lcd4linux -h

• print version number and a small help text, then exit

lcd4linux -l

• list available drivers

lcd4linux [[:-c|key=val]] [[:-F]] [[:-f|config-file]] [[:-o|output]] [[:-q]] [[:-v]]

• run lcd4linux
• overwrite entries from the config-file with '-c'
• do not fork and detach with '-F'
• use configuration from 'config-file' instead of /etc/lcd4linux.conf
• write picture to 'output' (raster driver only)
• suppress startup splash screen with '-q'
• generate info messages with '-v'
• generate debugging messages with '-vv'
• debug socket traffic too, with '-vvv'

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lcd4linux on foreground writes (depending on level) to stdout or stderr. The Text-Driver has ist's own diagnostics window. Started in the background (the default), lcd4linux uses your syslog daemon for logging. Facility is USER, levels are ERR, INFO and DEBUG.

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See the Displays page for information on supported displays and their configuration.

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The configuration file (default: /etc/lcd4linux.conf) has a very simple format: Every line consists of a key and a value, seperated by whitespace (blanks or tabs). Values can contain whitespace, and can be enclosed in single or double quotes. A key must not contain whitespace. Keys are NOT case-sensitive. Order doesn't matter. Empty lines and all text on a line after a '#' will be ignored. If you want to use '#' in a value (think of X11-colors), you have to quote it with a backslash.

Because of security reasons (the configuration may contain usernames/passwords for mail accounts) the config file is assured to be:

• file is a normal file (or /dev/null)
• file owner is owner of program
• file is not accessible by group
• file is not accessible by other

So if you run lcd4linux as root, /etc/lcd4linux.conf has to be:

chmod 600
chown root.root

The configuration file contains information for different modules of lcd4linux:

Quiet: Omit startup splash screen (same as commandline option '-q') Default: 0

until 0.9.10, timing was controlled with the following entries:\

tick: time in milliseconds between bar updates\

tack: time in milliseconds between text updates (text can be updated less often than bars, so you get a smooth bar display and readable text)\

tau: time constant (in milliseconds) for damping function (not used by now)\

starting with 0.9.11, these settings are obsolete, and replaced by the following entries:\

Tick.Text: time in milliseconds between text updates (text can be updated less often than bars, so you get a smooth bar display and readable text). Default: 500 msec\

Tick.bar: time in milliseconds between bar updates. Default: 100 msec\

Tick.icon: time in milliseconds between icon updates (especially animated icons can be updated more oftan than text or bars to get a smooth display. Note that an icon updated does not require a data collection, and therefore does not consume too much CPU time). Default: 100 msec\

Tick.gpo: time in milliseconds between gpo updates. Default: 100 msec\

overload: load average threshold and bar scaling. The %L token (see below) displays a '!' instead of a blank if the current load average exceeds this value. Load bars are scaled by this value (load=overload gives 100%)\

battwarning: be documented (Default: 10)\

SetiDir: directory where seti@home stores its data files\

Wifi.interface: interface used for data collection (default: “wlan0”) \

sensor1: path to the 1st temperature file (e.g. /proc/sys/dev/sensors/w83781d-isa-0290/temp1) it is important that you use the isa sensors, because the i2c sensors are very slow! \

sensor1_min: temperature where the corresponding bar starts \

sensor1_max: temperature where bar ends \

sensor1_factor, sensor1_offset: formula to calculate real temperature: display_value=raw_value*factor+offset (lookup the values in your sensors.conf!) \

sensor2..9_min, _max, _factor, _offset: entries for the 2nd to 9th temperature sensor \

x1: command to execute PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin $X1…$X8 is result of command 1..8 in environment\

Tick_x1: delay in ticks (overrides delay_x)\

Delay_x1: delay in seconds (default 1) \

Max_x1: max value for bars (default 100) \

Min_x1: min value for bars (default 0) \

x2..9, Tick_x2..9, Delays_x2..9, Max_x2..9, Min_x2..9: entries for plugin 2..9 \

Mailbox1: The option string may be a plain mbox file or a pop3/imap4/nntp server string with the following format: \

//pop3:[[:user[:pass]]@]machine[[::port]]// \\\

//imap4:[[:user[:pass]]@]machine[[::port]][[::dir]]// \\\

//nntp:[[:user[:pass]]@]machine[[::port]][[::dir]]// \\\

Port defaults to 110 and 143 respectively. \\\

If /dir is not given, INBOX is assumed. \\\

If dir is given for nntp: it should be a valid group name with '.' separating items \\\

If dir is not given for nntp: all/unread news of subscribed groups from Newsrc are calcualted. \\\

Delay_e1: delay in seconds for querying the Mailbox !#1 (default 5) \

Mailbox2..9, Delay_e2..9: entries for Mailboxes 2..9 \

Newsrc: path/name of your .newsrc file containing subscribed news \

Note: authorization on newsservers is untested. \\\

Note: user and pass may not contain a '/' with above syntax, I hope that's ok. \\\

Display: the name of a display driver\

every driver has its own configuration options (e.g. 'Port', 'Speed', …)\

See the Displays page for information on supported displays and their configuration.

row1: Text to display in row 1 \

row2..max: Text to display in other rows \

The text to be displayed can contain specific directives, which will be replaced by the appropriate values, or will create bars or icons:

\nnn will write the ASCII-character nnn (octal) \

%token will be replaced by the value of token \

%% will write a '%' \

%$ will write a '$' \

%& will write a '&' \

$<direction><length><token>+<token> will create a bar with the specified direction and length (in characters) with the value of token. \

If the driver supports dual bars, you can specify the second value with '+token'. \

direction can be 'l' (left), 'r' (right), 'u' (up) or 'd'(down). \

If you specify the direction in upper case, a logarithmic bar will be created. \

Note that the space occupied by a bar always grows from left to right or from top to bottom, regardless of the direction! \

$t<height><token>,<width> will create a time series bar. The data are displayed like '$u', but are shifted every second 1 pixel to the left. Currently only displays based on the pixel-driver support this bar type.

&<num> will draw the icon num at this position. For the definition of an icons see below…

From 0.9.11 lcd4linux can display icons, and even animate them. If you want a 'heartbeat', that's what you're looking for!\

The icon definition consists of two parts: The number of icons you want to control, and a bitmap for each icon:\

Icons: number of icons

Keep in mind that every icon you're reserving here is no longer available for bars! As most displays have only eight user-defineable characters, and a dual-bar needs at least five of them, you should not use more than 3 icons in parallel with bars…

Icon<num>.Bitmap<row>: bitmap row row for icon num

this looks far too complicated. Lets explain it with some examples:

 Icon1.Bitmap1 .....
 Icon1.Bitmap2 .*.*.
 Icon1.Bitmap3 *****
 Icon1.Bitmap4 *****
 Icon1.Bitmap5 .***.
 Icon1.Bitmap6 .***.
 Icon1.Bitmap7 ..*..
 Icon1.Bitmap8 .....

We define the bitmap of a simple (not animated) icon here. Usually an icon has the same size than a character, 5 columns and 8 rows here. The bitmap is defined with two characters, a '.' (dot) for 'pixel not set' and a '*' (asterisk) for 'pixel set'.

Now for an animated icon:

 Icon2.Bitmap1 .....|.....
 Icon2.Bitmap2 .*.*.|.*.*.
 Icon2.Bitmap3 *****|*.*.*
 Icon2.Bitmap4 *****|*...*
 Icon2.Bitmap5 .***.|.*.*.
 Icon2.Bitmap6 .***.|.*.*.
 Icon2.Bitmap7 ..*..|..*..
 Icon2.Bitmap8 .....|.....

It's that simple! Just append the second bitmap with a '|' (pipe) character, and you're done! lcd4linux will automatically loop through all bitmaps.

Your animation can consist of as many bitmaps as you like:

 Icon3.Bitmap1 .....|.....|.....|.....|..*..|.....|.....|.....
 Icon3.Bitmap2 .....|.....|.....|..*..|.*.*.|..*..|.....|.....
 Icon3.Bitmap3 .....|.....|..*..|.*.*.|*...*|.*.*.|..*..|.....
 Icon3.Bitmap4 .....|..*..|.*.*.|*...*|.....|*...*|.*.*.|..*..
 Icon3.Bitmap5 .....|.....|..*..|.*.*.|*...*|.*.*.|..*..|.....
 Icon3.Bitmap6 .....|.....|.....|..*..|.*.*.|..*..|.....|.....
 Icon3.Bitmap7 .....|.....|.....|.....|..*..|.....|.....|.....
 Icon3.Bitmap8 .....|.....|.....|.....|.....|.....|.....|.....

Rows: number of rows to use (may be greater than your display's rows) \

Scroll: number of rows to scroll \

Turn: number of milliseconds between scrolling events \

GPOs: number of outputs to use \

GPO1: Token to use for GPO !#1. The token should return a numeric value, if this value is greater then zero, the output will be enabled, otherwise disabled \

GPO2..max: Token to be used for other GPO's \

o operating system name ('Linux') \

v operating system release ('2.0.38') \

p processor ('i686') \

r total amount of memory installed (MB) \

mt total memory from /proc/meminfo (kB) \

mu used memory (kB) \

mf free memory (kB) \

ms shared memory (kB) \

mb buffers (kB) \

mc page cache (kB) \

ma application memory (kB) = used - buffer - cache \

l1 load average for the past 1 minute \

l2 load average for the past 5 minutes \

l3 load average for the past 15 minutes \

L '!' if load > overload (from config) \

cu percentage of CPU in user mode \

cn percentage of CPU in niced tasks \

cs percentage of CPU in system mode \

cb percentage of CPU busy (=100-idle) \

ci percentage of CPU idle \

dr disk blocks read \

dw disk blocks written \

dt disk blocks total (read+write) \

dm disk blocks max (read, write) \

nr network bytes received \

nw network bytes transmitted \

nt network bytes total (receive+transmit) \

nm network bytes max (receive, transmit) \

ii ISDN bytes received \

io ISDN bytes sent \

it ISDN bytes total (received+send) \

im ISDN bytes max (received, send) \

ic ISDN connected (0=offline, 1=online) \

ti PPP bytes received \

to PPP bytes sent \

tt PPP bytes total (received+send) \

tm PPP bytes max (received, send) \

s1 temperature of sensor 1 \

s2 temperature of sensor 2 (up to s9) \

bp battery percentage (APM by now) \

bs battery status ('=' = online, '+' = charging, '-' discharging) \

bd battery duration in s{econds}, m{ins}, h{ours} or d{ays} \

hc seti@home % completed \

ht seti@home time spent on workunit \

wl WIFI link \

ws WIFI signal level \

wn WIFI noise \

e* mails in mailbox 1-9, total mail \

u* mails in mailbox 1-9, unseen mail \

x* output of command 1-9 \

Please have a look at lcd4linux.conf.sample, where you can find examples of all options and their usage.

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