I've been trying to get the sys-oled script working in Trixie, but I'm pretty out of my depth here.

 

I started with https://github.com/helios-4/sys-oled.git and https://github.com/rpardini/sys-oled-hc4.git

 

 

/usr/bin/python3 /usr/local/bin/sys-oled --display sh1106 --i2c-port 0 --rotate 2
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/bin/sys-oled", line 140, in <module>
    device = get_device()
  File "/usr/local/bin/sys-oled", line 56, in get_device
    device = cmdline.create_device(args)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/luma/core/cmdline.py", line 241, in create_device
    device = Device(serial_interface=interface(), **params)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/luma/oled/device/__init__.py", line 75, in __init__
    self.command(
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~^
        self._const.DISPLAYOFF,
        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
    ...<11 lines>...
        self._const.SETVCOMDETECT,      0x20,
        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
        self._const.CHARGEPUMP,         0x14)
        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/luma/core/device.py", line 48, in command
    self._serial_interface.command(*cmd)
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/luma/core/interface/serial.py", line 93, in command
    self._bus.write_i2c_block_data(self._addr, self._cmd_mode,
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
                                   list(cmd))
                                   ^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/smbus2/smbus2.py", line 643, in write_i2c_block_data
    ioctl(self.fd, I2C_SMBUS, msg)
    ~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
OSError: [Errno 6] No such device or address

 

The script wants to compile luma.core on it's own and Trixie throws up some walls to that. I was hoping to use the system libraries, so I installed python3-luma.core and python3-luma.oled. I'm not sure if it's better to override Trixie and just install the luma.core from the script.

 

Does anyone have any experience with this? Will I need to redo this with a Python venv?

@jimbolaya

IIRC it is sufficient to use the latest Helios4 image (https://dl.armbian.com/helios4/Trixie_current_minimal). OLED support is available.

That's what I'm using.

 

> OLED support is available.

 

I'm not sure what this means. There doesn't appear to be a package or any software installed for it.

 

Do you have a place for me to look?

 

Unfortunately, the answer for 

was really not very helpful.

 

If I get it working, I'll post what I learn here, but I was unable to find any notes on that particularly on the forums or the Helios4 page.

 

Thank you for your time.

 

James

 

@jimbolaya

Did you use the informations at https://wiki.kobol.io/helios4/i2c/ ?

On 8/3/2026 at 7:16 AM, FredK said:

Did you use the informations at https://wiki.kobol.io/helios4/i2c/ ?

 

All the variants of sys-oled including the the one mentioned in the wiki at kobol pull in their own luma.oled library, which Armbian (and Debian for that matter) complain about with 

error: externally-managed-environment

 

If I try to use the package python3-luma.oled, it doesn't really work (see prior posts in this thread).

 

I will eventually figure out how to get this all running in venv and have systemct start it up. But that wont be for a while.

@jimbolaya

I'll try to summarize how I got sys-oled up and running. 

 

Six years ago I built my Helios4 with Armbian and OMV running a RAID5 with four disks. sys-oled was generated as documented in the Kobol Wiki. At some point migrating from Buster till Bookworm the OLED was no more working. I had to edit the sys-oled sources in minor ways (Today I cant remember any more what I did). In April 2026 I moved OMV to a 64bit platform. The Helios4 is used nowadays for testing purposes. To do so, I installed Armbian from scratch using "Armbian_25.11.1_Helios4_trixie_current_6.6.116_minimal.img". sys-oled was up and running.

 

I adapt /etc/sys-oled.conf, that's all. My /etc/sys-oled.conf:

[main]
# Define your OLED display model
# Check luma.oled project to check supported displays.
display_model = sh1106

# Define OLED display contrast level (value: 0 to 255)
contrast = 255

# Show Helios4 logo (value: yes or no)
show_logo = yes

# Status refresh interval
refresh = 10

[device]
# Network Device
network_name = end1

# Storage Device 1
# Device name
storage1_name = DiskA

# Device mount path
storage1_path = /mnt/A

# Storage Device 2
storage2_name= DiskB
storage2_path= /mnt/B

 

sys-oled also "survived" the subsequent switch to rolling releases.

 

I will look for a recent backup of my Helios4 before reinstall in April.

On 8/24/2026 at 10:57 AM, FredK said:

sys-oled also "survived" the subsequent switch to rolling releases.

 

Oh, dang. I feel so stupid. 

 

I tried updating my helios4 but it failed, so I started from a new image. I forgot I still had the old image somewhere. I found the old sys-oled python script and copied it over and now it works. 

 

Still, it seems like there's got to be a better way to do this.