Chapter 4. LCDproc Configuration

Table of Contents

Configure LCDd
LCDd.conf: The [Server] Section
LCDd.conf: The [Menu] Section
LCDd.conf: The Driver Section
The LCDproc Init Scripts
init-LCDd
init-lcdproc

Configure LCDd

As mentioned in the introduction LCDd, the LCDproc server, has its own configuration file, which is usually /etc/LCDd.conf.

Note

If you have not installed LCDproc from the sources the configuration file might have a different location. You should be able to find it by making your system's package manager list all the files in the LCDproc package.

The format of the /etc/LCDd.conf is INI-file like.

It is divided into sections that start at markers that look like [section]. Comments are all line-based comments, and are lines that start with '#' or ';'.

The server has a 'central' section named [Server]. Further each driver has a section which defines how the driver acts. Those sections start with [drivername].

The drivers are activated by specifiying them in a Driver= line in the server section, like:

Example 4.1. LCDd.conf: Specify which driver to use

[Server]
Driver=curses

This tells LCDd to use the curses driver. The first driver specified here that is capable of output functionality will be used as the output driver. All other drivers can only serve as input drivers. The default driver to use is curses.

Warning

If LCDd is started automatically by an init-script using the curses driver, it will lock /dev/tty1! So, be careful about what you are doing here.

The drivers read their own options from the config file. For this purpose they use the config sections that are named like the driver.

LCDd -d driver

Note

If -d is specified on the command line, the Driver= options in the configuration file are ignored.

LCDd.conf: The [Server] Section

The [Server] section of the LCDd.conf contains the settings for the LCDproc server LCDd.

DriverPath= DRIVERPATH

Tells the server where to look for the driver files. See above for details. If not specified DRIVERPATH defaults to the empty string, resulting in drivers being searched in the directory LCDd is started in.

Driver= DRIVERNAME

Tells the server which driver(s) to use. See above for details. If not specified DRIVERNAME defaults to curses, a driver that is supposed to work on any half-way decent UNIX console.

Bind= ADDRESS

Tells the server to bind to the given local IP address and listen for incoming client connections. The default value for ADDRESS is 127.0.0.1, which is actually the safest variant.

Port= PORTNUMBER

Tells the server to listen to this specified port. If not specified PORTNUMBER defaults to 13666.

ReportLevel= LEVEL

Sets the reporting level. Legal values for LEVEL range from 0 (only critical errors) to 5 (everything including debugging information). If not specified it defaults to 2 (warnings and errors only).

ReportToSyslog= { no | yes }

Should we report to syslog instead of stderr? Default value is no.

WaitTime= SECONDS

Sets the default time in seconds to display a screen. If not specified the default value for SECONDS is 4.

User= USER

User to run as. When started as root LCDd will drop its privileges, and run as this user instead. Defaults to nobody.

ServerScreen= { yes | no }

Include the server screen, that shows the number of active clients and screens, into the screen rotation scheme when other screens exist. Defaults to yes.

Foreground= { no | yes }

The server will stay in the foreground if set to true. Otherwise the server will fork to background and report to syslog. Defaults to no.

GoodBye= GOODBYEMSG

Define the message left on the screen when LCDd exits. If not given, it defaults to the builtin Thanks for using LCDproc!. If it is given, each GoodBye= directive represents a line on the display.

The GOODBYEMSGs will be printed on the display one after each other starting on the beginning of each line. So, the definition of

        GoodBye="       So Long,"
        GoodBye="         and"
        GoodBye="Thanks for All the Fish!"
      

prints the well known dolphin's message on the first 3 lines of the display (which obviously needs to be 24 columns wide to show the full last line).

To simply disable the default builtin message, and leave the screen blank a single GoodBye="" suffices.

The …Key= lines define what the server does with keypresses that don't go to any client.

ToggleRotateKey= KEY

Defaults to Enter.

PrevScreenKey= KEY

Defaults to Left.

NextScreenKey= KEY

Defaults to Right.

ScrollUpKey= KEY

Defaults to Up.

ScrollDownKey= KEY

Defaults to Down.

LCDd.conf: The [Menu] Section

The [Menu] section enables you to set some general ("global") options related to the way LCDd handles input "events".

The menu is an LCDproc client built into LCDd. You can configure what keys the menu should use. Note that the MenuKey will be reserved exclusively, while the others work in shared mode.

MenuKey= KEY

The key that switches into menu mode (=open the main menu). In menu mode it cancels any operation. Cancelling the main menu means returning to the regular display mode. It defaults to Menu.

EnterKey= KEY

The key to enter a sub menu and/or, to select an entry. It defaults to Enter.

UpKey= KEY

The key to move to the previous menu item. If the LeftKey is not set, it is also used to move left in input fields. It default to Up.

DownKey= KEY

The key to move to the next menu item. If the RightKey is not set, it is also used to move right in input fields. It default to Down.

LeftKey= KEY

If defined, this optional key is used to to move left in input fields and to select submenu entries. It is not set by default, but if you have more than 4 keys, a natural candidate is Left.

RightKey= KEY

If defined, this optional key is used to to move right in input fields. It is not set by default, but if you have more than 4 keys, a natural candidate is Right.

LCDd.conf: The Driver Section

As mentioned earlier, each driver has its own section in the LCDd.conf.

Although the settings are more or less self-explanatory, they are explained in the next chapter in the section for each driver. So, read through the section of your driver and change everything neccessary.