lcdproc8

lcdproc - displays system status on Matrix-Orbital 20x4 LCD on a serial port

Usage

lcdproc [-d device] [-c contrast] [modelist]

Overview

lcdproc uses a 20x4 character LCD manufactured by Matrix-Orbital to display status information about the system.

Currently, only Linux is supported (kernels 2.0 and greater), and /proc filesystem support is required. In addition, only displays made by Matrix-Orbital are supported at this time (their displays have built-in controllers and a very good BIOS).

Options

lcdproc understands these options:

-l driver
The lcd display driver to use. So far, this can only be:

-d device
The serial port attached to the display. Usually /dev/cua0 or /dev/cua1. This device is locked by lcdproc.

-c contrast
Sets the display's contrast setting to the value specified, ranging from 0 to 255. Note that values below around 30 yield invisible characters from most viewing angles, and values above 200 yield solid cells from most viewing angles.

modelist
A list specifying what screens to display, and in what order; in the form:

mode [mode mode mode ...]

where mode is one of...
”C“ (CPU usage),
”G“ (CPU Graph like Xload),
”T“ (date, time, uptime, and OS version),
”M“ (Memory Usage),
”X“ (X-Load),
”D“ (Disk statistics),
”B“ (APM battery statistics),
”A“ (About),
”O“ (old date and time screen (deprecated)),
”U“ (system uptime (deprecated)),

Examples

lcdproc -d /dev/cua1 -c 180 C M U O X

selects /dev/cua1 (com2) as the serial port, sets the display's contrast to 180, and specifies the following modes:

- CPU Usage, updated every 1/8th of a second for 4 seconds.
- Memory usage, updated every 1/4th of a second for 4 seconds.
- Uptime, updated every 1/2 second for 4 seconds.
- Date and Time, updated every 1/2 second for 4 seconds.
- X-Load average over time, updated once per mode cycle.

Caveats

Known bugs

- Only supports 20x4 displays, so far.
- Doesn't lock the com port... yet.
- Doesn't always shut down correctly when killed by init. (during ”shutdown -h now", for example)

Contact information

LCDproc was written by William Ferrell ([email protected]) and Scott Scriven ([email protected]).

Matrix Orbital (http://www.matrix-orbital.com/) designed and manufactures the LCD displays.

The newest version of LCDproc should be available from here:

http://lcdproc.omnipotent.net/

Legal stuff

LCDproc 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)