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I'm putting together a super cheap rackmount server and it would be nice to have a little lcd in the 5.25" bay. I'm looking for the cheapest lcd that I can write out the cpu load to. Anyone done this already? Which product did you use and what software do I need to install to output this. If possible the output of the whole uptime command would be best.

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Something like this product would suffice, but I'm not sure about linux compatability.... newegg.com/Product/…‌​-11-996-004--Product – Matt Williamson Sep 26 '10 at 5:30
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Linux compatibility info here: mythtv.org/wiki/Nmedia_pro-lcd – Karl Bielefeldt Sep 26 '10 at 21:31

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up vote 3 down vote accepted

lcdproc is the package you'd probably want to use. Installing is a lot more simple than the Myth wiki would have you believe:

sudo apt-get install lcdproc

It supports a whole load of drivers, a list of which can be seen on its man page, along with instructions on how to configure the client software.

How you turn this list into real devices is something else. Some are direct brands, some are chipsets used by various products. Stick each into Google Shopping and see what you get. Most I can find appear to be around the £50 price point.

This one is particularly pretty, supported... but £60.

Edit: There's also lcd4linux which handles much the same stuff.

sudo apt-get install lcd4linux
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Great. I'm looking forward to trying it out. Thank you! – Matt Williamson Sep 27 '10 at 12:37
up vote 2 down vote 
"How you turn this list into real devices is something else"

This is a question best answered with the Arduino, I might suspect.

And definitely under £50. But the "how to", I do not know. Would you please post here a link to a howto if you get it done? Thanks!

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I have an Arduino actually and an H44780 driven LCD, so technically I could go that route, but I'm looking for something a little more plug-n-play. Here's a link to how to get the LCD working (I;ve tested it) ladyada.net/learn/arduino/lcd.html and here's a way to talk to the Arduino serially (I've only done this with one character at a time, though) arduino.cc/playground/Interfacing/Python – Matt Williamson Sep 29 '10 at 19:54
thank you! I'm looking into doing an LCD project next. – e.m.fields Oct 1 '10 at 6:21

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