What is the pimoroni-dashboard software written in? I’d like to put together a setup script for my little project, and the GUI-less GUI looks like a good way to get the values into the system. (Obviously backed with scripts to write those values out)
the dashboard is written in bash… it basically uses a zenity front-end in Raspbian Pixel (and select other distros we allow, such as PiTop OS, Kano, MATE), and falls back on whiptail if no X session is running (so in Raspbian Lite, or when logged in via ssh).
the executable name is pimoroni-dashboard and you’ll find it in the expected location, /usr/bin.
… so it should be easy to add to a crontab, or fire it up as needed from an external program/script. Note that it is not necessary to call it with sudo, and I don’t recommend it.
oh, I guess for people reading this who haven’t heard of the Pimoroni Dashboard and wonder how to get it installed in the first place, you would simply use:
sudo apt-get install pimoroni
… at least in Raspbian. If you are using another supported distro (from the top of my head, PiTop OS, Kano OS, MATE), then you can install it like so:
curl https://get.pimoroni.com/dashboard | bash
and for completeness’s sake, it’s worth noting that once installed the Dashboard will update itself on every launch (or rather checks our server to assess whether there is a new version, and if necessary runs the self-update routine).
I hope that answers all potential questions not yet answered in Bilge Tank 081, but if not fell free to pop them here and I’ll try my best to fill in the gaps.
The dashboard is great, particularly now it has “projects” such as for the Pirate Radio.
I usually run it from the CLI but have just tried it on the GUI and notice there is a lack of visual feedback. Installing Blinkt for example nothing appeared to happen for long periods of time. (It was working but silently)
that shouldn’t be the case, there should always be a terminal open in the background where the process will be running. Did you perhaps close it or did the GUI cover it totally?
I think I see what you were possibly referring to now. The problem is that on a zero, with full desktop particularly it can take an age to synchronise the apt sources (more so at certain times of the day).
I have improved the visual feedback for that step in the scripts themselves, but the dashboard uses its own version so that enhancement won’t be active until the next dashboard version.