sudo visudo

This will apply some basic sanity checking before you save the file; making it every so slightly more difficult to slag your system.  Anyway add the following line. (replace user_name with the user mythfrontend runs under)

user_name ALL=NOPASSWD: /etc/init.d/gdm restart

Make sure to put this at the end of the file otherwise rules may override it.   That took me about half an hour and countless fiddle logout/login cycles.

Now add something like the following your your lirc file.

#Power Button
begin
    remote = remote_name
    prog = irexec
    button = Power
    config = sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart
end

Now after you logout and log back in your power button should restart gdm allowing you to ‘fix’ any frontend hanging issues from your remote.

*Note – This tip has no warranty or support.  If it deletes your files or blows up your computer don’t come crying to me.

1. Have your remote setup to control MythTV. 
2. Check/Edit the MythTV keybindings – this is where you setup how keyboard shortcuts are interpreted by MythTV.
3. Edit your lircrc config file – this is where you setup what commands each button sends to MythTV.

One is outside the scope of this post so for the rest of the post I’ll just assume you have the remote setup and working.

Two is pretty easy.  Just open up MythWeb -> settings -> key bindings.

After some searching I found the following two shortcuts that concern the guide, the ‘TV Frontend -> Guide’ command and the ‘Program Guide’ jump point, shown below.

After some experimentation I determined that the ‘Program Guide’ jump point works anywhere but when you exit from the guide screen you are dumped back into the MythTV Main Menu.  The  ‘TV Frontend -> Guide’ on the other had only works if you are watching a show/recording but it pauses it before you enter the guide and when you exit brings you back to where you left off which is nice.  Now this is probably just a coincidence and may change in future MythTV versions but if you set both you actually get the best of both worlds.  If watching a show/recording it pauses for you and if your in the menu somewhere it still goes to the “Guide screen”.  So set both of these to the same key, I used S, and your half way there.

Step three isn’t bad but it depends on exactly how you have your remote setup. But I’ll outline the basic steps.

1. Find your ‘lircrc’ file its probably in /username/.mythtv directory
2. Add/modify an entry for the guide button – it should look something like this

# Guide button (EPG)
begin
    remote = YourRemoteName #Optional
    prog = mythtv
    button = RemoteButtonName
    config = S
end

And that’s it, after a quick reboot you should be able to press the guide button and have the ‘Guide Screen’ come up.

*Note – This tip has no warrenty or support.  If it deletes your files or blows up your computer don’t come crying to me.