I am using the module-lirc plugin to change volume using IR remote control, principally with MythTV on an HTPC. lircrc setup is fine and Volume up/down and Mute buttons work as expected. However there is no on-screen display, as there is when using the keyboard. IR remote is SoundGraph iMON Pad VFD. This uses the imon kernel driver, which replaced lirc_imon from kernel 2.6.32. *Without* lircd running the Volume / Mute buttons still work including OSD, as well as the pad keys and mouse emulation buttons surrounding it. This must be coming straight from the kernel module, using the same interface as "real" keyboard / mouse. This Ubuntu bug report covers the same ground:- https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/481213. My distro is Fedora 15, current kernel 2.6.40.4-5.fc15.x86_64. Thanks, Andrew
PulseAudio doesn't draw any OSD at all, so this is clearly not a PA bug. I suspect you're running GNOME right? If so, it's gnome-settings-daemon that handles the volume keys and it's it that draws the OSD. It does not draw an OSD when e.g. some other application (i.e. the volume slider in the System Settings -> Audio area or pavucontrol) changes the volume, and the changes from lirc are the same. Personally I think it would be quite nice to draw and OSD for lirc volume changes, but it's not something we can do in PA directly. I'll leave this open just now, as I'd like to speak to Bastien about it to see if there is some way we could trigger it (perhaps issuing a generic DBus signal when we feel it would be appropriate to show an OSD - that way we could trigger it from headphone jack inserts too.
Of course rather than using module-lirc, could you configure lirc independently of PA to generate the relevant key press events? That should then trigger an OSD...
Hello Colin, Thanks for the clarification. I have seen suggestions on how to emulate the key-presses (like this one http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=10830343&postcount=10) but these need irexec. Doing volume control via PA just seems much easier and more reliable though. I am using KDE, but I think it works similarly to GNOME. If PA could trigger OSD events in the way you outline I think it would be a nice touch. Regards, Andrew
(In reply to comment #3) [...] > I am using KDE, but I think it works similarly to GNOME. If PA could trigger > OSD events in the way you outline I think it would be a nice touch. This really isn't the way to go. The right way to do this is for the DE to get a keypress event corresponding to your remote control's button and then adjust the volume. And I agree, how this is done right now is not well-integrated at all on general desktops, but for your setup, you really should have MythTV take those button-presses from lirc and act appropriately (why aren't you doing this, btw?).
(just marking bug status appropriately -- feel free to answer my question from before so we can find you a solution (or at least point you in the right direction).
Use of freedesktop.org services, including Bugzilla, is subject to our Code of Conduct. How we collect and use information is described in our Privacy Policy.