[mythtv-users] Getting started

[Michael Rice]

On Dec 4, 2007 5:32 PM, Marc Chamberlin <marc at marcchamberlin.com> wrote:
> My first issue to immediately address is getting the remote control working.
> Not having much luck but have made some headway... I have set up the LIRC
> daemon and got it running. Downloaded and placed an lirc.conf file for the
> Hauppauge 350 remote into /etc, and the lircrc file in the .mythtv directory
> for my mythtv user. Also copied the lircd.conf file into /etc from the SuSE
> distribution as instructed. I then executed the irw to test the remote. Here
> I get mixed results, it seems to recognize many of the key pushes, but not
> all. And the mapping to the name the system understands does not always
> correlate to what the key pushed was, for example if I push the key for
> menu, the response in the irw output seems to think I selected the code to
> map into the system name - Mute, and vice versa...

That likely means you don't have a correct lircd.conf for your remote.
  I believe there is more than one type of remote type for the 350.
Search the net a bit until you find one that works with irw.

> I am trying to understand the underlying model and am pretty confused. It
> seems that the file called lircd.conf defines a set of system names for
> various inputs, the file called lirc.conf defines the buttons and IR codes
> for the remote, and the file lircrc defines the mapping between the IR
> codes/buttons and the system names?? Am I correct in making this assumption?

You need just a lircd.conf for irw.  It should have a line for each
button on the remote
and irw should respond with the correct name when you hit each button.  Looks
like this:

          Record                   0x00000000000017B7
          Stop                     0x00000000000017B6

After starting lircd you can use irw and should see each button press
on the screen.  If you cannot find a correct lircd.conf you can stop
lircd and use irrecord to create your own... but that is a common
remote you should be able to find one.

Once all that works you need a .lircrc file to map these names to
functions in mythtv.  That would look like this:

begin
  prog = mythtv
  button = Record
  config = r
end

begin
  prog = mythtv
  button = Stop
  config = Esc
end

That maps "Record" from the lircd.conf to the 'r' key in mythtv.

Hope that sheds some light on how it works.

> And no when I bring up MythTV, the remote fails completely to do anything..
> So I guess I am missing something somewhere else....

You'll need to make sure .lircrc is readable by the user running mythfrontend.
I have mine in ~mythtv/.lircrc with a symbolic link to it in ~mythtv.  And
make sure /dev/lirc* has correct permissions for the mythtv user.

I'll let someone else handle the others.