings daemon

Typical deployment

flowchart LR
    Panel["HMI panel<br/>(Touch-PC at the cabinet)"]
    Screen["Screen<br/>(CEF kiosk)"]
    Hearth["Hearth<br/>(HMI renderer)"]
    Anvil["Anvil bus<br/>(iceoryx2)"]
    Plc["forgeiec_plc<br/>(PLC cycle)"]

    Panel ---|"runs on"| Screen
    Screen ---|"HTTP"| Hearth
    Hearth ---|"reads"| Anvil
    Anvil ---|"process data"| Plc

You have an HMI panel at the cabinet: Screen runs on it and is pure display (Chromium kiosk). The HMI is rendered by Hearth as an HTTP UI (preview); Hearth reads the live values directly from the Anvil bus, where the PLC cycle publishes them. The operator sees only the application — no Linux desktop, no accidentally- startable browser functions.

Operation modes

Mode	When?	How?
Kiosk	Productive panel at a machine	`screen --kiosk https://hmi.local` — fullscreen, no exit through UI
Fullscreen	Like kiosk but with address bar for diagnostics	`screen` (default)
Windowed	Test, development	`screen --windowed`
Settings only	First-time setup without HMI	Screen opens `http://localhost:8080` (built-in settings UI)

Settings UI

A Tera-templated web UI runs on port 8080 with:

Network — DHCP / static IP, multiple interfaces, VLAN tags
WireGuard — up to N simultaneous tunnels, key generation or config import (.conf)
Time zone — via timedated D-Bus, geo selection plus manual entry
Language — localed D-Bus, 80+ languages via Project Fluent
HMI URL — which URL is loaded after startup
Display — resolution, orientation (portrait / landscape)

Settings are persisted in a local SQLite database — survives reboots, readable via the automation-settings CLI for backup / provisioning.

Technical specs

Aspect	Value
Language	Rust
Browser engine	Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF) 146
Window manager	winit
Settings server	Rocket + Tera
D-Bus stack	zbus (NetworkManager + timedated + localed)
Database	SQLite
i18n	Project Fluent, 80+ languages incl. RTL
Display servers	X11, Wayland, Windows (Win32)
Platforms	Linux amd64 + arm64, Windows x64
Licence	AGPL-3.0-or-later

Source

Repository	Link
Forgejo	`ssh://git@git.forgeiec.io/ForgeIEC/screen.git` (not publicly browsable — access once your SSH public key is enabled)
APT	`sudo apt install forgeiec-screen-wayland`

Screen — the industrial browser for the HMI panel.

blacksmith@forgeiec.io