LG Buddy

Inspired by LG Companion for Windows (https://github.com/JPersson77/LGTVCompanion), LG Buddy is a set of scripts and service using https://github.com/chros73/bscpylgtv to turn LG WebOS TV's on and off automatically on startup, shutdown (but not reboot), sleep, and wake in Linux.

Features

• Startup/Shutdown: Automatically turn TV on at boot and off at shutdown
• Sleep/Wake: Turn TV off on suspend, back on at wake
• Screen Idle/Resume: Blank the TV panel when your GNOME or wlroots-based Wayland session goes idle, unblank it when you return
• Brightness Control: Interactive slider to adjust OLED pixel brightness (via zenity)
• Interactive Setup: configure.sh prompts for TV and screen settings and writes them to your home directory

Prerequisites

You will need the following packages installed:

• python3, python3-venv, python3-pip — for bscpylgtv
• wakeonlan (or wol) — to wake TV from standby
• gdbus — for GNOME screen idle detection (usually installed with GNOME/GLib)
• swayidle — for wlroots/COSMIC screen idle detection (optional)
• zenity — for OLED Pixel Brightness Control (optional)

Debian/Ubuntu/Pop!_OS:

sudo apt install python3-venv python3-pip wakeonlan zenity

Fedora:

sudo dnf install python3 python3-pip wol zenity

Arch:

sudo pacman -S python python-pip wakeonlan zenity

If gdbus is missing on GNOME, install your distro's GLib utilities package (libglib2.0-bin on Debian/Ubuntu, glib2 on Fedora/Arch).

Note: The screen monitor now supports multiple backends. On GNOME it uses org.gnome.ScreenSaver plus org.gnome.Mutter.IdleMonitor over D-Bus. On wlroots/COSMIC desktops it uses swayidle.

Installation

1. Clone or download the latest release of LG Buddy.

2. Make install.sh executable and run it:

chmod +x ./install.sh
./install.sh

3. The installer will:

   • Install prerequisites (python3-venv, wakeonlan or wol)
   • Run configure.sh to create ~/.config/lg-buddy/config.env
   • Create the Python virtual environment and install bscpylgtv
   • Copy scripts to system locations and set up systemd services
   • Install the screen monitor user service and optionally enable it during install

4. Restart your computer.

5. On first use, you may need to accept a prompt on your TV to allow this application to connect. See: https://github.com/chros73/bscpylgtv/blob/master/docs/guides/first_use.md

Screen Idle/Resume (Wayland)

The screen monitor auto-detects a supported backend:

• GNOME: Uses org.gnome.ScreenSaver for idle transitions and org.gnome.Mutter.IdleMonitor for early wake-on-activity, while still following GNOME's own blank/lock timing
• wlroots/COSMIC: Uses swayidle

In a normal GNOME Shell session, Mutter is part of the GNOME stack. No separate Mutter package needs to be installed for this backend.

When idle:

• LG_Buddy_Screen_Off blanks the TV panel (if it's on the configured HDMI input)
• LG_Buddy_Screen_On unblanks the panel when you move the mouse or press a key

Startup, shutdown, suspend, and resume still use full TV power transitions.

The swayidle backend defaults to a 300 second (5 minute) timeout. You can change it with ./configure.sh. The installer and configurator only prompt for that timeout when swayidle is the selected backend.

Check status:

systemctl --user status LG_Buddy_screen.service

Preferred way to change backend or timeout:

./configure.sh

Temporary backend override for testing:

systemctl --user edit LG_Buddy_screen.service

Then add:

[Service]
Environment=LG_BUDDY_SCREEN_BACKEND=gnome

Supported values are auto, gnome, and swayidle.

Test the GNOME backend manually:

gdbus monitor --session --dest org.gnome.ScreenSaver --object-path /org/gnome/ScreenSaver

Test the swayidle backend manually:

swayidle -w timeout 10 'echo IDLE' resume 'echo RESUMED'

Configuration

To reconfigure your TV settings after installation, run:

./configure.sh

This updates ~/.config/lg-buddy/config.env. It does not rewrite the installed scripts, and it does not require sudo.

The config file currently contains:

• tv_ip
• tv_mac
• input
• screen_backend
• screen_idle_timeout

File Layout

File	Purpose
bin/LG_Buddy_Startup	Turn TV on at boot/wake
bin/LG_Buddy_Shutdown	Turn TV off at shutdown
bin/LG_Buddy_sleep	Turn TV off on suspend
bin/LG_Buddy_Common	Shared config and helper functions
bin/LG_Buddy_Screen_Monitor	Multi-backend idle monitor (GNOME or swayidle)
bin/LG_Buddy_Screen_Off	Blank the TV panel on screen idle
bin/LG_Buddy_Screen_On	Unblank the TV panel on resume
bin/LG_Buddy_Brightness	Interactive brightness control
configure.sh	Interactive configuration tool
install.sh	Automated installer
LG_Buddy_Brightness.desktop	OLED Brightness Control app
systemd/LG_Buddy.service	Shutdown systemd service
systemd/LG_Buddy_wake.service	Startup systemd service
systemd/LG_Buddy_screen.service	Screen monitor user service

Author

Rob Grieves aka https://github.com/Faceless3882 aka r/TheFacIessMan

Credits

• https://github.com/chros73 for the bscpylgtv software that makes this possible.
• https://github.com/JPersson77 for the inspiration and pointing me in the right direction.