LCDproc Configuration

Configure LCDd
As mentioned in the introduction LCDd, the LCDproc server, has its own configuration file, which is usually /etc/LCDd.conf.
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 declarations that look like [section]; i.e. an opening square bracket, followed by the section name, and terminated by a closing square bracket, on a line by itself. Section names are case insensitive.
Parameters are grouped into sections and have the form key=value; i.e. a key, also known as the configuration option, followed by an equality sign and finally the value for the option. All three elements must occur together on one line. The key, which is case insensitive, may be surrounded by spaces, but is must be one word (i.e. a sequence of non-space characters) not containing the equality sign. A similar rule applies to the value: it may be surrounded by spaces, but it must be either one word or enclosed within double quotes ("), which are not considered as part of value. When quoted, the following character sequences are evaluated as in literal C strings:
escape sequence	character
\a	alert (bell) character
\b	backspace
\f	formfeed
\n	newline
\r	carriage return
\t	horizontal tab
\v	vertical tab
\\	backslash
All other occurrences of \ within quoted values will be ignored.
Comments are all line-based, and may start with '#' or ';'. Everything including and behind the character starting the comment up to the end of the line is ignored.
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 specifying them in a Driver= line in the server section, like:

LCDd.conf: Specify which driver to use

[Server]
Driver=curses

This tells LCDd to use the curses driver.
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.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. The first driver specified here that is capable of output functionality will be used as the master output driver, defining display properties and capabilities. All other drivers specified can only serve as input drivers or slave output drivers. If not specified DRIVERNAME defaults to curses, a driver that is supposed to work on any half-way decent UNIX console.
This setting can be overridden on LCDd's command line using the -d DRIVER option. When the command line option is used, only the one driver given there will be loaded, and all drivers specified in the configuration file are ignored.
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, as it allows connections only from the local machine and forbids connections from remote systems.
This setting can be overridden on LCDd's command line using the -a ADDRESS option.
Port = PORTNUMBER 	 Tells the server to listen to this specified port. If not specified PORTNUMBER defaults to 13666.
This setting can be overridden on LCDd's command line using the -p PORTNUMBER option.
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).
This setting can be overridden on LCDd's command line using the -r LEVEL option.
ReportToSyslog = 	 Should we report to syslog (yes) instead of stderr (no)? Default value is no.
This setting can be overridden on LCDd's command line using the -s NUMBER option. Passing -s 1 on the command line enables reporting to syslog while -s 0 disables it.
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.
User = USER 	 User to run as. When started as root LCDd will drop its privileges, and run as USER instead. Defaults to nobody.
This setting can be overridden on LCDd's command line using the -u USER option.
Foreground = 	 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.
This setting can be overridden on LCDd's command line with the -f option that forces foreground mode.
Hello = HELLOMSG 	 Define the startup message printed on the screen when LCDd starts. This message will stay on the screen until the first client connects. If not given, it defaults to the built-in server screen that tells how many clients are connected and how many screens these clients are using in total. If it is given, each Hello= directive represents a line on the display.
The HELLOMSGs will be printed on the display one after each other starting on the beginning of each line. So, the definition of

        Hello="   Welcome to"
	Hello="    LCDproc!"

prints a nice 2-line welcome message to the display.
To simply disable the default built-in server screen on startup, and start with a blank screen a single Hello="" is sufficient.
GoodBye = GOODBYEMSG 	 Define the message left on the screen when LCDd exits. If not given, it defaults to the built-in 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 built-in message, and leave the screen blank a single GoodBye="" suffices.
FrameInterval = MICROSECONDS 	 Sets the interval in microseconds for updating the display. If not specified the default value for MICROSECONDS is 125000.
WaitTime = SECONDS 	 Sets the default time in seconds to display a screen. If not specified the default value for SECONDS is 4.
This setting can be overridden on LCDd's command line with the -w SECONDS option.
AutoRotate = 	 If set to no, LCDd will start with screen rotation disabled. This has the same effect as if the ToggleRotateKey had been pressed. Rotation will start if the ToggleRotateKey is pressed.
This setting does not turn off priority sorting of screens. Therefore the client or LCDd may still show a different screen if it assigns it a higher priority than any other screen. Due to the way priority sorting works the screen shown when the first client connects may not be that clients first screen. If the client sets up more than two screens it will be the next to last one (this is not considered a bug).
ServerScreen = { yes | no | blank } 	 Control the behaviour of the server screen, that usually shows the number of active clients and screens. When set to its default value yes, the server screen is included into the screen rotation scheme when other screens exist. Whet set to no, the server screen only shows up when no other screen exists. The special value blank is similar to no, but instead of displaying the current number of clients and screens, only a blank screen is displayed.
This setting can be partially overridden on LCDd's command line using the -i NUMBER option. Passing -i 1 on the command line enables server screen rotation, while -i 0 disables it.
Using the command line, it is not possible to set the server screen to blank mode.
Backlight = { off | open | on } 	 Set the master backlight setting. If set to the default value open, then the backlight setting of the display can be influenced by the clients. When set to off or on, the backlight is set to the appropriate value without the clients being able to change the value.
Heartbeat = { off | open | on } 	 Set the master heartbeat, the oscillating icon in the top right corner of the display, setting. If set to the default value open, then the heartbeat setting of the display can be influenced by the clients. When set to off or on, the heartbeat is turned on or off without the clients being able to change the value.
TitleSpeed = SPEED 	 Set the speed how fast over-long title lines shall scroll. Legal values are 0 to 10, where 0 means that no scrolling takes place and 10 stands for fastest scrolling. Default is 10, where no artificial delay is inserted.
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 a special LCDproc client built into LCDd that allows changing server and display settings as well as extending it with entries from client applications.
You can configure what keys the menu should use.
PermissiveGoto = BOOL 	 The flag controls whether transitions between the menus of different clients are allowed. The default false is to allow only menu gotos local to the client.
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 has no default, but a natural candidate is Menu.
The MenuKey will be reserved exclusively, while the others work in shared mode and can thus be used by a client application when not in the menu.
EnterKey = KEY 	 The key to enter a sub menu, to select an entry and/or to confirm the value of an input field. If the RightKey is not defined, it is also used to move right in input fields. In this case the value of the input field is not confirmed, until the right end of the input has been reached. It is not set by default, but a natural candidate is Enter.
UpKey = KEY 	 The key to move to the previous item in a menu and/or to select the previous value in input fields (e.g. the previous character available for the current position). If the DownKey is not set, moving up before the first entry automatically wraps around to the last entry. It is not set by default, but a natural candidate is Up.
DownKey = KEY 	 The key to move to the next item in a menu and/or to select the next value in input fields (e.g. the next character available for the current position). If the UpKey is not set, moving down below the last entry automatically wraps around to the first entry. It has no default, but a natural candidate is 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.
The minimal keys required for the menu work correctly are the MenuKey, the EnterKey and one of UpKey or DownKey. With these 3 keys the menus can be operated. Of course with only 3 keys the navigation gets a bit awkward. So if you have 4 or more keys, you better use them. Especially the LeftKey and RightKey make a big difference in user experience.

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 necessary.

The LCDproc Init Scripts
The LCDproc distribution contains init scripts for LSB 3.1 (Linux Standard Base 3.1) conforming GNU/Linux distributions. In addition to those it contains init scripts for older RedHat- and Debian-based distributions that do not adhere to LSB 3.1. You can find all of them in the scripts/ directory of the LCDproc sources.
The init scripts are generated using autoconf. So, again it is important that you have run ./configure with the correct options for your system.
Refer to your system's manual on how to install the scripts.

init-LCDd
The file scripts/init-LCDd.* is the init script for the LCDproc server LCDd. It does not require modification.

init-lcdproc
The file scripts/init-lcdproc.* is the init script for the LCDproc "main" client lcdproc.
You can retrieve a listing of all options of lcdproc running lcdproc --help.

init-lcdexec
The file scripts/init-lcdexec.* is the init script for the LCDproc lcdexec client, which can execute predefined commands via the menu feature.

init-lcdvc
The file scripts/init-lcdvc.* is the init script for the LCDproc lcdvc client, a simple terminal.