[mythtv-users] Getting started

[Michael Rice]

On Dec 6, 2007 6:29 PM, Marc Chamberlin <marc at marcchamberlin.com> wrote:
 > Thanks again Michael. Your suggestion has made a big difference and seems to
> be on the right track. irw now recognizes all the keys from the Hauppauge
> remote! That said, I gotta admit I was TOTALLY confused about the model on
> how to configure remotes for Linux (at least as far as SuSE Linux is
> concerned.) Since this seems to be starting to work, it also implies that
> the config file lirc.conf is no longer needed/used???

I don't use SuSE and never have but as far as I know there is only one
.conf file needed (lircd.conf).  I have always used Fedora and there is
a very good Howto on setting up MythTV with it
(http://www.wilsonet.com/mythtv/fcmyth.php).  Maybe the howto you
are following is out-of-date.  No idea.

> And it also implies
> there is an internal translator that KNOWS about Hauppauge remotes (by that
> I mean it does not have to be told what the codes are for the remote via the
> lirc.conf file) and maps their input IR signals from the Hauppauge remote
> into the tokens that the lirc daemon can use for outputting?? If so, while I
> can understand on the one hand that someone is trying to make things easier
> for us users, the existing instructions are going to confuse the heck out of
> everyone! No wonder I was lost!

What is the URL to the instructions you are following.  I am curious now...
Anyway someone who uses SuSE can chime in since I don't know anything
specific about it.

> Anywise, I did a bit of experimentation with the lircrc configuration file
> that MythTV is using.. It now seems that instead of using the button names
> that were defined in the lirc.conf file, we now use the token names defined
> in the lircd.conf file. So to get the Channel up/down buttons to work, I
> changed the button name in the lircrc file from CH+ and CH- (as had been
> originally supplied in both the lircrc and lirc.conf that I had picked up
> for this remote) to CHANNELUP and CHANNELDOWN which are defined in the
> lircd.conf file. AND THAT WORKED!! Therefore I must conclude that the
> mapping model of the lircrc file has changed (sometime recently) FROM
> mapping input signals that correlate to keys on a remote to keyboard keys TO
> mapping tokens produced by the lircd daemon to keyboard keys. (Hmmm makes me
> wonder if SuSE/Linux can still handle new remote definitions...)

Well I don't know what "recent" means in the SuSE world but I've not noticed any
big changes in the two years I've been using MythTv on Fedora.

It sounds like you are on the right track though.  The lircd.conf and lircrc are
all you should need.

> Could you let me know if I got my head wrapped around the model correctly
> now? If so, then this model and your trick of selecting the correct module
> parameter option for this Hauppauge remote really needs to be documented
> somewhere. (I couldn't find any such, and you were able to figure it out
> apparently by digging into the code base..)

I happen to be familiar with the kernel code for remotes since I have to apply
a patch to get one of my remotes to work.  Certainly one shouldn't have to
know this kind of stuff to get a 350 remote working.

BTW, I don't see a lot of MythTV users using SuSE.  Unless you have a
particular
reason for doing so you might be better off with Fedora, Debian, or
Ubuntu or one
of the MythTV distros like Mythdora.