[vdr] VDR as a set top box

[Petri Helin]

Simon Baxter wrote:
> Hi group
>  
> My VDR box currently starts up like a regular Fedora Core user, 
> auto-logs-in and starts xine - much like I expect most of you do.
>  
> I'm looking for a way to make all the X startup and log in invisible to 
> the user.  This is where my knowledge of X and gnome falls down.
>  
> Ideally, once the initial kernel messages have completed I'd like a VDR 
> splash screen (maybe even a progress bar) as things start up.
>  
> How do I do this?  I've been looking at modifying xinitrc and 
> xinitrc-common to remove the desktop manager, but this seems a bit brutal.
>  
>  
> Any ideas or thoughts?
>  

I know my solution isn't optimal, but I think it is good enough for me 
and easy to set up: I run VDR as a daemon, which I start from an init 
script. Additionally I have set up kdm to autologon the vdr user and 
start up a fluxbox session. The fluxbox session runs a start up script 
which starts vdr-sxfe, which connect to the xineliboutput plugin.

It takes 20 seconds for the BIOS to do its thing and after another 15 
seconds VDR itself is up. Then it takes addional 20 seconds for the 
fluxbox to start (including Nvidia drivers and X) and the picture to 
appear. The BIOS step I cannot speed up without changing the motherboard 
and VDR starts quite fast too, but I think one might be able to shave 
some seconds off from the last step.

I have two ouput devices connected, a TV and a projector. I have added 
to VDR's commands menu entries for running a script, which stops kdm, 
switches to an alternative xorg.conf and restarts kdm. This way I can 
select the used output device from VDR, with the necessary resolution 
and refresh rate.

Hope this helps.

-Petri