LCDd(8)

NAME

LCDd - LCDproc server daemon

SYNOPSIS

LCDd  [-hf]  [-c  config] [-d driver] [-i bool] [-a addr] [-p port] [-u
user] [-w time] [-r level] [-s bool]

DESCRIPTION

LCDd is the server part of LCDproc, a deamon which listens to a certain port (normally 13666) and displays information on an LCD display. It works with several types and sizes of displays.

Most settings of LCDd are configured through its configuration file /etc/LCDd.conf, some of them can be overriden using command line options. Before running LCDd you should carefully read through that file and modify everything neccessary according to your needs. Otherwise you might encounter LCDd not running properly on your system.

To make full use of LCDd, a client such as lcdproc(1), lcdexec(1), or lcdvd is required.

OPTIONS

Available options are:

-h Display help screen

-c config: Use a configuration file other than /etc/LCDd.conf
-d driver: Specify a driver to use (output only to first), overriding the Driver parameter in the config file's [Server] section.
-f Run in the foreground, overriding the Foreground parameter in: the config file's [Server] section. The default, if not specified in the config file, is to daemonize LCDd as it is intended to operate in the background.
-i bool: Tell whether the to enable (1) or disable (0) showing the LCDproc server screen in n the screen rotation, overriding ServerScreen in the config file's [Server] section.
-w waittime: Time to pause at each screen (in seconds), overriding the WaitTime parameter in the config file's [Server] section.
-a addr: Bind to network address addr, overriding the Bind parameter in the config file's [Server] section.
-p port: Listen on port port for incoming connections, overriding the Port parameter in the config file's [Server] section.
-u user: Run as user user, overriding the User parameter in the config file's [Server] section.
-s bool: Output messages to syslog (1) or to stdout (0), overriding the ReportToSyslog parameter in the config file's [Server] section.
-r level: Set reporting level to level, overriding th ReportLevel parameter in the config file's [Server] section.
SUPPORTED DRIVERS: Currently supported display drivers include:; bayrad BayRAD LCD modules by EMAC Inc.; CFontz CrystalFontz CFA-632 and CFA-634 serial LCD displays; CFontz633
CrystalFontz CFA-633 serial/USB LCD displays; CFontzPacket
CrystalFontz CFA-631, CFA-633 and CFA-635 serial/USB LCD displays; curses Standard video display using the (n)curses library; CwLnx serial/USB displays by Cwlinux (http://www.cwlinux.com); ea65 VFD front panel display on Aopen XC Cube EA65 media barebone; EyeboxOne
LCD display on the EyeboxOne (http://www.rightvision.com); g15 LCD display on the Logitech G15 keyboard; glcdlib
graphical LCDs supported by graphlcd-base; glk Matrix Orbital GLK Graphic Displays; hd44780
Hitachi HD44780 LCD displays. This driver supports the following sub-drivers (a.k.a. connection types):

4bit LCD 4bit-mode, connected to a PC parallel port

8bit LCD 8bit-mode, connected to a PC parallel port

serialLpt
LCD in 4bit-mode through a 4094 shift register

winamp LCD in 8bit-mode using WinAmp-wiring, connected to a PC

parallel port

picanlcd

LCD driven by a PIC-an-LCD chip/board by Dale Wheat, connected to a serial port

lcdserializer

LCD driven by a PIC16C54-based piggy-back board, connected to a serial port

los-panel

LCD driven by an Atmel AVR based board, connected to a serial port

vdr-lcd

???, connected to a serial port

vdr-wakeup

VDR-Wake module by Frank Jepsen (http://www.jepsennet.de/vdr/)

pertelian

Pertelian X2040 module (http://pertelian.com/)

lis2 LIS2 from VLSystem (http://www.vlsys.co.kr), connected to

USB

bwctusb

USB-to-HD44780 converter by BWCT (http://www.bwct.de)

lcd2usb

Till Harbaum's open source/open hardware LCD2USB (http://www.harbaum.org/till/lcd2usb/)

i2c LCD in 4-bit mode driven by PCF8574(A) / PCA9554(A), con

nected via I2C bus
icp_a106: ICP A106 alarm/LCD board in 19" rack cases by ICP
imon iMON IR/VFD modules in cases by Soundgraph/Ahanix/Silver: stone/Uneed/Accent
IOWarrior: Code Mercenaries IOWarrior
irman IrMan infrared (input)
joy Joystick driver (input)
lb216 LB216 LCD displays
lcdm001: kernelconcepts.de 20x4 serial LCD displays
lcterm serial LCD terminal from Helmut Neumark Elektronik: (http://www.neumark.de)
lirc Infrared (input)
MD8800 VFD displays in Medion MD8800 PCs
ms6931 MSI-6931 displays in 1U rack servers by MSI
mtc_s16209x: MTC_S16209x LCD displays by Microtips Technology Inc
MtxOrb Matrix Orbital displays (except Matrix Orbital GLK displays)
NoritakeVFD: Noritake VFD Device CU20045SCPB-T28A
picolcd: Mini-box.com USB LCD (picoLCD 20x2)
pyramid: LCD displays from Pyramid (http://www.pyramid.de)
sed1330: SED1330/SED1335 (aka S1D13300/S1D13305) based graphical displays
sed1520: 122x32 pixel graphic displays based on SED1520 controllers
serialVFD: NEC (FIPC8367 based) and FUTABA VFDs
sli Wirz SLI driver (unknown)
stv5730: STV5730A on-screen display chip
svga VGA monitors using svgalib
t6963 Toshiba T6963 based LCD displays
text Standard "hard-copy" text display
tyan LCD module in Tyan Barebone GS series
ula200 ULA-200 device from ELV (http://www.elv.de)
xosd On Screen Display on X11
Multiple drivers can be used simultaneously; thus, for example, a Matrix Orbital display (MtxOrb driver) can be combined with an infrared driver (irmanin driver).

INVOCATION

LCDd -d MtxOrb -d joy
The invocation example above will start LCDd reading its configuration from the default configuration file /etc/LCDd.conf but overriding the drivers specified therein with the Matrix Orbital driver and the Joystick input driver.

LCDPROC CLIENT-SERVER PROTOCOL

There is a basic sequence:

1. Open a TCP connection to the LCDd server port (usually 13666).

2. Say "hello"

3. The server will return some information on the type: of display available.; 4. Define (and use) a new screen and its widgets.; 5. Close the socket when done displaying data.
CLIENT COMMANDS
There are many commands for the client to send to the LCDd server:
hello This starts a client-server session with the LCDd server; the server will return a data string detailing the type of display and its size.
client_set -name name
Set the client's name.
screen_add #id
Add a new screen to the display.
screen_del #id
Remove a screen from the display.
screen_set #id [-name name ] [-wid width] [-hgt height] [-priority prio] [-duration int] [-timeout int] [-heartbeat mode] [-backlight mode] [-cursor mode] [-cursor_x xpos] [-cursor_y ypos] Initialize a screen, or reset its data.
widget_add #screen #id type [-in #frame] Add a widget of type typeto screen #screen.
widget_del #screen #id
Delete widget #id from screen #screen.
widget_set #screen #id data Set the data used to define a particular widget #id on screen #screen.
HEARTBEAT MODES
Valid heartbeat mode values (for the screen_set command) are:
on Display pulsing heart symbol.
off No heartbeat display.
open Use client's heartbeat setting. This is the default.
BACKLIGHT MODES
Valid heartbeat mode values (for the screen_set command) are:
on Turn backlight on.
off Turn backlight off
toggle Turn backlight off when it is on and vice versa.
open Use client's backlight setting. This is the default.
blink Blinking backlight
flash Flashing blacklight
PrioritiesValid priority settings (used in the screen_set command) are as follows:
input The client is doing interactive input.
alert The screen has an important message for the user.
foreground
an active client
info Normal info screen, default priority.
background
The screen is only visible when no normal info screens exists.
hidden The screen will never be visible.
For compatibility with older versions of clients a mapping of numeric priority values is also supported:
1 - 64 foreground
65 - 192
normal
193 - (infinity)
background
An example of how to properly use priorities is as follows:
Imagine you're making an mp3 player for lcdproc. When the song changes, it's nice to display the new name immediately. So, you could set your screen's priority to foreground, wait for the server to display (or ignore) your screen, then set the screen back to inormal. This would cause the mp3 screen to show up as soon as the one onscreen was finished, then return to normal priority afterward.
Or, let's say your client monitors the health of hospital patients. If one of the patients has a heart attack, you could set the screen priority to alert, and it would be displayed immediately. It wouldn't even wait for the previous screen to finish. Also, the display would stay on screen most of the time until the user did something about it.
WIDGET TYPES
Widgets can be any of the following:
string A text string to display (as is).
hbar A horizontal bar graph.
vbar A vertical bar graph.
title A title displayed across the top of the display, within a ban ner.
icon A graphic icon.
scrollerA scrolling text display, scrolling either horizontally or vertically.
frame A container to contain other widgets, permitting them to be ref ered to as a single unit. A widget is put inside a frame by using the -in #id parameter, where #id refers to the id of the frame.
Widgets are drawn on the screen in the order they are created.
SETTING WIDGET DATA
In the widget_set command, the data argument depends on which widget is being set. Each widget takes a particular set of arguments which defines its form and behavior:
string x y text
Displays text at position (x,y).
title text
Uses text as title to display.
hbar x y length
Displays a horizontal bar starting at position (x,y) that is length pixels wide.
vbar x y length
Displays a vertical bar starting at position (x,y) that is length pixels high.
icon x y name
Displays the icon name at position (x,y).
scroller left top right bottom direction speed text The text defined will scroll in the direction defined. Valid directions are h (horizontal) and v (vertical). The speed defines how many "movements" (or changes) will occur per frame. A positive number indicates frames per movement; a negative number indicates movements per frame.
frame left top right bottom wid hgt dir speed Frames define a visible "box" on screen, from the (left, top) corner to the (right, bottom) corner. The actual data may be bigger, and is defined as wid (width) by hgt (height); if it is bigger, then the frame will scroll in the direction (dir) and speed defined.
num x int
Displays large decimal digit int at the horizontal position x, which is a normal character x coordinate on the display. The special value 10 for int displays a colon.

BUGS

If LCDd seems not to work as expected, try to run it in the foreground with reporting level set to maximum and reporting to stderr. This can be achieved without changes to the config file by using the command line:: LCDd -f -r 5 -s 0

FILES

/etc/LCDd.conf, LCDd's default configuration file

AUTHOR

LCDd was originally written by William Ferrell (wwf@splatwerks.org) and Scott Scriven (scriven@cs.colostate.edu).

Since that time various people have contributed to LCDproc.

The newest version of LCDd should be available from here as part of the lcdproc package:: http://www.lcdproc.org/

LEGAL STUFF

The lcdproc package is released as "WorksForMe-Ware". In other words, it is free, kinda neat, and we don't guarantee that it will do anything in particular on any machine except the ones it was developed on.

It is technically released under the GNU GPL license (you should have received the file, "COPYING", with LCDproc) (also, look on http://www.fsf.org/ for more information), so you can distribute and use it for free -- but you must make the source code freely available to anyone who wants it.

For any sort of real legal information, read the GNU GPL (GNU General Public License). It's worth reading.

docs.sk

comprehensive documentation repository

See also