EZIO Driver for LCDproc

fmertz

I'm on pfSense 2.3.4

2. extract HD44780_EZIO_Driver_pfSense2_4_64bit.zip, then put hd44780.so in /usr/local/lib/lcdproc/
I run below command and get error
[2.3.4-RELEASE][root@pfSense.localdomain]/root: /usr/bin/nice -20 /usr/local/sbin/LCDd -r 0 -c /usr/local/etc/LCD.conf > /dev/null &
[1] 90321
[2.3.4-RELEASE][root@pfSense.localdomain]/root: Critical error while initializing, abort.

If you are running pfSense 2.3.4, you need to get the driver from one of the 2.3 archive (32 or 64 bit). You are using the driver for 2.4, which will not work.

To test, you can run something more direct:

/usr/local/sbin/LCDd -r 3 -c /usr/local/etc/LCD.conf -f

This raises the reporting level, and runs the program in the foreground.

Thanks for helping with the testing.

PS: This effort is to add EZIO support to the HD44780 driver of the lcdproc project. As of now, there is no addition to the pfSense integration package, so there is no option in the menu, yet.

uknownme123

Under services> lcdproc, unchecked "start lcdproc at boot"
Rebooted, then attempted to start LCDproc from command

[2.3.4-RELEASE][admin@pfSense.localdomain]/root: /usr/local/sbin/LCDd -r 3 -c /u sr/local/etc/LCD.conf -f
LCDd version 0.5.7 starting
Using Configuration File: /usr/local/etc/LCD.conf
LCDd 0.5.7, LCDproc Protocol 0.3
Part of the LCDproc suite
Copyright (C) 1998-2014 William Ferrell, Selene Scriven
and many other contributors

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.

sock_create_inet_socket: cannot bind to port 13666 at address 127.0.0.1 - Address already in use
sock_init: error creating socket - Address already in use
Critical error while initializing, abort.

fmertz

For a better test, make sure only one copy of LCDd is running. For the time being, turn off the pfSense instance of the daemon. What is happening is that the pfSense LCDd is taking possession of port 13666. The LCD started manually therefore cannot have access to it anymore.

The other option is to start the manual LCDd with instruction to use another port:

/usr/local/sbin/LCDd -r 3 -c /usr/local/etc/LCD.conf -f -p 13667

uknownme123

Sorry you are having to walk me step by step.

2. extract HD44780_EZIO_Driver_pfSense2_4_64bit.zip, then put hd44780.so in /usr/local/lib/lcdproc/

This was a typo, I did download the correct driver (HD44780_EZIO_Driver_pfSense2_3_64bit).

So /usr/local/sbin/LCDd -r 3 -c /usr/local/etc/LCD.conf -f -p 13667 gives the below error

Listening for queries on 127.0.0.1:13667
Could not open driver module hd44780.so: Shared object "hd44780.so" not found, required by "LCDd"
Driver [hd44780] binding failed
Could not load driver hd44780
There is no output driver
Critical error while initializing, abort.

ezio.jpg_thumb

fmertz

The server needs to be told where to find the drivers.

Add this to LCDd.conf:

[server]
DriverPath= /usr/local/lib/lcdproc/

Make sure there is a slash at the end..

uknownme123

Alright, now it's : Listening for queries on 127.0.0.1:13667,
and just waiting here.

fmertz

Ok, so now you can start a client. Something like:

/usr/local/sbin/lcdproc -p 13667 -h 127.0.0.1 G K

uknownme123

[2.3.4-RELEASE][admin@pfSense.localdomain]/usr/local/sbin: /usr/bin/nice -20 /usr/local/bin/lcdproc -p 13667 -s 127.0.0.1 C T U I D M L P &
[1] 71213
[2.3.4-RELEASE][admin@pfSense.localdomain]/usr/local/sbin: /usr/local/bin/lcdproc -p 13667 -s 127.0.0.1 C T U I D M L P &
[2] 81824
[1]    Done                          /usr/bin/nice -20 /usr/local/bin/lcdproc -p 13667 -s 127.0.0.1 C T U I D M L P
[2.3.4-RELEASE][admin@pfSense.localdomain]/usr/local/sbin: /usr/local/bin/lcdproc -p 13666 -s 127.0.0.1 C T U I D M L P &
[3] 82399
[2]    Done                          /usr/local/bin/lcdproc -p 13667 -s 127.0.0.1 C T U I D M L P
[2.3.4-RELEASE][admin@pfSense.localdomain]/usr/local/sbin: /usr/local/bin/lcdproc -s 127.0.0.1 -p 13666 C T U I D M L P &
[1] 37831

Tried different variation nothing shows on the screen. Its taking the command for sure, but I don't know where.

Confirmed the lb216 driver does work somewhat for this screen, buttons are not functional. So at least I know the screen works.

fmertz

Can you post LCDd.conf?

uknownme123


[server]
DriverPath=/usr/local/lib/lcdproc/
Driver=hd44780

[hd44780]
ConnectionType=ezio
Device=/dev/cuau1
Keypad=yes
Size=16x2
KeyMatrix_4_1=Enter
KeyMatrix_4_2=Up
KeyMatrix_4_3=Down
KeyMatrix_4_4=Escape

uknownme123

[server]
DriverPath=/usr/local/lib/lcdproc/
Driver=hd44780

[hd44780]
ConnectionType=ezio
Device=/dev/cuau1
Keypad=yes
Size=16x2
KeyMatrix_4_1=Enter
KeyMatrix_4_2=Up
KeyMatrix_4_3=Down
KeyMatrix_4_4=Escape

Woops, this was actually LCD.conf. LCDd.conf still contained information regarding lb216 driver.

Issue was, I initially created LCD.conf, instead I should had wipe out LCDd.conf and replaced with above code. commands mv LCD.conf LCDd.conf.

Now its working. Now I'll try out the buttons and let you know.

fmertz

@uknownme123:

Now I'll try out the buttons and let you know.

You might have to enable the internal menu for this:


[server]
DriverPath=/usr/local/lib/lcdproc/
Driver=hd44780

ToggleRotateKey=Enter
PrevScreenKey=Left
NextScreenKey=Right

[menu]
MenuKey=Escape
EnterKey=Enter
UpKey=Up
DownKey=Down

uknownme123

Awesome, the buttons work. I did notice that after a while it gets very laggy in response, this is probably because of the 2400 baud rate.

Hope to see this driver it in the WebGUI. I know a lot of folks out there have this LCD screen. I saw a lot of Checkpoints. I saw one on an Xceedium GateKeeper. The one I have was Smoothwall. I though I saw then on Mikrotek's x86 devices, I could be wrong on this tho. Thanks.

fmertz

Thanks, good to hear confirmation that it works on the real hardware. I was developing this on an ARM NAS (running Debian Linux) with a USB/Serial adapter.

At this point, the code change has been merged upstream with the lcdproc project: https://github.com/lcdproc/lcdproc/pull/82

I assume the pfSense maintainers will pull the lcdproc package after the next release, so everyone can use these EZIO devices right out of the box.

The only "open item" is a (minor?) change to the pfSense lcproc PHP package to include this connection type in the pre-defined list…

grahama

Thanks for your efforts here. This thread has made me join this forum.

You've helped me to make use of the LCD panel on a "Smoothwall S4" that I bought 2nd hand. Smoothwall didn't work for me, so I've been using pfSense for a few days. So far, it's meeting my needs.

I do have LCDproc enabled, but it doesn't run for some reason. I haven't been able to work that out yet nor make use of the menu buttons.

But what I have done is used the stty command and hex file Steve provided to initialise my LCD successfully.
I then have a cron job which keeps the screen updated with CPU temp and time every few minutes.

So thanks for that.

If needed, I can expand my simple shell scripts to show any statistic I can get to fit on the ?32? characters :)

Does anyone have tips for writing on the second line neatly? Right now I just pad in 20+ characters to cause word wrap to happen.

Cheers,
Graham.

fmertz

@grahama:

Does anyone have tips for writing on the second line neatly?

It's in the spec. You can put the cursor at the beginning of the second line with something like this:

printf "\376\300" > /dev/cuau1

From the larger perspective, though, you might want to download and replace the hd44780.so driver file so you have the new code for this EZIO device (make sure you pick the right version for your OS, these files are attached to the first post in this thread). Then make sure LCDd.conf is updated, in particular the device and connection type. As noted above, this code is not available in pfSense, yet, and the glue pfSense package has not been updated either so this new "ezio" connection type is not showing as an option in the GUI. You seem familiar with the command line, though, so this should not be too much of a problem to get up to speed.

grahama

Yep, RTFM :-[

New line works a treat, thanks!

Actually, I tried to read the specification, but the link "http://drivers.portwell.com/CA_Manual/EZIO/EZIO-FINAL.PDF" no longer works.
Couldn't find any other links to EZIO-Final.PDF online either which is unusual.

I have now installed the driver (and maybe fixed something with cron) and now LCDd / lcdproc / lcdexec are all working - buttons worked to navigate the menu and change settings.

It didn't work after a reboot, so I have to work that out, but I'm happy that I've been able to re-utilise all of the hardware :)

update: /usr/local/etc/LCDd.conf was overwritten on reboot, losing my changes.
I'm finding this aspect of pfSense to be frustrating as well as it's use of tcsh. I'm yet to customise these things to suit my preference.

fabricioguzzy

Hello Everyone,
I am facing problems to make lcdproc work.

I got a LCD Display "HD44780 Compatible" connected via FTDI USB (Chipset is FTDI 245) - It works fine on Windows so I know the display is fine.
Now trying to make lcdproc work is being really difficult. The Service does't stand up in anyway and I can´t find any LOG for troubleshooting.
Could anyone help me with that?

Reading other posts I could find the hd44780 driver that comes with pfsense 2.3.4 is wrong. is it true? I tried to replace it with no sucess.

Any help will be really appreciated.

Thanks
FAbricio.

stephenw10

This thread is for the EZIO display only. I have replied to your post in the main LCDproc thread.

Steve

regexaurus

Working here on a SmoothWall UTM-300 (Caswell CAR-3030)

At first it seemed not all the display buttons were working, but after hitting ESC (maybe a few times?) a menu appeared that I could navigate through to change settings (e.g. disable heartbeat, etc.). Relevant sections of my LCDd.conf:


[server]
DriverPath=/usr/local/lib/lcdproc/
Driver=hd44780
Bind=127.0.0.1
Port=13666
User=nobody
WaitTime=5
ToggleRotateKey=Enter
PrevScreenKey=Left
NextScreenKey=Right

[hd44780]
ConnectionType=ezio
Device=/dev/cuau1
Keypad=yes
Size=16x2
KeyMatrix_4_1=Enter
KeyMatrix_4_2=Up
KeyMatrix_4_3=Down
KeyMatrix_4_4=Escape

Is this pretty much a manual thing for now, or can we use it with LCDproc in WebGUI?

Thank you!