What is this site for?
This site is meant to offer you a relatively simple way to set up an IR Blaster to control
an external cable/satellite box without having to compile a second instance of LIRC on your
PC. It also aims to show you how to do some neat things with IR Blasters under LIRC, and provide some
hard-to-find info on LIRC. I have been using this methods described on this site myself now for awhile and it has been problem free. These guides
are meant for people who have at least some Linux experience. If you managed to set up MythTV, you
can probably follow everything in these guides without any problems.
Whose idea was this?
Major credit for this site's inspiration and creation goes to Pete Stagman (tyrstag !at! gmail.com). He did a lot of legwork
in figuring all this stuff out, and was gracious enough to share the fruits of his labors with me
and the rest of the MythTV community. We're just writing this site up to share
our experiences in setting up LIRC and offering these methods as another alternative to have
MythTV control an external cable/satellite box.
How do I use this site?
The guides on this site are meant to layout the steps that will be needed and offer (reasonably) clear explanations
on how to do the various processes from start to finish. Basically, you should just
be able to copy/paste most of the commands. To do the entire IR Blaster guide from start to finish should
only take about 10-15 minutes (not counting boot time). I would suggest you read through whatever guide(s) you plan on using once
before attempting to do it. They look rather lengthy, which is due in part to the explanations offered,
as well as the fact that we try to provide information both to those who did use
Jarod's guide and those who didn't. Plus, sometimes there's just more than one way of doing things, and this site should
give people various options to get their cable/satellite boxes working with LIRC.
Why use the single instance of LIRC method instead of compiling a second instance of LIRC?
There are a couple of reasons for this. First, it's much simpler, especially if you
don't have a lot of comfort using Linux. Second, if you use Fedora Core 3 (and presumably
any forthcoming versions of FC), the kernel source code doesn't come with it. Nor is it available
for easy download. Nor is there a handy place to find out how to properly install the source
code for a custom FC3 kernel on your box. Basically, getting the kernel source on an FC3 box is
a large pain in the ass (or was for a pseudo-newbie at the time of this writing). And since LIRC requires the kernel
source in order to compile a separate instance of it, you might be looking at some serious
time commitment. This guide is mainly meant for people using Fedora, as other distros
have different config files (like no /etc/modprobe.conf) and may require different configuration.
If you know what changes need to be made, then let me know and I'll add them.
What type of IR Blasters will work?
I know the ones you can buy at http://www.irblaster.info
work because that's what I am using. You can buy one in the US for $15 (including shipping...cost
is $16 in Canada). Also, any homemade IR Blaster you use should work. I am completely and
totally uncertain about Actisys IR Blasters. Supposedly they work differently. I know nothing
about them and cannot be sure they would work under this method. If you have an Actisys IR
Blaster, I would suggest checking out
http://iwamble.net/6901.html. He has written up a guide showing specifically how to set
up an Actisys IR Blaster, but you'll have to compile a second instance of LIRC. If you get an
Actisys IR Blaster working under the setup in this guide, please let me know so I can add
that information.
What distros will this work on?
As is, it should work without a hitch on Fedora Core 3. Probably any version of Fedora
for that matter. I'm not sure about other distros because I believe some of the files mentioned
in this guide are different or absent. Likely the information in this guide won't take much
changing to get this method working on other distros, but I'm largely unfamiliar with any of them. If you know what changes need
to be made, shoot me an email and I'll add them.
What can I contribute?
Right now, I am after information/input from people who have attempted using this guide on systems which differ from mine. Specifically:
