[mythtv-users] HP/Intervideo USB remote

[Jack Madison]

On Fri, 2007-05-25 at 13:49 -0500, jedi at mishnet.org wrote:
> > I have an HP Pavilion zd7000 laptop that I'm going to use for a
> > mythfrontend until I find a better solution.  As it has no serial input
> > I decided to pick up a USB IR receiver and remote.  Looking back I
> > probably should have gone with a serial IR and USB-to-serial converter,
> > but I didn't.  Off to e-bay and back with an HP/Intervideo IR reciever
> > and remote.  From what I can find, the receiver is model number
> > XPC-RC01, and the remote is apparently model number PH839A (not marked
> > on the remote as far as I can find).
> >
> > The issue is it comes up as a HID device, not an IR device.  I can use
> > the remote as either a keyboard or a mouse, swapping between them with
> > the toggle button.
> 
>     I dunno. I like the idea of a real remote better. lirc has the
> ability to change repeat rates on a per key basis. you can also setup
> lirc to do different things based on how many times the key has been
> pressed. irexec is kind of handy too.
So do I, for the reasons I mentioned in my original message plus what
you mentioned.  Getting the remote under lirc just seems like it would
have better control for myth/mplayer while allowing me to use a real
keyboard (either the laptops or a wireless) without issues.
> 
>     I use that for a kill switch. I've got my remote's power button
> set up for that. It resets my mythtv user without reseting anything
> else. That's pretty handy for those the occasional bug.
Another good point, and more reason to go lirc.

>      Then again, you might be able to do all of that and more with a
> "real keyboard". Dunno. This would be a good subject for a howto or a
> wiki.

A real keyboard is easy enough to add in addition to a remote.  In fact,
I have an old spare wireless keyboard/mouse setup that I may eventually
use for games and other non-myth stuff.  

If I can get this working I don't mind doing a short write-up and
posting it somewhere.  In googling around this question has come up a
few times, but no good answers that I could find.  It's a shame because
these remotes are all over ebay, and I picked mine up for under $20 US
shipped to my door (~$14 IIRC).  

As a quick update, I THINK the solution may be disabling the HID device.
I was finally able to get lircd to load and irw/irrecord does recognize
a few of the keys not normally found on a keyboard such as volume
up/down, mute, and back.  dmesg shows:

dmesg | grep 3353
input: HID 3353:3713 as /class/input/input2
input: USB HID v1.10 Keyboard [HID 3353:3713] on usb-0000:00:1d.1-2
input: HID 3353:3713 as /class/input/input3
input: USB HID v1.10 Device [HID 3353:3713] on usb-0000:00:1d.1-2

I did find mention of disabling a USB device by adding it as blacklisted
and recompiling the kernel, but I don't know if that will completely
disable and make everything stop, or if it will just disable the HID
drivers.  I also don't want to do it with Fedora, makes upgrading a bit
more of a hassle, so if I have to go that route I'll switch back to
gentoo.  If there is any way of disabling the HID part of that device
without kernel recompile I'd love to hear it.