Operation Manual
Installation
To use the console plugin you have to compile the plugin and start VDR with the -Pconsole switch as you needed to do with every other plugin.
The console plug in uses the keyboard support of VDR. Thus the plug in works only if you can control VDR through the keyboard.
For this you mustn't start VDR as daemon (switch -d)! If you want to run VDR in background anyway then use
vdr -t/dev/ttyXX -Pconsole
in which the switch -t specifies the linux console that should be used for keyboard input. On that console no other program like getty may run. Besides VDR have to has read and write permission to this console.
To control your VDR with a keyboard you have to switch to the specified console [Alt]+[FXX].
Operation Manual
Once the plugin is installed you can see the entry 'Consoles' in the main menu of VDR. By activating this entry with the key OK you get a list of all actually opened consoles. In the first time after starting VDR this list should be empty. You can create a new console with the red key. By doing this the new console is also opened for you and you can begin to work immediately.
In the console window: With the green and yellow keys you can leaf through the (at that moment not visible) console list. With the blue key you can "Terminate" the process after a confirmation if you really want to do so; Or if it already has quitted then you can "Close" the console. In each case the current console window will be closed and you get back to the console list in wich the closed console is gone.
Back to the console list: Some of the consoles in the list are running, others are quitted. The quitted ones are shown with the appendix "stopped". Stopped consoles are shown until you close them explicitly, so you can look for the output of longer running tasks without having to watch them. The blue key has here the same meaning as in an console window.
If you use your keyboard both as remote control and as keyboard for a console
then you have to note that a console window for a running process captures the
keyboard for console input automatically. In this
mode you can not control VDR with the usual keys. To leave this mode you
have to quit the process or you can press the
During the time the keyboard caption mode is off a keyboard symbol on the right side in the first row blinks to signalize this state.
Miscellaneous
If a process creates the bell signal when you hear the sound at once and a bell symbol blinks in the first row of the console window. If you don't have the corresponding console open then it will be shown in the console list. As soon as you have seen a signal, that signal disappears.