The lirc Driver

The lirc Driver
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The lirc driver enables you to use any IR remote control that works with LIRC to control the LCDproc server (LCDd) and/or clients that can handle input.

Of course you need a working LIRC setup. Refer to the LIRC project for more information on LIRC itself.

Checking Your LIRC Setup

Basically all you need is a running lircd. And of course you have to start lircd as root.

Also, make sure that the permission of /dev/lircd are correct.

Build LCDd with the lirc Driver

You need to add lirc to the --enable-drivers=... list.

Then simply run make.

Configure LCDd to Use the lirc Driver

First of all you need to activate the driver by adding a Driver=lirc line to your LCDd.conf

Example 5.2. LCDd.conf: Activate the lirc driver

 Driver=mtxorb
 Driver=lirc

This activates the mtxorb driver as the output driver and the lirc driver as the input driver.

Then you have to modify the [lirc] section of your LCDd.conf.

Configuration in LCDd.conf

[lirc]

lircrc= FILENAME

Normally all LIRC clients scan the file ~/.lircrc. However, you might want to have a separate file to configure the LCDproc lirc driver only.

This option enables you to specify the file you want the lirc driver to scan. If not given it defaults to ~/.lircrc.

Prog= PROGRAM

All LIRC keys are assigned to a program using the prog=... directive in the lirc configuration file.

PROGRAM must be the same as in iyour lirc configuration file.

Modify Your `~/.lircrc`

As mentioned above you can either modify the ~/.lircrc or use a separate file for the lirc LCDproc driver (See above for details).

No matter which file you use, you have to add at least the following lines to the file:

Example 5.3. ~/.lircrc: Specify the associations from buttons to keys for the lirc driver

begin
        prog = lcdd
        button = 2
        config = Up
end

begin
        prog = lcdd
        button = 4
        config = Left
end

begin
        prog = lcdd
        button = 6
        config = Right
end

begin
        prog = lcdd
        button = 8
        config = Down
end

begin
        prog = lcdd
        button = 1
        config = Escape
end

begin
        prog = lcdd
        button = 0
        config = Enter
end

Which buttons you specify here depends on your RC and your LIRC configuration.

The config values need to be one of Up, Down, Left, Right, Escape or Enter. For LCDd's server menu at least the keys Up, Escape and Enter are necessary.

Of course you can define other keys. Those keys will not be handled by the server but sent to a client. Refer to the documentation of the client you want to use, to find out which keys are neccessary for that client.