Netgate Discussion Forum
    • Categories
    • Recent
    • Tags
    • Popular
    • Users
    • Search
    • Register
    • Login

    Firebox LCD Driver for LCDProc

    Hardware
    97
    398
    413.1k
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • F
      fastcon68
      last edited by

      I have the LCD working no issues.  The backlight is not working.  I know that it works when I put the orginal boot flash card in.  Any thoughts on why it is not working?
      RC

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • stephenw10S
        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
        last edited by

        No ideas at the moment. Is it a clean install?
        The backlight is controlled directly by a single bit on one of the parallel port registers. Have you changed any of the bios settings? Perhaps the way FreeBSD accesses the hardware is slightly different to Linux (the Watchguard OS).
        Some body else here who's backlight had broken suggested using a usb powered internal LED. It should work but will require some modification to the panel to allow the light in.

        Steve

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • F
          fastcon68
          last edited by

          It is not a clean installation.  It is the one I have been running.  It was installed in 1.2.3 before I did the upgrade.
          RC

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • F
            fastcon68
            last edited by

            dfwbt,
            I would be very interested in you script for the functions of the buttons.  That seems to put the finishing touches on what everyone has done here.  I have been very busy testing with my x500 prior to my x6000 getting here.  I am really looking forward to the upgrade.  I just got a ide hard drive and I am going to order a adapter adapter so I can use the carrier in the x6000 to do a full install.  I been making notes so I can replicate the lcd installation and the arm light change.

            I love to add you reboot script to that list of things that I have got planned for the x6000.  I did get my bridging working with all ports on the x500.  I retired a switch I was using to eliminate the extra power used here at home.  I added all the ports to the bridge and set the source to any under each port and everything just started working.  I test and only see about a 5% increase in CPU utilization.  My x500 runs at 2-5% utilization so 5-7% utilization is no big deal.  I have a total of 12 devices on my home network right now, and that is the smallest it has been in 15 years.
            RC

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • stephenw10S
              stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
              last edited by

              I just re-read my own write up on the led and found where I referenced the backlight.
              It's controlled directly by the parallel I/O registers as I said: IO address 0x379 bit 1.
              You can try turning it on and off manually using this program I wrote. This program has no error/sanity checking so use it carefully!  ::)
              Upload it to your box. chmod it to 0755. Kill lcdd so it's not trying to write to same address then:

              ./writeio 0x379 0x01
              

              This should turn it on.

              ./writeio 0x379 0x00
              

              Should turn it off again.

              It's probably a problem with the upgrade though. You would be better to do a clean install.
              Do the buttons work at all?

              Steve

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • F
                fastcon68
                last edited by

                I can't get the writeio to execute.  I guess I need to execute the sudo command, is that right?
                RC

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • stephenw10S
                  stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                  last edited by

                  Did you chmod it?

                  chmod 0755 writeio
                  

                  Are you logged in as root?

                  There is no sudo command.

                  Steve

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • F
                    fastcon68
                    last edited by

                    Whch Driver do I need to use for the LCD on the x6000?  LCDPROC or the one stephenw10 has written.  I did a upgrade to the latest version last night and realized that the LCD stopped working after the upgrade was done.

                    I am having to use the 2GB nano version because the 4GB nano release will not fit on my flash drive.

                    RC

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • stephenw10S
                      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                      last edited by

                      Use the firebox script, lcdd4. Unfortunately because it isn't a proper pfSense package, yet, it doesn't survive an update.

                      2GB image is fine, I'm using the 1GB image on a 4GB card.

                      Steve

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • F
                        FJSchrankJr
                        last edited by

                        Hey Steve! It's been awhile hope your well.

                        Got a question for you, I made the mistake of finding the lcdd3.tar file before I noticed this post with lcdd4.tar, is the file system mounting restored on reboot or should I reinstall after using lcdd3? I noticed after reboot it's writable and not sure if it should be. lcdd3.tar is what I used and on a X700

                        Thanks a bunch!

                        FJS - Embedded Systems Engineer
                        Pictures are worth a thousand words, but <u>posting config.xml backups are worth 10,000</u>.  Alter the IPs, change anything revealing but leave subnets intact. Use find and replace. Please try to keep it brief on the description.
                        ALWAYS disable TSO  & LRO EXCEPT CHKSUM IF SUPPORTED. TSO/LRO breaks traffic, pf scrub and this goes for any passive device inline

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • stephenw10S
                          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                          last edited by

                          Which version of pfSense are you running?

                          There is a bug in current 2.0 snapshots (unless it's been fixed while I wasn't looking!) that leaves the filesystem mounted read-write. It's not really a problem or anything to worry about.

                          The lcdd3 script used the mount command directly which is not the correct way to do it in recent versions. This combined with the bug can leave the filesystem mounted read-only with no way to remount it RW. This means that you can't save changes, add packages etc.

                          If you used lcdd3 and you're running 2.0Beta5 or newer you may have a problem.

                          Steve

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • F
                            FJSchrankJr
                            last edited by

                            @stephenw10:

                            Which version of pfSense are you running?

                            There is a bug in current 2.0 snapshots (unless it's been fixed while I wasn't looking!) that leaves the filesystem mounted read-write. It's not really a problem or anything to worry about.

                            The lcdd3 script used the mount command directly which is not the correct way to do it in recent versions. This combined with the bug can leave the filesystem mounted read-only with no way to remount it RW. This means that you can't save changes, add packages etc.

                            If you used lcdd3 and you're running 2.0Beta5 or newer you may have a problem.

                            Steve

                            Thank you for the reply Steve! You're always a big help.

                            I installed lcdd3 on a 2.0-RC1 system and just updated yesterday with a current snapshot. It would not be a problem for this system to be reinstalled because it's not live yet and I have a backup config. I just need to make sure this system is stable so it would definetely be worth the extra work to re-do it and install the lcdd4 instead. What do you think?

                            This script is terrific, thank you for this and to everyone else who worked on it

                            FJS - Embedded Systems Engineer
                            Pictures are worth a thousand words, but <u>posting config.xml backups are worth 10,000</u>.  Alter the IPs, change anything revealing but leave subnets intact. Use find and replace. Please try to keep it brief on the description.
                            ALWAYS disable TSO  & LRO EXCEPT CHKSUM IF SUPPORTED. TSO/LRO breaks traffic, pf scrub and this goes for any passive device inline

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • stephenw10S
                              stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                              last edited by

                              Hmm, well that's the exact set of things that I would expect to cause a problem. Perhaps the bug has been fixed?
                              Anyway if it's not a problem I would reflash and use lcdd4 to be sure.

                              Steve

                              Edit: Doesn't seem to have been fixed, not deliberately anyway! http://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/1279

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • F
                                FJSchrankJr
                                last edited by

                                @stephenw10:

                                Hmm, well that's the exact set of things that I would expect to cause a problem. Perhaps the bug has been fixed?
                                Anyway if it's not a problem I would reflash and use lcdd4 to be sure.

                                Steve

                                Edit: Doesn't seem to have been fixed, not deliberately anyway! http://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/1279

                                After all of my config experiments yesterday, I got the reflashing process down fast! no problem at all. Thanks for the help Steve and enjoy your weekend.

                                FJS - Embedded Systems Engineer
                                Pictures are worth a thousand words, but <u>posting config.xml backups are worth 10,000</u>.  Alter the IPs, change anything revealing but leave subnets intact. Use find and replace. Please try to keep it brief on the description.
                                ALWAYS disable TSO  & LRO EXCEPT CHKSUM IF SUPPORTED. TSO/LRO breaks traffic, pf scrub and this goes for any passive device inline

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • F
                                  FJSchrankJr
                                  last edited by

                                  @stephenw10:

                                  Hmm, well that's the exact set of things that I would expect to cause a problem. Perhaps the bug has been fixed?
                                  Anyway if it's not a problem I would reflash and use lcdd4 to be sure.

                                  Steve

                                  Edit: Doesn't seem to have been fixed, not deliberately anyway! http://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/1279

                                  Slightly off topic a bit but do you know anything about the serial console menu not showing up on a watchguard. last message is "Bootup complete".

                                  FJS - Embedded Systems Engineer
                                  Pictures are worth a thousand words, but <u>posting config.xml backups are worth 10,000</u>.  Alter the IPs, change anything revealing but leave subnets intact. Use find and replace. Please try to keep it brief on the description.
                                  ALWAYS disable TSO  & LRO EXCEPT CHKSUM IF SUPPORTED. TSO/LRO breaks traffic, pf scrub and this goes for any passive device inline

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • stephenw10S
                                    stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                    last edited by

                                    It seems to be an issue only with the X-Core, or at least I haven't had that problem with either the X-peak or X-e boxes. It may be a symptom of the file system being mounted incorrectly. It seemed to start showing up around the same time the lcdd3 script broke.

                                    Steve

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • F
                                      FJSchrankJr
                                      last edited by

                                      @stephenw10:

                                      It seems to be an issue only with the X-Core, or at least I haven't had that problem with either the X-peak or X-e boxes. It may be a symptom of the file system being mounted incorrectly. It seemed to start showing up around the same time the lcdd3 script broke.

                                      Steve

                                      That's what I am using the xcore. It seams as though the BIOS for the watchguard also has control of the LCD because I noticed without any CF card in there you can boot it and change the port speed from the LCD/keypad. Maybe something is conflicting, not sure will have to play around with it more but it's wierd that it works for the rest of the boot and stops at Bootup complete.

                                      FJS - Embedded Systems Engineer
                                      Pictures are worth a thousand words, but <u>posting config.xml backups are worth 10,000</u>.  Alter the IPs, change anything revealing but leave subnets intact. Use find and replace. Please try to keep it brief on the description.
                                      ALWAYS disable TSO  & LRO EXCEPT CHKSUM IF SUPPORTED. TSO/LRO breaks traffic, pf scrub and this goes for any passive device inline

                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • stephenw10S
                                        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                        last edited by

                                        Hello Firebox users!  :)
                                        I am still working on getting the LCD driver into a proper pfSense package. It's proving to be far beyond my usual level of tinkering but it's all good fun.
                                        Anyway as, jjgoessens said when he wrote it, there isn't enough memory in the LCD to hold all the special characters required for vertical graphs, big clock and the heartbeat graphic. His latest driver doesn't support the heatbeat as a result.
                                        Personally I would rather see the heartbeat working as I don't use big clock or vertical graphs.
                                        Is anybody out there actually using these features?

                                        Steve

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • T
                                          TaNk
                                          last edited by

                                          when i try to install the tar package and give ./ command it say's permission denied . logged in via ssh as root

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • stephenw10S
                                            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                            last edited by

                                            You mean when you try to run this?

                                            ./install-embed2.lcdd.sh
                                            

                                            Seems odd. It usually untars with the correct permissions.
                                            You can reset the permissions with:

                                            chmod 0755 install-embed2.lcddd.sh
                                            

                                            What version of pfSense are you using?

                                            Steve

                                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                            • First post
                                              Last post
                                            Copyright 2025 Rubicon Communications LLC (Netgate). All rights reserved.