FBDASH - lightweight dashboard for the RaspberryPi without X (using framebuffer only)

In order to setup the dashboard start with cloning this repo ;) git clone https://git.klelifo.de/flo/fb-dash cd fb-dash

Configure the display

TL;DR just run make rpi-config

Some work is needed before we can actually use the ILI9341 display with the RaspberryPi.
Essentially we need to

Enable the SPI interface
Load the fbtft_device kernel module with the correct parameters to get a working /dev/fb1 framebuffer device.

Enable SPI interface on the raspberry pi

echo "dtparam=spi=on" | sudo tee -a /boot/config

Activate modules to be loaded at boot

echo "spi_bcm2835" | sudo tee -a /etc/modules
echo "fbtft_device" | sudo tee -a /etc/modules
echo "options fbtft_device name=rpi-display gpios=reset:25,dc:24,led:18" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/fbtft_device.conf

Setup fbdash binary

*TL;DR just run sudo apt install -y libmariadb2 && make install

After the display is setup we can build and install the fbdash binary.

Build the sources

sudo apt install libmariadb2
make

Install in /usr/bin

sudo make install

Test it

fbdash

Use systemd for regular updates

While we could also use cron for regular execution of the fbdash binary I opted to use systemd this time.
The future is now ... ;)

Install unit files

TL;DR just run make systemd-config

The following files use systemd to setup a regular update of the dashboard screen (60s by default).
If you like to change the default, just edit the fbdash.timer file before reloading systemctl

sudo cp setup/fbdash.service setup/fbdash.timer /etc/systemd/system
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable fbdash.timer
sudo systemctl start fbdash.timer

Check timers

systemctl list-timers
NEXT                          LEFT       LAST                          PASSED      UNIT                         ACTIVATES
Wed 2022-05-04 14:16:10 CEST  28s left   Wed 2022-05-04 14:15:10 CEST  31s ago     fbdash.timer                 fbdash.service
...

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