This is a quick guide to installing the cgminerLCDStats.py script on a "generic" version of Linux. In other words, I hope to give you enough information about the dependancies required to enable you to get the script working on the Linux or Unix variant of your choice.
For my example, I'm using Raspian "wheesy" Linux installed on a Raspberry Pi. Raspbian is a free operating system based on Debian optimized for the Raspberry Pi hardware.
I started with a fresh install of the current version of the Operating System. I took the usual steps to install cgminer and verify it was working correctly. For convenience sake, I also configured my router such that that my Pi would come up on the same internal I.P. address each time it reboots.
To begin the installation, I logged in to the Pi via ssh from my main machine. I find it way easier to interact with the Pi command line over ssh, rather than logging into the Pi itself. When entering the following commands, it's easiest to copy and paste them into the terminal window. Wait for each step to complete and watch for errors. Some of the updates require user interaction, so say yes if prompted.
Ok, let's get started. Log on to your Pi with this command:
ssh userid@YOURIP - example: ssh [email protected]
Make sure the OS is up to date (Optional step - skip this is you want too, or are already on a recent version):
sudo apt-get update
Get the "git" utility for downloading packages:
sudo apt-get install git
Verify Python 2 is already installed (it should be) - current version is Python 2.7.5:
python -V
Note: If you're Python number is greater than 3, you will need to specify a different version when running the script, as version 3 isn't supported. If the above command shows version 3 or later, try this command instead:
python2 -V
If that works and shows version 2.7.0 or greater, you should be good to go. Just remember you'll need to change "python" to "python2" in the command to run the script.
Install pyUSB library (recall that you may have to change "python" to "python2"):
cd ~
git clone https://github.com/walac/pyusb.git
cd pyusb
sudo python setup.py install
Install the cgminerLCDStats.py script and required modules:
cd ~
git clone https://github.com/cardcomm/cgminerLCDStats.git
cd cgminerLCDStats
Ok, that's it. We should be ready to go. Make sure the LCD display is connected, and let's start the script. You can start it with the default options using the following command (again, substitute python2 if required):
sudo python cgminerLCDStats.py
If everything went well, you should now see your cgminer stats displayed on the USB screen. Enjoy!
Note: You can customize certain aspects of the script using the following command line options. For example, you could start the script and force it to always show the mtGox ticker with this command:
sudo python cgminerLCDStats.py --mtgoxForce
Complete List of Command Line Options:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-s, --simple Show simple display layout instead of default
-d REFRESHDELAY, --refresh-delay=REFRESHDELAY where REFRESHDELAY = Time delay between screen/API refresh
-i HOST, --host=HOST I.P. Address of cgminer API host
-p PORT, --port=PORT Port of cgminer API
-c TIMEDISPLAYFORMAT, --clock=TIMEDISPLAYFORMAT Options 12 or 24 - Clock Display 12hr / 24hr
--mtgoxDisplayOff If specified, MtGox ticker will not be displayed
--mtgoxToggleRate=MTGOXTOGGLERATE Rate to toggle display between WU: and MtGox in seconds
--mtgoxTimeout=MTGOXTIMEOUT MtGox API socket timeout in seconds -
default 3 seconds, increase if logging exsessivetime-outs
--mtgoxForce If specified, MtGox ticker will always display
Addtional Note: If you don't want to run the gcminerLCDStats.py script as root, move the 99-lcdsysinfo.rules file to /etc/udev/rules.d/ as follows:
cd ~/cgminerLCDStats
sudo mv 99-lcdsysinfo.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/99-lcdsysinfo.rules