Fri, Feb 07, 2025 at 12:13:22PM +0000, Santiago Vila wrote:
Package: src:vdr-plugin-remote
Version: 0.7.0-6
Severity: serious
Tags: ftbfs trixie sid
Dear maintainer:
During a rebuild of all packages in unstable, your package failed to build:
I may be responsible for this, because I implemented a Linux /dev/lirc*
driver in VDR 2.6.2 (revised in 2.6.4). The earliest kernel with which
it was confirmed to work is Linux 5.10. See
https://www.linuxtv.org/vdrwiki/index.php/LIRC where I had documented
this.
That there exist two totally different “LIRC” can be confusing. The
user space code could have been at least 20 years earlier, but its name
at least nowadays is misleading because it not limited to Linux. The
/dev/lirc* in the Linux kernel is also logical, because it is literally
the Linux (as in the actual kernel) Infrared Remote Control driver.
What was 25 to 30 years ago done with DIY bit-banging and voltage
conversion hacks on a commodity PC serial or parallel port would be done
more easily with modern single-board computers, working out of the box
with Linux’s native /dev/lirc* subsystem. In
https://www.linuxtv.org/vdrwiki/index.php/Raspberry_Pi I documented my
setup: just specify a device tree overlay, and connect the 3 wires of a
TSOP38238 receiver module to the GPIO header.
I used to use vdr-plugin-remote, which allowed to connect an infrared
remote control unit via the “less native” /dev/input/event interface
whose key-repeat logic would interfere with what an infrared remote
control uint is naturally doing: sending bursts at a repeat rate that is
expected by TV users.
More than 10 years ago, I had been in irregular contact with the author
of vdr-plugin-remote, but did not get any replies in the recent years.
I think that the correct solution is to remove or disable this part of
this plugin as redundant. I can’t say if there could be any practical
use of the /dev/input/event interface that wouldn’t be better supported
by the /dev/lirc*.
I had created https://www.linuxtv.org/vdrwiki/index.php/Systemd
to document some Systemd integration that I came up with. Unfortunately
my request to include this in upstream VDR in any form had been
declined. I feel that any “runvdr” shell script or whatever it might be
called is unacceptable under Systemd. Dear maintainers, I’d look
forward to your feedback on this, and happy to test any Systemd unit
files that you think would be appropriate for the Debian packaging of
VDR.
Side note: The only VDR plugin that my setup depends on is
https://github.com/reufer/rpihddevice/, which I guess can’t be packaged
because it depends non-free software and hardware, namely the Videocore
Ⅳ GPU.
With best regards,
Marko Mäkelä
