I imagine these devices are not very popular (at least under linux) due to the lack of information that I find, but I thought it might be worth a shot to ask.

I'm trying to get my Pertelian X2040 LCD display to work under ubuntu 13.04. I tried lcd4linux, but did not have much luck (even though I had some success a while back under linux mint). I moved to LCDd and have been able to get the screen working (somewhat) but the display is garbled. For example:

What should be displayed:
Welcome to
LCDproc!

What is displayed:
Wecoe o
LCprc!

This device is listed as being compatible with LCDd, but past getting something to the display, I am at a loss for what to check next. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

One thing I would try is your locale.
Set a bog standard locale and not utf-8 as the thing was probably never designed for a fancy locale like utf-8 which is even programmed for Klingon!