8. Setting up a remote control.
MythTV does not have native remote control receiver and decoder software
built-in. Instead, remote control functions are implemented by cooperating
with lirc, the Linux Infrared Remote Control program. lirc
handles the IR hardware and passes keystrokes to MythTV, which then acts as
if the user had pressed the keys on the keyboard. The file
keys.txt describes the keys used to control MythTV.
# urpmi lirc lirc-remotes and bypass
the manual compilation steps described below by jumping to the
Completing the lirc install section. See the contrib/mandrake91.etc.sysconfig.lircd file for an example of how to
configure lircd.
Some IR devices require a kernel recompile, and some don't. However, all at least require having the kernel source available as a resource for the lirc build process.
8.1 Gentoo
To install lirc on Gentoo, all you need to do is:
# emerge lirc
8.2 Obtaining and compiling lirc
You're going to need to download and compile lircd. Go to http://www.lirc.org and download lirc; as of 2006-01-21, the version available is 0.8.0. Grab the remotes.tar.bz2 file as well.
$ tar -xjf lirc-0.8.0.tar.bz2
$ cd lirc-0.8.0
$ ./setup.sh
Each remote is different; some remote receivers connect directly to your capture card and not to a serial port, so make sure that you've got the correct one.
You then click "Save Configuration and run configure" to continue.
Make sure you read the last text generated by the configure step. It will tell you if you require a kernel recompile, and what the name of your kernel module will be (if necessary). For instance a home-built receiver may require a kernel recompile, so you would be notified that you will have to load the lirc_serial module. If you did not get any such messages skip the kernel recompile steps below and go directly to making and installing the lirc driver.
Once the configuration step is complete:
$ make
$ su
# make install
# chmod 666 /dev/lircd
At this point, if you're using a serial receiver, check that there's a
lirc device in /dev:
$ ls -l /dev/li*
lr-xr-xr-x 1 root root 5 Jan 27 09:00 /dev/lirc -> ttyS0
srw-rw-rw- 1 root root 0 Jan 27 15:01 /dev/lircd=
prw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Jan 27 09:00 /dev/lircm|
As you can see, there's a link from /dev/lirc to ttyS0, a.k.a. "COM1", which is appropriate for the Pinnacle Systems PCTV Pro. However, you may notice something like this:
crw------- 1 root root 61, 0 Dec 31 1969 lirc
make
install step has created a character device for you, don't replace it
with a link to a COM port.
So, if the link or character device was not created (but should have been),
ensure that you ran the make install step as root. If it still
doesn't work, then there are three options. The first option is to re-read
the lirc documentation to determine whether your IR receiver is a
character device or should be a link to a serial port and to create the
link/character device manually. In this example, the IR device is connected
to ttyS0. If it were connected to "COM2", then use ttyS1, etc.
$ su
# cd /dev
# ln -sf ttyS0 lirc
# exit
$
# mknod /dev/lirc c 61 0
See the lirc documentation for additional information. The lirc installation should create this for you, so manually creating it indicates that your lirc installation may have other issues.
The second option is to post your issue to the lirc list, not the mythtv-users list. The lirc programmers will be the ones that can assist you best.
The third option is to dispense with lirc altogether by purchasing an IR
keyboard (various options exist, although Chicony appears to work for some
people) and a learning remote control. The IR keyboard receiver plugs into
the PS/2 keyboard port on your PC and you would train your learning remote
to emulate the various keystrokes from keys.txt of your IR
keyboard. Using this method removes lirc entirely from the picture - your
remote will be sending keypresses that your PC "sees" on the keyboard port.
8.3 Completing the lirc install
If the lirc configure program / compile did not mention anything about a
kernel module, then you are finished. If it did mention a kernel module, you
must edit the /etc/modules.conf file. Add this line as the first
thing in the file. It must come first, or it may not work.
alias char-major-61 XXX
replace XXX with the name which you determined earlier, which in this example was "lirc_serial"
$ su
# modprobe lirc_serial
# /sbin/ldconfig
Next, we're going to manually start lircd the first time. Mandriva 9.1
users, type: # /etc/rc.d/init.d/lircd start instead of:
# /usr/local/sbin/lircd
NOTE: Read this next section if you're not familiar with how lirc works!
There are two separate files used by lirc, and both are required for your
remote control to do anything useful. First is the lircd.conf file.
lircd.conf tells the lirc daemon how to interpret the IR pulses
that it receives from a remote control and what name to assign to each
sequence of pulses. Without getting too involved, a particular series of
pulses may correlate to "Channel Up". The lircd.conf file will
then contain a line that looks something like this:
ChannelUp 0x0000000000001020
The lircd.conf file can have multiple remote controls defined.
The second file is lircrc, which takes the name of the button which
was pressed ("ChannelUp") in the above example, and correlates that to an
action to be performed by a program using the remote control. So in MythTV,
ChannelUp means one thing, while in mplayer it means something
different. lircrc gives you the flexibility of taking the name of
the button and having it perform different actions depending on which
program you're using at the time.
NOTE: The definitions in lircd.conf come from the user
community, and there is no standard for the common button names. One
lircd.conf file may contain a definition for a button called
"ChannelUp", while another may contain a definition for "Chan+". Your
lircrc file must therefore be configured appropriately, or it won't
work.
If this fails, complaining of a missing lircd.conf file, then you
must find or make one. First look for a pre-made configuration file at
http://lirc.sourceforge.net/remotes/. Mandriva 9.1 users, look in
/usr/share/lirc-remotes. If you find one your remotes either on the
website or in /usr/share, download or copy the file, name it
lircd.conf and put it in your /etc directory. If you
couldn't find your remote, you must make your own lircd.conf file.
To make your own lircd.conf file
$ irrecord myremote
Follow the on-screen directions to train your remote and define keys. If
your remote ends up working well, you should consider submitting your
lircd.conf file back to the lirc developers. Once finished:
$ su
# cp myremote /etc/lircd.conf
now try to start lircd again:
# /usr/local/sbin/lircd
Now, we're going to add the commands necessary for lircd to run each time we boot. Mandriva 9.1 users, you can execute:
$ su
# chkconfig --level 35 lircd on
# exit
All other distributions:
# cd /etc/rc.d
# cat >> rc.local
echo "Starting lircd"
/usr/local/sbin/lircd
^D
# exit
$
This takes care of the lircd portion, which "listens" for the IR signals. If
everything went well, the install script for lircd put an appropriate
configuration file for your remote into /etc/lircd.conf This file
maps the buttons on the remote control to the IR pulses coming from the
receiver.
The next step is to convert those signals into something that can be used to control MythTV. MythTV now includes native support for lirc and can interact directly with
$ cd ~/mythtv-0.21/contrib/configfiles
$ cp lircrc.example ~/.lircrc
$ cp lircrc.example.pinnaclestudiopctv ~/.lircrc
$ irw
/etc/lircd.conf. If you don't see anything at this point, you need
to troubleshoot further by going back to the lirc home page and investigating
from there.
If it is working, then press CTRL-C to abort the program. Once you know that your remote is working, you can either recompile MythTV with native lirc support by enabling it in configure or you need to run the irxevent program, which takes the key presses and sends them to MythTV. If you use native lirc support, you don't need to run irxevent. If you are going to use irxevent, then you need to run it like this:
$ irxevent &
8.4 Additional information for lirc - native mode
If you will be using native mode, your lircrc file will need to look something like this:
begin
remote = mceusb
prog = mythtv
button = Guide
config = S
repeat = 0
delay = 0
end
Note that the name of the "prog" is mythtv, not mythtvfrontend
8.5 Additional information for lirc - irxevent mode
Take a look at the lircrc.example files in the contrib/configfiles/
directory. In my case, (Pinnacle Studio card) the channel up and down functions
weren't working, due to the fact that the button names were different than
the default lircrc.example file that came with MythTV.
The lircrc.example file has this:
begin
prog = irxevent
button = ChannelUp
config = Key Up CurrentWindow
end
begin
prog = irxevent
button = ChannelDown
config = Key Down CurrentWindow
end
/etc/lircd.conf that comes in the lircd package
defines the buttons for the Pinnacle Studio PCTV as:
channel+ 0x0000000000000017
channel- 0x000000000000001C
begin
prog = irxevent
button = channel+
repeat = 3
config = Key Up CurrentWindow
end
begin
prog = irxevent
button = channel-
repeat = 3
config = Key Down CurrentWindow
end
contrib/configfiles/lircrc.example.pinnaclestudiopctv for an example of how
to define additional buttons, and how to debug potential button name
conflicts between the lircrc.example file and how your
remote defines the button names.
By examining the button names defined in /etc/lircd.conf and using
the irw program to make sure that your remote is working, you can
create the appropriate mappings in .lircrc to get excellent remote
functionality with MythTV.
Note the repeat = parameter. This informs the irxevent
program to pass through every third keypress. By default, lirc
will only send one keypress to the application, even if you're holding down
the key. The actual repeat = number will vary from system to
system, so experiment and see which value works best for you.
8.6 Configuring lirc for use with an IR blaster
Lirc has support for various IR transmitters. A popular model is the Actisys IR-200L http://store.snapstreamstore.com/accessories.html. It was originally designed for IRDA communication, but can be used to transmit A/V remote control codes. By using the lirc SIR driver, this device can easily be integrated with MythTV. I have tested this device with an AT&T DCT2000 digital cable box but the instructions can be used to configure other IRDA devices and A/V remotes.
Follow the steps in the previous section. When you run setup.sh, select option 1, driver configuration. From here select option 6, IrDA hardware. Select your appropriate device and the corresponding serial port, then Save configuration & run configure from the main menu. Once configure is done type:
$ make
Please note: unlike the Pinnacle receiver above you will be compiling lircd in addition to a kernel module for the SIR transmitter. Depending on whether you have your serial port driver configured as a kernel module you might see the following message during make:
lirc_sir.c:56:2: warning: #warning
"******************************************"
lirc_sir.c:57:2: warning: #warning "Your serial port driver is compiled into "
lirc_sir.c:58:2: warning: #warning "the kernel. You will have to release the "
lirc_sir.c:59:2: warning: #warning "port you want to use for LIRC with:"
lirc_sir.c:60:2: warning: #warning "setserial /dev/ttySx uart none"
lirc_sir.c:61:2: warning: #warning
"******************************************"
If you do receive this statement make sure to run the setserial command before you load the lirc_sir module. Follow this with the install:
$ su
# make install
You will notice that lirc installs the kernel module in
/lib/modules/uname -a/misc.
The configuration for starting lircd differs if you're going to be sending and receiving IR versus just receiving.
# cd /etc/rc.d
# cat >> rc.local
echo "Starting lircd"
setserial /dev/ttySx uart none # (if required)
modprobe lirc_sir
/usr/local/sbin/lircd
^D
# exit
$
At this point you have to populate the /etc/lircd.conf file with the proper
codes for your A/V remote. You should be able to find your remote within the
lirc remote tar file located at
http://www.lirc.org/remotes.tar.bz2. In my case I
extracted the file from remotes/motorola/DCT2000 (gi-motorola-dct2000)
To test the lirc_sir module you can run irw to verify the codes are being received. If everything is configured correctly you should see something similar to the following:
$ irw
0000000000007ff0 00 1 gi-motorola-dct2000
000000000000bff8 00 2 gi-motorola-dct2000
000000000000f7f0 00 ENTER gi-motorola-dct2000
Once you've verified lirc is working you can press CTRL-C to exit irw and configure the channel changing script.
The path to the channel changing script will need to be entered on the mythtv-setup screen for Input Connections.
This csh script will be called each time MythTV needs to change the channel. Below is a copy of the script followed by the corresponding perl script. Make sure both are in your path. Also make sure you leave the #!/bin/csh setting and not change it to Bourne or bash. This will create a frustrating symptom to diagnose where MythTV cannot open /dev/device. Unlike Bourne or bash, csh scripts automatically close parent file descriptors before they start.
$ cd /usr/local/bin
# su
# cat > change_channel.csh
#!/bin/csh
echo "changing to $1"
/usr/local/bin/channel.pl $1 &
^D
# chmod a+x change_channel.csh
# exit
$ exit
See contrib/channel.pl for the actual file. Copy it to
/usr/local/bin/
The last statement within the perl script is the lirc rc command. This is the command that transmits the code to your cable/DSS box. Make sure to have the IRDA device within a few feet of the box.
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