Set up a card#
Fill a microSD card with the DMDoS GIF pack, straight from this page: the GIFs and playlists exactly as the pack has them, each GIF ready to play from the first boot. The card keeps working with DMDoS too.
Works in: Chrome or Edge on a computer: Windows, macOS, Linux or ChromeOS. Other browsers, phones and tablets can't write to a card from a web page: copy the pack onto the card yourself as The SD card describes, and the player gets the GIFs ready by itself over a night or two.
Get the GIF pack#
The GIF collection is made by the DMDoS community and offered on dmdos.net, in its Software section: download DMDos GUI v1 + GIFs from there. It's a zip of about 1 GB; there's no need to unzip it.
Nothing is uploaded: this page reads the zip on your computer and writes straight to the card.
Write the card#
Put the card in your computer (a USB card reader works). Drop the zip below, click Write to the card… and pick the card itself, the drive that holds it, not a folder on it. Your browser asks whether this site may edit files there: allow it.
This browser can't write to a card from a web page. Open this page in Chrome or Edge on a computer, or copy the pack onto the card yourself (see The SD card): the player then gets every GIF ready to play smoothly by itself, over a night or two.
Keep this tab open until it's finished: the page keeps your computer awake while it writes. If you stop or it's interrupted, nothing is half-written, and choosing the card again carries on where it stopped.
The DMDoS Windows program and its icon aren't needed on the card, so they weren't put on it.
Eject the card before you take it out, so everything is really written to it: on Windows, Eject from the USB icon in the taskbar or the card's menu in File Explorer; on a Mac, the eject button beside the card in Finder; on Linux, Eject in the file manager. It can take a minute. Then put the card in the display and turn it on.
Good to know#
- The card needs FAT32, like every card the player reads. Most cards up to 32 GB come that way; bigger ones are usually exFAT, and the player can't read those. See Using a new card for formatting one.
- It takes a while: usually 10 to 25 minutes for the whole pack, depending on the card and the reader, sometimes more. The time left shows as it goes.
- Stop whenever you like. Nothing is half-written: pick the card again and the page carries on where it stopped, skipping what's already there. Running it on a card that's already finished writes nothing.
- A card that already has the pack (copied by hand) works too: the page leaves its GIFs as they are and only gets them ready to play.
- What goes on the card: the
gifsfolder, the playlists (filelist.txt,filelist.hallandfilelist.xmas) and the DMDoS boot logo. The DMDoS Windows program in the zip isn't needed on the card. Nothing already on the card is deleted. - Your own GIFs go on the card later from the web app's Library, or make some with Create Art.
Something not working? See Troubleshooting.