HOWTO: Install basic G15Tools support for the Logitech G15

[drdnl]

Major Edit:

I haven't really had time to update this thread to reflect more recent changes. Don't follow the instructions below as they are practically ancient. See here for the latest installation tips and debs(FEISTY)


















































please scroll down for information on getting amaroK to play nice with the g15 lcd.

My turn to do something back for this community, stuff tagged with * are optional steps possibly required to get this running (most likely they are on 6.06 Dapper)

First off, install libusb-dev* and libdaemon-dev using Synaptic or the terminal

sudo apt-get install libusb-dev libdaemon-dev

(*I had some kind of weird dependancy problem with xsane and ubuntu desktop with libusb-dev, simply do a search for "libusb-dev debian" and download/install, you'll know it works when it warns you about an older version in the repos)

Then, download the attachment and install libg15, g15daemon, libg15render and g15composer_1.0.1 (in that order)

Edit: If you want to run the latest version of G15composer (which handles it own pipe) you can get them here

It should be mostly backwards compatible except for the aforementioned pipe handling, remove any mention of (for example) mknod $pipe p from any script you wish to run. In addition, any pipes left behind by other scripts should be removed or it will complain.

next, try running g15daemon

if properly installed it will probably complain:

g15daemon: error while loading shared libraries: libg15.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

to solve that run:

sudo gedit /etc/ld.so.conf

and insert

/usr/local/lib

at the top of the file. Now run

sudo ldconfig

Now lets see if it'll work:

sudo g15daemon

If you now have a gigantic clock showing on your lcd, CONGRATULATIONS!

Of course, many, many thanks to all the developers at http://g15tools.sourceforge.net/ !

I'll be updating this post as I discover more functions, of course all help is greatly appreciated.

Edit:

If you want to have the demon autorun on startup try running (BE CAREFUL)

sudo visudo

Change the user part and add the following to the end of the file:

user ALL= NOPASSWD: /usr/local/sbin/g15daemon . *If you use the packages posted later on in this thread it'll be /usr/sbin/g15daemon

and press ctrl+x to exit. Press Y to accept, it will check for syntax mistakes and if it finds one it will ask you "What now?" Simply press E and make the necessary changes.

After this go to System->Preferences->Sessions and add sudo g15daemon to the list

Next, getting some useful data on the screen. To get you all started try typing

echo 'TL "Hello" "World"' > ~/g15lcd
g15composer ~/g15lcd

Now please SOMEONE, make a decent amarok script with an analizer, track info and progress bar so we have a linux alternative for g15plugin for winamp in windows.

Hope this helps someone,
D

Amarok and the Logitech G15

This is surprisingly easy these days after some efforts from guitoo and Anuerysm9 plus the tiniest bit of packing effort on my end. Provided the lcd is fully functioning with a running clock you can download the following scripts:

amarok-g15-dcop_cli.ubuntu.amarokscript.tar.gz

This is Aneurysm9's script, it is a modified version of his original script designed to run without dependancies. It displays artist name plus song info and a wonderful song progress bar. If you are using ubuntu (very likely) make sure to get this version. The change made is adding the word "truetype" in the font location. The original can be found attached to this post below.

or

GentooG15Amarok(fixed).amarokscript.tar.gz

Another no dependancy script made by guitoo, simpler than Aneurysm9's but very reliable , simple and easy on the eyes. Gives a little more track info in the form of track number and album.

Download either script and install it into amarok by opening amarok -> tools -> script manager. Select the option install script, point it to the downloaded *.amarokscript.tar.gz and select ok. It should return a "script installed ok" after which you select the script in the list and press "run". G15Composer should show up and a few moments later (sometimes it takes a track change) the song info should pop up. As long as you leave the script running within amarok/script manager it will automatically turn on and off along with the player itself.

On a sidenote, aneurysm9's original scipt can be found on the next page of this post. It is supposedly more cpu efficient but I have never been able to resolve its dependancies so I cannot offer any advice on installation.

Enjoy!

Troubleshooting:

If you run sudo G15Deamon and it complains about a return value make sure to run

modprobe uinput

People who previously installed G15Lcd will not have this problem.

Big Edit

Turns out I made a mistake and should have been clearer about creating a pipe, not a file, to read data from.

Will everyone who is seeing g15composer eating 100% of their cycles please ensure that they are telling g15composer to read from a pipe and not a regular file. You can create a pipe with "mknod /path/to/pipe p" (replacing /path/to/pipe with whatever you really want, I use /var/run/lcdpipe) and run g15composer with "g15composer /path/to/pipe". If you tell it to read from a regular file it will simply read the file over and over again, eating all of your cycles because there's always something for it to read. With a pipe there's only something to read when you put something there so most of the time it's waiting for something to do.