9 June 2008 - 2:00Installing the imon LCD in Linux

Before I get into another howto about my experiences in MythTV, I have to say I created the following instructions mostly for myself, because everytime I redo my MythTV box, it takes me forever to get the damn LCD working. Now finally I have written it down. If it helps someone else, even better.

The following instructions describe how to successfully setup the imon vfd for use with MythTV on a Fedora Core 5 system running at least a 2.6.16 kernel and above. These instructions are modified where needed from the original site venky.ws. Also these instuctions do not activate the IR receiver that comes included in the imon vfd in the LC10M enclosure, simply just the lcd display.

Stand Alone Driver for imon vfd

Prerequisites:
You must have the kernel source or headers in /usr/src/linux that exactly match your running kernel. The installation instructions below assume you are running a 2.6.16 kernel or above.

Installation:

Download the stand alone driver here

# tar xvzf imon_vfd.tgz
# cd imon

Remove the following lines from the imon_vfd.c file:

line 122 owner = THIS_MODULE 
line 147 owner = THIS_MODULE 
line 162 mode = DEVFS_MODE

Check for devfs_fs_kernel.h

# ls /usr/src/kernels/`uname -r`-`uname -m`/include/linux/devfs_fs_kernel.h
No such file or directory

If you do not have the devfs_fs_kernel.h file, just create a blank file.

# touch /usr/src/kernels/`uname -r`-`uname -m`/include/linux/devfs_fs_kernel.h

Before we run the make command I like to modify the Makefile and remove the `name -r` bit. Replace it with the real name of your kernel.

# make -C /usr/src/linux SUBDIRS=$PWD
# modules
# make install
# depmod -a
# modprobe imon_vfd

Now check to make sure the lcd device has been created.

# ls /dev/lcd0
/dev/lcd0

LCDproc 0.4.5 for imon

This is the most recent stable version of LCDproc together with the iMON patch.
Prerequisites:
You must have the kernel source or headers in /usr/src/linux that exactly match your running kernel.
Make sure you have the autoconf and automake packages installed.
Make sure you have ncurses-devel installed.
Install the standalone iMON VFD driver.

Installation:

Download LCDproc from here

# tar xvzf lcdproc-0.4.5-imon.tgz 
# cd lcdproc-0.4.5-imon
# aclocal; autoheader; autoconf; automake -a 
# ./configure
# make
# make install (as root) 
# cp LCDd.conf /etc

Now add an entry for the imon_vfd so it will be loaded at boot time.

# echo "/sbin/modprobe imon_vfd" >> /etc/sysconfig/modules/lirc.modules

Finally add LCDd to the rc.local file so that it is started at boot time.

# echo "/usr/local/sbin/LCDd &" >> /etc/rc.local

Lastly be sure to enable the option for LCD output in the MythTV options menu.