LEDSpicer, LED animation controller for Linux.

prozach

This is awesome!

How difficult would it be to add support for the howler?

The software was written in C and the source is available on github already.
https://github.com/wolfwaretech/Howler-Arcade-Controller-Firmware

would love to be able to use the controller I have rather than have to buy a new one.

Keep up the good work.

Whoremoan

I'm trying to install LEDSpicer using the latest Retropieimage on a Raspberry Pi.
I am at the part where it says
./configure CXXFLAGS='-s -O3' --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc
it goes all the way through it OK but right at the end I get
configure: error: tinyxml2 not found.
Now I can see you need version 6, but I can only get version 4, so I assume that is why I'm getting the error?
I can't figure out how to install version 6.
I've been looking all over the net for a solution for hours and I'm completely stuck.
My knowledge of Linux is pretty basic, so as detailed a response as possible would be much appreciated ;)
TIA

Whoremoan

@Whoremoan
Sorted it with the help of MeduZaPaT.
I'm going to try to repeat what I did on my other Rpi to make sure I can replicate the fix and I'll document it and put it up here in case anyone else has the same issue I had.

Whoremoan

@Whoremoan
OK here is what I did

Install tinyxml2 version 4, which is the newest version available in the repos of the pre-built Retropie v4.5.1 image.
You need this as none of the other versions bellow seem to install the tinyxml2.pc file

sudo apt install libtinyxml2-dev

Now change the tinyxml2.pc file to match the version LEDSpicer is expecting

sudo nano /usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/pkgconfig/tinyxml2.pc

Change version to 6.2.0
Ctrl X and save changes

Now download and install version 6a of tinyxml2

wget http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/pool/main/t/tinyxml2/libtinyxml2-6a_7.0.0+dfsg-1_armhf.deb
sudo dpkg -i libtinyxml2-6a_7.0.0+dfsg-1_armhf.deb

This version does not update the tinyxml.h file, so install the version bellow which will install an updated version of this.

git clone https://github.com/leethomason/tinyxml2
cd tinyxml2

Edit Makefile so that the lib files are installed in the directory LEDSpicer expects to see them.

sudo nano Makefile

Change
prefix = /usr/local
To
prefix = /usr

Change
libdir = $(prefix)/lib
To
libdir = $(prefix)/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf

Ctrl X and save changes

Now install

make all
sudo make install
cd ..

Finally delete the old version 4 library files and you should be good start the Installing section on the LEDSpicer without errors

sudo rm /usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libtinyxml2.so.4
sudo rm /usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libtinyxml2.so.4.0.1

It is possible that not all of these steps are needed, but it's the process I went through to get it up and running and it only takes a couple of minutes to do all of this, so you might as well

MeduZaPaT

@Whoremoan this is really good, thanks for the update!

12ale

I am having a problem with the command:

sudo service ledspicerd start

It responds with this error:

Job for ledspicerd.service failed because the control process exited with error code.
See "systemctl status ledspicerd.service" and "journalctl -xe"

When I view journalctl -xe this is the error I am greeted with:

-- Unit ledspicerd.service has begun starting up.
Feb 06 15:26:49 retropie LEDSpicer[9229]: Set interval to 100ms
Feb 06 15:26:49 retropie LEDSpicer[9229]: Opening USB session
Feb 06 15:26:49 retropie LEDSpicer[9229]: Reading /usr/share/ledspicer/.xml
Feb 06 15:26:49 retropie LEDSpicer[9229]: Program terminated by error: Unable to read the file /usr/share/ledspicer/.xml Error=XML_ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND ErrorID=3 (0x3) Line number=0: filename=/usr/share/ledspice
Feb 06 15:26:49 retropie systemd[1]: ledspicerd.service: Control process exited, code=exited status=1
Feb 06 15:26:49 retropie systemd[1]: Failed to start LEDSpicer a LEDs controller and animation daemon that will handle LEDs of different devices..
-- Subject: Unit ledspicerd.service has failed
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: https://www.debian.org/support
--
-- Unit ledspicerd.service has failed.
--
-- The result is failed.
Feb 06 15:26:49 retropie systemd[1]: ledspicerd.service: Unit entered failed state.
Feb 06 15:26:49 retropie systemd[1]: ledspicerd.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Feb 06 15:26:49 retropie sudo[9157]: pam_unix(sudo:session): session closed for user root
Feb 06 15:27:00 retropie sudo[9591]:       pi : TTY=pts/0 ; PWD=/home/pi ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/bin/journalctl -xe
Feb 06 15:27:00 retropie sudo[9591]: pam_unix(sudo:session): session opened for user root by pi(uid=0)

It looks like I am missing the file with this directory

/usr/share/ledspicer/.xml

Thanks in advance.

Whoremoan

@12ale

Have you tried running ledspicerd -d
This should tell you if any of the .xml files are missing or if there is an error in the .xml files.

MeduZaPaT

@12ale you need to set the ledspicer.conf file, that error is maybe the missing colors file.
you can check the logs also like this:

cat /var/log/syslog | grep ledspicer

Use sudo if you get access denied.

12ale

@Whoremoan @MeduZaPaT

Part of the issue was the missing color files.
I still get this:

Job for ledspicerd.service failed because the control process exited with error code.
See "systemctl status ledspicerd.service" and "journalctl -xe"

When I run ledspicerd -d I get this message:

Program terminated by error: Missing attribute 'port' inside root

Thanks for the help.

12ale

@12ale said in LEDSpicer, LED animation controller for Linux.:

@Whoremoan @MeduZaPaT

Part of the issue was the missing color files.
I still get this:
Job for ledspicerd.service failed because the control process exited with error code.
See "systemctl status ledspicerd.service" and "journalctl -xe"
When I run ledspicerd -d I get this message:
Program terminated by error: Missing attribute 'port' inside root
Thanks for the help.

Disregard the previous post. I was able to get everything to work.
Thank you for the help.

SigmaX

I was kind of giving up hope I would get my Howler working on my Pi3. Is there a retro pi image that I can download that will have everything set up? I'm really new to all of this, and I'm also dyslexic so the amount of reading I have to do is pretty daunting.

I'd love to find an image I can just put on my SD card and start going.

MeduZaPaT

@SigmaX what OS are you running in the Pi3 ?