On modern MacIntels, there is usually an infrared device. It is a USB HID device, and appears to be very simple to drive. I've attached a driver (as a kernel module) that I've found on the 'net (it's GPL); I've altered it slightly to make it compile with the newer kernels. Currently, it's got a couple of issues. One, the IR device is stolen by the main HID driver before appleir gets a chance to see it; I presume there's a list somewhere in the main HID driver that stops it from doing this. Two, it reports continuously holding the button as repeating keypresses, which is not as ideal as the Apple hold-for-2-seconds distinction. I understand if this is not really a target for inclusion into the FC kernel (one more patch), but I'm not nearly skilled enough with USB driver development and kernel development to fix the issues and get it upstream, and it would be a shame to just lose this on my harddrive somewhere.
Created attachment 141038 [details] driver for the apple infrared remote
This is something that needs to go upstream. However, I'm not sure what the ideal upstream location is. Could be in the upstream kernel, but at the moment, seems more fitting to include as part of <a href="http://www.lirc.org/">lirc</a> (though I'd really like to see the lirc kernel module bits get in the upstream kernel too...).
Okay, so comment #2 answers my question as to what bugzilla does if I try to embed html... :)
The attached code does not need LIRC. The device functions as a USB HID, and acts more or less as a keyboard: pressing the buttons will give keyboard events, such that they may be assigned as shortcut keys to things. Upstream, in this case, should be the kernel -- however, I have no idea how to get the kernel people to accept such a patch; I was hoping that our kernel maintainers might have more of a clue. I've found that the macintel people maintain some patches which supposedly patch cleanly against the 2.6.18 and 2.6.19 kernels.
(This is a mass-update to all current FC6 kernel bugs in NEW state) Hello, I'm reviewing this bug list as part of the kernel bug triage project, an attempt to isolate current bugs in the Fedora kernel. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/KernelBugTriage I am CC'ing myself to this bug, however this version of Fedora is no longer maintained. Please attempt to reproduce this bug with a current version of Fedora (presently Fedora 8). If the bug no longer exists, please close the bug or I'll do so in a few days if there is no further information lodged. Thanks for using Fedora!
Apple infrared device support is in the latest upstream kernels and has already made its way into Fedora.