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    LCDProc 0.5.4-dev

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved pfSense Packages
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    • stephenw10S
      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
      last edited by

      I think we should take this to a separate thread. This one is already massive and LED control on a particular Lanner box is not helpful for most people reading it.

      Steve

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      • B
        Brak
        last edited by

        @stephenw10:

        I think we should take this to a separate thread. This one is already massive and LED control on a particular Lanner box is not helpful for most people reading it.

        Steve

        Agreed, but honestly, it's probably not worth worrying about the LED in it at all.

        Only thing I think we can keep from this side-tracking is that the 64-bit SDECLCD works, but it is hard-coded as 16x2 status screens still.

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        • F
          fmertz
          last edited by

          @Brak:

          Only thing I think we can keep from this side-tracking is that the 64-bit SDECLCD works, but it is hard-coded as 16x2 status screens still.

          You can ask LCDd what it thinks the width is:

          
          telnet <pfsense host="" ip="" or="" name="">13666
          hello
          connect LCDproc 0.5.4 protocol 0.3 lcd wid 20 hgt 2 cellwid 5 cellhgt 8</pfsense> 
          
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          • B
            Brak
            last edited by

            @fmertz:

            @Brak:

            Only thing I think we can keep from this side-tracking is that the 64-bit SDECLCD works, but it is hard-coded as 16x2 status screens still.

            You can ask LCDd what it thinks the width is:

            
            telnet <pfsense host="" ip="" or="" name="">13666
            hello
            connect LCDproc 0.5.4 protocol 0.3 lcd wid 20 hgt 2 cellwid 5 cellhgt 8</pfsense> 
            

            Output:

            
            [2.0.1-RELEASE][root@fringebox.blizzard]/root(4): telnet 127.0.0.1 13666
            Trying 127.0.0.1...
            Connected to localhost.
            Escape character is '^]'.
            hello
            connect LCDproc 0.5.5 protocol 0.3 lcd wid 20 hgt 2 cellwid 5 cellhgt 8
            
            

            Examples: (Kinda bad example, but it at least shows the screens are shortened. I know things are getting cut off since I can't change the "pfsense shutting down" to be any bigger without losing the extra 8 characters on the end. The Lanner-LCM hacked driver can write the shutdown line on all the 20x2 characters just fine)

            Off center, not showing screens to be big enough:

            Clearly addresses the extra characters with other displays:

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            • stephenw10S
              stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
              last edited by

              Not a driver problem then.
              Are you sure it ever shows more characters than that? The screens are always drawn from the left side.
              E.g.

              Steve

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              • F
                fmertz
                last edited by

                Brak,

                If you want to point me to the hacked Lanner code again, I can have a quick look. Without hardware available to me though, this is quickly becoming unproductive. I am in the mid-atlantic US, maybe you should look up shipping rates and mail me a stripped down box for development. I could probably get the full LCD and LED control coded in the driver for 32 and 64 bit. Up to you.

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                • B
                  Brak
                  last edited by

                  I think the issue was just with my implementation. No use you guys wasting time on my hardware.

                  I did notice the issue with lcdproc crashing on the initial boot, then later restarting into just the LCDd server/client menu. Once I start the service once, it's seemingly good forever (at least until an unlucky interface up/down!)

                  Is there anything I should try and look at to see why it's failing at the initial boot?

                  Also, is there any way we could get LCDExec to be included in the package (both 32bit/64bit, 32bit does NOT work on 64bit in my experience - makes no sense?), and have it check for an lcdexec.conf (and if it exists, start the process running that config right after lcdproc starts?) My menu system would be more easily implemented if we could get everyone already have a working lcdexec install. 80% of my installation scripts are just hacking in the lcdexec install.

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                  • B
                    Brak
                    last edited by

                    There has to be something wrong with the rc.d or PHP scripts, but I just can't find it. Could it be the interface up/downs on boot causing this crash?

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                    • B
                      Brak
                      last edited by

                      Alright, nevermind on the lcdexec stuff, I'm an idiot. It's already in /usr/bin/ for everyone.

                      But, as for the service crashing on boot, it still appears to happen. I've noticed it does not happen on full (x64) installs, but my nanoBSD installs require a service restart to get working after boot.

                      Any ideas?

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                      • F
                        fmertz
                        last edited by

                        Time for a code release:

                        I just posted the ledsupport branch of the lcdproc package source code on github:

                        https://github.com/fmertz/sdeclcd/tree/ledsupport

                        Basically, this code adds driver support for known Firebox LED arrangements, from X-Core to X-Core-e to X-Peak and finally XTM. The code identifies the particular Intel Southbridge/ICH, and matches it up with specific GPIO pins as posted on this forum. It deals with ICH and SuperIO GPIO. As I only own an X-Core-e, it is not all completely tested.

                        There is a binary here: https://github.com/downloads/fmertz/sdeclcd/sdeclcd.so

                        If you can assist in the testing, replace your copy of the driver with this one, and give it a try:

                        
                        telnet localhost 13666
                        hello
                        connect LCDproc 0.5.5 protocol 0.3 lcd wid 20 hgt 2 cellwid 5 cellhgt 8
                        output 1 <—Should start blinking red, rare short blink
                        success
                        output 2 <—Should start blinking green, rare short blink
                        success
                        
                        

                        The output logic is this: we have 32 bit to work with, and we need 3 states (Red, Green and off). This is 2 bits. So, in 32 bits, we have 16 time slots to work with. So, basically, code in the sequence of colors you want to see (Red, Green or off) and keep shifting to fill in the bits.

                        Worksheet:
                        XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX
                        X is 1, 2 or 0

                        0000 0000 0000 0001 is slow quick blink red
                        0101 0101 0101 0101 is fast quick blink red
                        0011 0011 0011 0011 is medium medium blink red
                        0000 1111 0000 1111 is slow long blink red
                        0000 2222 0000 1111 is slow blink alternating between red and green

                        etc… The binary needs to be made decimal for the “output” command. Sequence lasts about 4 seconds.

                        As we know, there is no client yet that exercises this driver "output" feature. If this works with various models, I'll submit a pull request with the pfSense team so that new package installations will get this binary.

                        Anyone wants to add LED support to the PHP client? Something like controlling the LED based on availability of internet access, or the ISP's DNS server would be nice...

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                        • B
                          Brak
                          last edited by

                          Here is an lcdproc.inc that seems to fix the startup crash issue.

                          Not sure if this will work for everyone or if it isn't working right, but let me know how it could be improved.

                          It generates this rc.d script:

                          #!/bin/sh
                          
                          #!/bin/sh
                          # This file was automatically generated
                          # by the pfSense service handler.
                          
                          rc_start() {
                          sleep 5
                          	/usr/bin/nice -20 /usr/local/sbin/LCDd -c /usr/local/etc/LCDd.conf 
                          	/usr/bin/nice -20 /usr/local/bin/php -f /usr/local/pkg/lcdproc_client.php &
                          
                          }
                          
                          rc_stop() {
                          	pkill -f lcdproc_client.php
                          
                          	pkill -anx lcdexec
                          	pkill -anx lcdproc
                          	pkill -anx LCDd 
                          	sleep 1
                          
                          }
                          
                          case $1 in
                          	start)
                          		rc_start
                          		;;
                          	stop)
                          		rc_stop
                          		;;
                          	restart)
                          		rc_stop
                          		rc_start
                          		;;
                          esac
                          

                          lcdproc.inc.png

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                          • N
                            nicktlloyd
                            last edited by

                            Not sure if this is the correct place to post this question but I'm new here so any help would be much appreciated.  I have a crystalfontz 634 running on pfsense 2.0.1 amd64 with LCDproc 0.5.5 pkg v. 0.9.4 installed.  At startup I see the crystalfontz info come up, then the blinking light in the top left.  After pfsense and LCDproc start up I see a bunch of garbage characters scroll down the lcd for like thirty seconds then just a blank screen.  I'm pretty sure I've got the right usb com port as the top left blinking light will just keep on if I switch to another one.  From the web settings I have it set to 4x20, CrystalFontz driver, 5 sec refresh, 9600 baud (tried default, same thing) and then default on the rest of the settings.  For screens I have "Enable Traffic Interface, WAN" and "Enable Hostname".  Here's the contents of LCDd.conf:

                            
                            [server]
                            DriverPath=/usr/local/lib/lcdproc/
                            Driver=CFontz
                            Bind=127.0.0.1
                            Port=13666
                            ReportLevel=3
                            ReportToSyslog=yes
                            User=nobody
                            Foreground=no
                            ServerScreen=no
                            GoodBye="Thanks for using"
                            GoodBye="    pfSense     "
                            WaitTime=5
                            ToggleRotateKey=Enter
                            PrevScreenKey=Left
                            NextScreenKey=Right
                            ScrollUpKey=Up
                            ScrollDownKey=Down
                            [menu]
                            MenuKey=Escape
                            EnterKey=Enter
                            UpKey=Up
                            DownKey=Down
                            [CFontz]
                            Device=/dev/cuaU0
                            Size=20x4
                            Contrast=350
                            Brightness=1000
                            OffBrightness=50
                            NewFirmware=no
                            Reboot=no
                            Speed=9600
                            
                            

                            Anybody have any ideas about why it's doing this?

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                            • N
                              nicktlloyd
                              last edited by

                              Ok, if anyone else has a crystalfontz 634: make sure you set the contrast over 50% or you won't see ANYTHING.  DON'T LEAVE IT ON DEFAULT.

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                              • B
                                Brak
                                last edited by

                                Bumping this so people can see and try my fixed lcdproc.inc

                                I was wondering if we could get that and the 64bit SDECLCD driver put in the real package.

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                                • stephenw10S
                                  stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                  last edited by

                                  Hmm, this looks like spam but doesn't have any links.  :-
                                  Please re-phrase this if you are really asking.

                                  Steve

                                  Edit: It was spam then!  ::)

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                                  • M
                                    mirco.ippoliti
                                    last edited by

                                    Hi !
                                    congratulations for the work !
                                    I am Celestix Scoprio X MSA 5000 user and the box run very nice with pfsense 2.0.1
                                    …but..the lcd display don't work !
                                    I tried different drivers ... but nothing ...
                                    is a USB display of 40 x 2 (with 3 led for (1) attention / (2) HDD / (3) ON )
                                    Would it be possible to control it with lcdproc?
                                    Many Thanks !

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                                    • stephenw10S
                                      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                      last edited by

                                      Possibly. We need more information. Anything written on the the LCD unit itself? Any windows drivers that might provide a clue?

                                      Steve

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                                      • M
                                        mirco.ippoliti
                                        last edited by

                                        @stephenw10:

                                        Possibly. We need more information. Anything written on the the LCD unit itself? Any windows drivers that might provide a clue?

                                        Steve

                                        The display manufactured is varitronix
                                        Unfortunately, I have never written anything …
                                        you can not find any drivers...even windows ...

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                                        • stephenw10S
                                          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                          last edited by

                                          The Varitronix MGLS19264 used in this box appears to use a HD61202 chip which is compatible with the KS108. This is a graphical LCD and lcdproc is setup to drive character based displays. However all may not be lost. It might work using the glcdlib driver:
                                          http://lcdproc.sourceforge.net/docs/stable-0-5-x-user.html#glcdlib-howto
                                          This appears to support the ks0108. However it looks like there would be quite a lot of additional packages/drivers needed.
                                          This is beyond my usual level of tinkering.  ;)

                                          Steve

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                                          • M
                                            mirco.ippoliti
                                            last edited by

                                            @stephenw10:

                                            The Varitronix MGLS19264 used in this box appears to use a HD61202 chip which is compatible with the KS108. This is a graphical LCD and lcdproc is setup to drive character based displays. However all may not be lost. It might work using the glcdlib driver:
                                            http://lcdproc.sourceforge.net/docs/stable-0-5-x-user.html#glcdlib-howto
                                            This appears to support the ks0108. However it looks like there would be quite a lot of additional packages/drivers needed.
                                            This is beyond my usual level of tinkering.  ;)

                                            Steve

                                            Many Thank for the Info !
                                            I can Try !

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