IRkick no remotes available

Maverick1182 · 07-04-2006, 07:11 PM

Hi there, after a lot of fiddling i've got lirc to work , its outputting text according to the buttons i press when i run "irw"

i'm stumbling at the last hurdle which is... how do i tag specific actions to these button presses? there are a few lirc plugins for programs in mandriva which all seem to crash the control centre when i click them. I understand IRKICK is meant to do what i require but it says there are no remotes available even though it says its detected an IR device and it blinks red in the system tray when i press buttons on the remote!

The IRKICK help pages dont seem to be much help, was wondering if anyone got it working successfully and how? google and the forum search havent answered the question.

please help, i'm agonisingly close to making my linux install provide everything that windows does (and more)

johnson_steve · 07-04-2006, 08:30 PM

I've never heard of irkick. what exactly do you need your remote to do? I'm just using irexec and xvkbd and I have been able to get my remote to do anything I can think of. I didn't find much on irkick (looks like it launches apps & sends dcop calls?) but I don't think it does anything you can't do with irexec and if it shows up in irw it will work in irexec.

Quote:

IRKick provides one main function: When a button on a remote control is pressed, it will temporarily become lit up. Aside from this IRKick does little for the user directly aside from telling them of the activity of their remote controls.

sounds like unnecesary bloat to me.

probably just a front end for what I use.

Maverick1182 · 07-04-2006, 08:38 PM

I'll try irexec tomorrow moring, sounds interesting.

one last thing, i cant seem to load lircd automatically despite putting the appropriate lines in /etc/modprobe.conf and also adding command lines in .xinitrc

lircd seems to need root to load it and perform the necessary operations, does anyone have any recommendations on how to get it running every time i boot?

ps. in order to start my lircd properly i have to type the following command:

lircd --device /dev/lirc0

johnson_steve · 07-05-2006, 12:22 AM

.xinitrc runs as the user when x starts. on my gentoo system lircd came with it's own init script. I haven't used mandriva but I think it uses th rc.d method over the init.d method used on gentoo. can you start lircd from:

Code:

/etc/rc.d/rc.local

that should start it as root.
Then launch irexec from .xinitrc

Here are some bits of my ~/.lircrc file for use with irexec:

Code:

#This is for tvtime

begin
    prog = irexec
    button = POWER
    config = /home/steve/bin/view_tv &
    config = tvtime-command QUIT
end


...........


#This simulates me typing in codes for vice city in cedega so 
#I can cheat with the remote.

begin
    prog = irexec
    button = RED
    config = xvkbd -text "aspirine"
    repeat = 4
end

begin
    prog = irexec
    button = GREEN
    config = xvkbd -text "preciousprotection"
    repeat = 4
end

so you can map any button to any command, I use xvkbd to make the remote type something as the keyboard and you can send dcop calls from the command line to so this should be able to do anything that irkick could.

Maverick1182 · 07-05-2006, 04:51 AM

i have the following in the rc.local file:

#!/bin/sh
#
# This script will be executed *after* all the other init scripts.
# You can put your own initialization stuff in here if you don't
# want to do the full Sys V style init stuff.

touch /var/lock/subsys/local
modprobe lirc_dev
modprobe lirc_gpio
lircd --device /dev/lirc0

the last three commands work fine if i type them in a console manually.

i've checked lsmod and lirc_dev and gpio are loaded. it doesnt seem to be loading the last line.... is there another way of running it at startup or am i doing something wrong?

BTW , irexec is great, but i cant seem to fidn the command to emulate the direction buttons or ALt+X (used to play songs in amarok) i've tried "\Ax" but it doesnt seem to work.

johnson_steve · 07-05-2006, 01:08 PM

rc.local should work. like I said I've not used mandriva; in gentoo lircd came with it's own init script all I had to do was:

Code:

rc-update add lircd default

and it runs in the default runevel. you might want to find the proper way to start lircd in the mandriva forum.

My remote has arrow keys and when I push them it already simulates the keyboard arrow keys so I haven't had to worry about this but I'll see if I can figure anything out. Alt-x doesn't do anything in amarok(1.4) on my system. keep in mind that my xvkbd method sends the string to whatever window has focus. I'm not running kde but if you are a better way to get amarok to play/pause would be:

Code:

dcop amarok player playPause

this command should toggle the playstate of amarok regardless of what window has focus or what desktop you are on. if you want the remote to control amarok in kde I would use dcop it will give you much better results then xvkbd. Gta - Vice City inside cedega has no knowledge of lirc or anything like dcop so I use xvkbd but I have to be careful that the terminal window I launched it from has focus or it won't always work.

For a complete list of amarok's dcop functions look here:

For 1.3
http://amarok.kde.org/amarokwiki/ind...ons_amaroK_1.3

or For 1.4
http://amarok.kde.org/amarokwiki/ind...ons_amaroK_1.4

Edit:
It apears I can use dcop to control amarok from xfce too

I only get an error if I try to use dcop before I start amarok.

Maverick1182 · 07-05-2006, 01:25 PM

Steve, thanks for that info, i will try the dcop commands a little later.

You've been really helpful.

Is cedega free? does it run the game at full speed on your comp (whats your spec)?

johnson_steve · 07-05-2006, 02:02 PM

cedega isn't free but you can download the wineX cvs developer source and compile it yourself you get basically the same thing for free. I'm using an older version of cedega (I hate that gui they have now

If you haven't guessed yet I'm not a gui type person I prefer the command line it's more direct.) Vice city plays at full speed with a higher res and a better draw distance then the default settings. It looks nicer then on ps2. It's a great way to blow off steam after work. My setup is a bit complicated:

Code:

Hardware:
P4 2.4 Ghz
1Gb DDR Ram
Geforce 4 4000Mx Vga -> 15" (My main desktop monitor) S-Video -> 36" Tv (For games and Movies)
No Keyboard
No Mouse (my mouse and keyboard are controlled over the wifi from my Powerbook {Running gentoo linux of course; no mac osx} using x2x)
Logitech Wireles PS2 controller (with a PS2 to usb converter)
Leadtek Winfast TV2000XP RM (with remote)
10Gb System Drive
20Gb /home Drive
CD-Burner
M-Audio Delta 1010Lt soundcard (This thing is also my rackmounted home recording studio)

Software:
Gentoo (This computer never ran windows :) I haven't used windows in like 4 years.)
XFCE 4.2

Sorry for the long list but you asked.

BTW:
I'm now setting up the dcop commands I gave you with xbindkeys on the Powerbook so I don't have to change desktops to pause or skip tracks in amarok. So as usual by helping someone else I have helped myself learn something new.

Maverick1182 · 07-05-2006, 04:33 PM

I was thinking of moving to gentoo when i get more experience in linux. Sounds like you're doing cool things, using laptop for wireless keyboard and mouse! cool!

Glad to hear i helped lol. You've been really helpful and very clear. Much appreciated.

Thanks for the info. So is cedega part of wineX? I was a lil disappoined with wineX as it ran Utorrent (a basic program) so slowly hence i stopped short of exploring win32 emulation. My system is a 1.9ghz 256mb with geforce 4 400mx. Will google it tonight and see what i can find.

BTW the dcop works a treat! i LOVE linux! do all programs have this dcop operation? its does everything i need windows to do (apart from a good homevideo editor)!

johnson_steve · 07-05-2006, 05:01 PM

cedega is a commercial product based on the wineX core. W.I.N.E. = Wine Is Not an Emulator. It is a set of replacement apis that allow you to run windows apps in linux. results vary from program to program. Utorrent would not be a good indicator of how well it would run a game. my brother's Athlon 800Mhz 512Mb with a Geforce4 400 (64Mb) runs vice city at near full speed, but it it totaly playable.

If you decide to try gentoo I'd be glad to help. The install was a little hard (but a great learning experience) & I hear there is now a nice gui installer (but I haven't used it as I prefer to do it manually from the command line.)

Things like installing software, compiling things and system maintenance are so much easier in gentoo then they ever were when I was using a so called user friendly distro. (SuSE)

Oh, and I'm more of an audio guy but I hear kino is the way to go for video editing on linux.

Maverick1182 · 07-05-2006, 05:55 PM

do you think its worth me doing a triple boot to play around with gentoo? have always wondered why people choose harder distros which are less easier to use. Havent had the courage to jump from the "comfort" of mandriva (which itself is frustrating when it crashes ocassionally) as i've only just got linux working the way i want.

so what do i need to install to get the "free" version of cedega? WINE and the CVS develepor source? is there a link?

johnson_steve · 07-05-2006, 09:16 PM

Like I said it's not harder. just different; I have more control over my system and when something goes wrong I'm better prepared to fix it 'cause I set it up in the first place. when something went wrong with suse I was like "what does that error mean" now when I want to compile something from the source and it won't compile (like my ural-linux wifi driver) I understand the error and just edit the source till it works.

Gentoo isn't for everyone but I like knowing what is installed and how it's set up. I would rather not have some gui middle-man keeping me from understanding what is really going on with my computer. (but maybe I'm a control freak I did build the computer and I drive a manual car.) Gentoo's portage is the best package management system I ever used I left suse 'cause I was fed up with the .rpm dependency hell. with gentoo if I wan't amarok I just:

Code:

emerge amarok

and it will download and compile (for my hardware with my settings) everything I need to run amarok (in my case this was qt and a bunch of kde stuff too.) If I want an up to date system I just:

Code:

emerge --sync
emerge --update world
etc-update

and it will update everything on my system to the newest available software. etc-update isn't always needed. I only do it if it tells me to. gentoo is known for bleeding edge software & speed (nothing can run faster then a system compiled on your machine for your machine.) and the number of available packages is second only to debian. it also runs on everything I've ever owned from x86 to my Apple PowerBook (G3) to my Sgi Octane (64 Bit MIPS R10000). It does what I ask it to; nothing more, nothing less.

Here is a link to a how to for building cedega from the cvs source:

http://www.linux-gamers.net/modules/...WTO+Cedega+CVS

Edit:
I'm not using cedega compiled from the cvs source I have an old version of the paid cedega.