[mythtv-users] Programming remote button bindings (WAS: What major features are planned for 0.27?)

[Michael T. Dean]

On 11/28/2012 02:59 AM, Simon Hobson wrote:
> I wrote:
>>> Summary:  There's a systemic issue (any key with code > 256 is 
>>> filtered by X),
>>
>> BINGO !
>> ir-keytable tells me that all the keys I can't get to work have codes 
>> greater than 0xff.
>>
>> So I'm off to make a copy of the rc6_mce keymap and fix some of these.
>
> Well I now have Back, Pause, Info, Commercial skip forwards/back, and 
> Menu working, plus the numeric digits. Along with the keys that 
> already worked, that covers almost all my usage :)
>
>
> Gary Buhrmaster wrote:
>
>> There was some work being discussed (Jarod may have been part of it?) 
>> to allow
>> the linux kernel ir codes >255 to be able to be used via X, but it 
>> was stated
>> to be major work, and unlikely to be seen any time soon.  You can 
>> probably find
>> the list archives regarding this if you search the various X11 lists, 
>> and maybe
>> find the status of any work and/or possible schedules for work.
>
> To me that seems the logical place to fix the problem - it doesn't 
> seem to make sense to me capturing IR buttons and then sending 
> keycodes through into a system that's going to filter most of them !
> Presumably (other than using LIRC) there's no way for Myth to access 
> the codes before they get filtered ?
>
> In the meantime, I guess the easiest thing to do is find the header 
> file where all the keycodes are defined, pick a bunch of codes 
> (probably all those >=128) and modify my IR code table to use those. 
> Then back to figuring out what is what in the very long list of Myth 
> keybindings.
>

I still don't get why people think doing this (and repeating it with 
each upgrade--and on each system) is easier than creating (or, likely, 
downloading) a single LIRC configuration file for the remote 
(lircd.conf) and a LIRC configuration for MythTV (~/.lircrc) and any 
other application you want to use with the remote, which can then be 
backed up with your other configuration files and just dropped in place 
whenever you upgrade your distro or set up a new system or...

Sure, getting LIRC working once took some learning, but once I finished, 
I forgot /everything/ I ever knew about configuring LIRC and haven't 
worried about it since I first set it up in 2004.  All I remember at 
this point is just how sensible LIRC's abstraction is--allowing me to 
configure applications individually independent of the specific remote 
I'm using and without having to remap remote buttons for a specific 
application (and make them crazy mappings for other apps) or without 
having to remap application buttons (and mess up keyboard mappings at 
the same time).

And since modern distros that are a good choice for MythTV (i.e. *buntu 
and Fedora and possibly others with excellent repo/configuration support 
for MythTV) actually allow you to just select a remote so it can set it 
up for you, things should be a lot easier now than they were in 2004.

But, hey, at least you can say, "I finally set up my system and I don't 
/have/ to use Linux Infrared Remote Control to, support my, er, ... 
infrared remote control in ... Linux."

Help!  There's a baby going down the drain with that bath water!

Mike