Using The Gyration Media Center Remote With Linux

Bruce Perens writes "The Gyration Media Center Remote is a radio keyboard and mouse with 100-foot range. The mouse uses an accelerometer rather than a mouse wheel, and thus has the unique feature that you can make mouse gestures in the air. The mouse should be perfect for a public speaker who wants to move around during a speech, without giving up control of his laptop. It would also make a nifty remote for a Linux PVR user, since it has VCR controls and channel and volume buttons. But does it work with Linux?" Bruce Perens tried it out and says the answer is a qualified Yes.

Comments

Price qualifies for a big NO

[Kosi]

$ 180.- is very overpriced for a cordless keyboard and mouse, even with this fancy mouse-in-the-air.

Re:Price qualifies for a big NO

[The Spoonman]

very overpriced for a cordless keyboard and mouse

Especially if the quality is anywhere near the original Ultra GT set. I bought this set for use with my HTPC, and after only a year, half the keys don't work and both of the mouse buttons are stuck in the down position. A quick look at their store tells me I'm prolly not the only one since they've got enough returns on them to open a "refurbished" store.

Good hardware

[Pieroxy]

While I like the remote and keyboard a lot, there are two major issues for me to be the ultimate wireless combo for my media center:

1. They don't release it in Europe and don't plan to. RF norms are different over here...
2. There are no numbers, which means no keypad onto the remote. Painful if you want to switch from channel 1 to channel 74...

But otherwise, I've seen these at work and they are awsome. You can use the remote/mouse either as a regular optical mouse, or you can press a bice button and you can use it by just moving it in the air. After a 2 min practice, it's very usable.

I'd like one so much......

Fine print caveat

[Black Parrot]

> The mouse uses an accelerometer rather than a mouse wheel, and thus has the unique feature that you can make mouse gestures in the air.

"Not recommended for use on airplanes, spacecraft, ships, boats, elevators, or rollercoasters."

No....

[kmmatthews]

Actually, it was submitted by Bruce Perens, who .. uh, well, runs technocrat.net. It's *his* content, and he can post it anywhere he likes.

In other words, one author can't plagarise himself, no matter how hard he may try.

Funny name..

[kaedemichi255]

Is that a gyration media center remote in your pants, or are you just happy to see me?

Computers, BAH

[anum]

How often have we seen this:
"And the good news is that a properly-configured Linux system will work with the device. But it took me a while to figure out that my system wasn't configured properly."

And this is BRUCE PERENS for goodness sake! If he can't get it right who can? I realise that he did figure it out but it sounds like it was frustrating and I can imagine how much more frustrating it would be for someone who doesn't understand the system as well as he does. NOTE: I said THE SYSTEM not Linux!

I just had an issue with an old flatbed scanner on WinXP for instance. It works fine on the system it usually stays on but refuses to work on my new laptop or any other system. I'm sure that "my system wasn't configured properly." And if I knew what to change it would work.

On the other hand, I have several remotes including two from http://www.hometheatermaster.com/ which have always worked flawlessly with all kinds of consumer equipment. TVs, Radios, DVD players you name it. They just work. When will PCs catch up? I don't care if it runs MS or Linux or BSD (though open source is prefered) if it just works it will be an improvement. Maybe it's time to try Apple after all?

I'm glad he got it to work but from the quote above I doubt that I could. The plus side of Linux and open source in general is that I could probably find someone to help me out but it's not guaranteed.

Oh well, I guess that scanner thing annoyed me more than I thought! Sorry for the rant.

Re:Computers, BAH

[Bruce Perens]

I did learn a lesson from this which will be applied to UserLinux. The installer was putting "usbmouse" in the modules list instead of "usbhid", it's not going to do that any longer. This is the result of evolution in Linux drivers - the HID driver came after the USB keyboard and mouse drivers, takes over their job and does it better, although this was not communicated well enough for me to find out until now. I agree that "mere mortals" have zero chance of finding this out and can only hope that their system installation program gets it right.

Thanks

Bruce

Re:Computers, BAH

[iabervon]

You're right to fault the communication rather than the documentation. The 2.6.4 config help for CONFIG_USB_MOUSE (which gives usbmouse) says "If even remotely unsure, say N." The help for CONFIG_USB_HID says "If unsure, say Y." Once you say what the problem is, it's trivial to find why it's wrong, but finding the solution in the first place is difficult (especially if the symptom is "basic mouse functionality works, but not more"). It's particularly difficult to realize that you're doing something wrong when the answer used to be that Linux didn't support the extra features.

As for improving the communication, it would be nice if information could be used in checking over installers out of the kernel documentation. Since people tend to say M for everything possible, it would be really nice if there were a way to get from a module name to the help for it, and also get the suggestion automatically. Then you could take a module list and say, "Is there anything discouraged that I'm loading? Is there anything encouraged that I'm not loading?"

Re:WTF

[Bruce Perens]

It's a hardware review. I don't have any deal with Gyration. If I did, I'd tell them to offer Linux support :-) I do buy hardware from time to time, and make it work with Linux, and it's nice to tell other people that it can work with Linux and how to do it..

Bruce