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 daemon 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 overridden using command line options. Before running LCDd you should carefully read through that file and modify everything necessary 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 lcdvc 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

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

    mplay
        MPlay Blast 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/)

    uss720
        USS-720 USB-to-IEEE 1284 Bridge (Belkin F5U002 USB Parallel Printer Adapters)

    i2c LCD in 4-bit mode driven by PCF8574(A) / PCA9554(A), connected via I2C bus

    ftdi
        USB connection via a FTDI FT2232D chip in bitbang mode

    ethlcd
        TCP connection using open source/open hardware ethlcd (http://manio.skyboo.net/ethlcd/)

    usblcd
        LCD device from Adams IT Services (http://www.usblcd.de/)

    usbtiny
        Devices based on Dick Streefland's USBtiny firmware

i2500vfd
    140x32 pixel VFD Display of the Intra2net Intranator 2500 appliance

icp_a106
    ICP A106 alarm/LCD board in 19" rack cases by ICP

imon
    iMON IR/VFD modules in cases by Soundgraph/Ahanix/Silverstone/Uneed/Accent

imonlcd
    iMON IR/LCD modules in cases by Soundgraph/Ahanix/Silverstone/Uneed/Accent/Antec

irtrans
    IRTrans IR/VFD modules in cases by Ahanix (e.g. MCE303) and possibly others May require irserver (http://www.irtrans.de/en/download/linux.php) to be running for connectivity.

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)

lis L.I.S MCE 2005 20x2 VFD (http://vlsys.co.kr)

MD8800
    VFD displays in Medion MD8800 PCs

mdm166a
    Futuba MDM166A displays

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)

mx5000
    LCD display on the Logitech MX5000 keyboard

NoritakeVFD
    Noritake VFD Device CU20045SCPB-T28A

picolcd
    Mini-box.com USB LCD (PicoLCD 20x4 & 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

serialPOS
    Driver for Point Of Sale ("POS") devices using various protocols (currently AEDEX only)

serialVFD
    Text VFDs of various manufacturers, see LCDproc user-documentation for further details.

shuttleVFD
    Shuttle VFD (USB-based)

sli Wirz SLI driver (unknown)

stv5730
    STV5730A on-screen display chip

SureElec
    LCD devices from SURE electronics (http://www.sureelectronics.net)

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 type to 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

  Priorities
Valid 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 normal. This would cause the mp3 screen to show up as soon as the one on screen 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 banner.

icon
    A graphic icon.

scroller
    A scrolling text display, scrolling either horizontally or vertically.

frame
    A container to contain other widgets, permitting them to be refered 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.

num Displays a large decimal digit

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

SEE ALSO
lcdproc-config(5), lcdproc(1), lcdexec(1)

AUTHOR
Many people have contributed to LCDd. See the CREDITS file for more details.

All questions should be sent to the lcdproc mailing list. The mailing list, and the newest version of LCDproc, should be available from here:

        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.