Infrared

[Phil Bull]

Hi Vadim,

On Wed, 2007-09-05 at 17:50 -0400, Vadim Peretokin wrote:
> Just signed up for the list, so I believe this is the right place to
> address the issue, but if no, sorry then, ignore this email.
> 
> Today I've remembered that I've got an infrared port on my ThinkPad
> T40. I don't know how to use it, but first thing first, I went to
> Hardware information, just to make sure that Ubuntu knows that I've
> got one. It did, excellent. So then I pressed the F1 button, searched
> for "infrared", and got... "zarrooo" results. Oh well. Off we go to
> help.ubuntu.com. Searched for infrared again, nada. That's weird. Went
> to the Ubuntu docs project on launchpad, and still nothing on
> infrared.
> 
> =(.
> 
> Searching on Launchpad itself for infrared led me to LIRC (Linux
> Infrared Remote Control), setting up which doesn't look too easy, but
> that's another point altogether. 
> 
> I tried then add/remove at least, found IRKick, which it labels itself
> as a front-end for LIRC... I've installed that, but it looks like it
> wants lirc up first.
> 
> Anyway, that's a bit off topic, but my main point is - is it possible
> to create some kind of article in built-in help that gives indication
> to a user that infrared is usable in ubuntu?

Thanks for bringing this to our attention.

What are infrared connections commonly used for nowadays, and how
commonly used are they? I've never used one myself, but I remember there
being a header on my motherboard for an IR module way back in 1999, and
something about PC-to-PC IR networking in the manual.

Thanks again,

Phil

-- 
Phil Bull
http://www.launchpad.net/people/philbull