[mythtv-users] Remote to turn *on* mythtv?

[Leighton Brough]

Michael T. Dean wrote:
> On 07/11/2007 01:43 PM, David Frascone wrote:
>   
>> I can't think of any way to do it -- but is there a way to turn on a
>> myth box via remote?  What about if suspended?  Can it do wake-on-serial?
>>     
>
> Don't know if this works (never tried it since my Myth frontend is
> basically always on), but what about wake on USB with a USB receiver
> (like the ATI/NVIDIA/X10 devices or even some of the for-sale USB
> receivers, like from iguanaworks)?
>   

I'm successfully using the Microsoft MCE remote with its USB receiver to 
do this. It works well to wake my combined front/backend from the 
suspend-to-RAM state. In fact it is designed to do precisely this. I've 
been very happy with this remote. I'm sure some other remotes will have 
similar features.

You need to tell the kernel you'd like the system to be woken by the USB 
receiver. Something like "echo USB2 > /proc/acpi/wakeup" should do the 
trick (depending on which USB port the receiver is attached to). You 
will probably also need to change some jumpers on the motherboard to 
ensure the USB port in question is powered when the system is suspended.

Exactly which states (off, suspend-to-RAM, suspend-to-disk) the USB can 
wake the system from depends on your motherboard, so this might not work 
in every configuration. On a combine FE/BE you would also want to add 
the ability to wake at a specified time to record when it needs to. With 
my cheap Asus board, it all worked as I wanted, once it was correctly 
configured. The result is that that box is up and usable within 10 
seconds of hitting the remote power button - about as long as it takes 
the monitor to wake up.

I found it took quite a lot of reading, experimentation and frustration 
to get suspend-to-RAM working just right as this depends on various 
factors including your HW and the kernel config and version. But once it 
does work the net effect is very satisfactory. The WAF is high :-)

Leighton