Controlling the leds & LCD under Linux

I just managed to install Linux (Ubuntu 12.10) on the DX4000 and I was wondering whether there is any low level documentation on the leds & LCD screen. Or maybe the source of programs like LcdTxt.efi? :smiley:

I want to see if I can write up an user mode device driver for these bits.

One thing I already noticed is that the HDD leds do not come on when I hot-swap a HDD in.

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Hi,

No that I know.

Can you share more information about the units behavior after the installation?

First I need to replicate my installation and write up how I did it. Right now I did an ugly job by plugging in another preformatted HDD. I want to install of the USB instead.

The thing that bugs me is the blinking led, so if I can turn that off, or steadily on, I would not be staring at it anymore. :smiley:

Once I have the installation setup documented I am going for a (soft) RAID 5 setup. AFAIK the Intel 82801 controller doesn’t do real raid.

Only after that I can give out some performance values.

As for fault-tolerance I need to code it all out. (Maybe I should use a distro targeted to for NAS RAID storage. :wink: )

Would be interested in seeing your steps to reproduce the ubuntu install. I imagine you removed the drives and configured it on a desktop and then reinstalled the drives and it worked?

Thanks for getting somewhere with this. :slight_smile:

  • Perry

ya i haven’t been able to figure out the blinking either…

the LCD microcontroller does atleast seem to be HD44780 compliant; however, the additional onboard LEDs for drive lights and power have me at a loss for ideas.

Initially I just installed Ubuntu on another drive and made sure it was EFI bootable, then replaced it with the original drives.

Now I’m using an USB stick which brings up ssh server and went from there (debootstrap). Note that you need to keep the reset button pressed until it says loading into recovery.

But it should also be possible to create an USB stick that brings up the (text) installer accessible through ssh:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/NetworkConsole

The boot however remains flicky, it has a tendency to get stuck somewhere 2 out of 3 boots.

Greate find on the hd44780 LCD. I used  http://linuxserver2011.wordpress.com/2011/03/25/getting-the-lcd-to-work-with-lcdproc/ to bring it up easily.

You do need to change the following bits in LCDd.conf:

Driver=winamp

Size=16x2

And then :smiley: