GPS Software - iGuidance

One of the most important parts, I finally decided on iNav's iGuidance.  I had tried other applications, but found this was the most reliable and most consistent.  Since it is a natvie Windows Program, and my GPS computer is linux based, I needed to get an emulation package to handle it.  After searchingt he forums on mp3car.com, I found Crossover Office was capable.  I used version 3.01 of iGuidance.

I decided to create a bottle (see crossover office) just for iGuidance, then link the maps to a standard folder in the Linux Filesystem.  Eventually, the environment gets corrupted, and must be restored.  The use of a bottle makes this much easier.

I Guidance is well worth the money, and I've converted to using it for my Pocket PC as well.
 

Emulation - Crossover Office

The only thing lacking in Linux is good GPS navigation software, at least for my requirements.  Unfortunately, I had to rely on Windows for this.  I purchased Crossover Office from CodeWeavers, which is built on WINE.  This worked almost right out of the box, and I had no difficulties getting iGuidance installed.  I used version 5.0, and it has been stable (over a year of running).

I tried using just WINE, but was not able to get all aspects working properly.  Crossover worked, and made everything easier.  If a true linux GPS Navigation package becomes available, I would definitely switch and get rid of this configuration.  Don't get me wrong, the setup works well, it is just more complex than need be.
 

DVD Playback - Xine

 For DVD Playback, there's only one solution for me, Xine.  Xine works.  That's all there is to it.  It is very configurable, and works with all the media I was throwing at it, including Dolby Digital streams.  I like it over mplayer, and think it's just a preference thing.  I compiled this from source, and installed it from it's own customized package in Puppy. 

Music/Media - MythTV

MythTV forms the heart of the entrie system, and handles management and playback of the media types.  MythTV is the best multimedia aplication for mixed media types.  Ever.  Seriously, it serves the purpose of being a simple controllable and customizeable "frontend", and was designed around using a remote control.  The options are clear, easy to read, and easy to navigate.

In order to get this working, I had to modify the source to accept touchscreen input.  The designers of MythTV used Trolltech's QT as the User Interface Library, but did not carry through all the mouse handler code.  The main task for me was to add back mouse handler code for each of the widgets and on screen elements.  My patches are available here, and are against MythTV SVN 14491 and MythPlugins SVN 14485.  Now, the new MythTV code apparently supports mouse handler code.  I have not tried this, and don't know if the code is real mouse handler code or gesture support.

I also created a custom menu and theme.  These were designed to make use in the car much easier.  Also necessary was this .pup file to enable mp3 playback in Puppy.  There's a host of required libraries to get MythTV to compile, so all of these had to be provided.  There are too many to provide links, but some were available as packages.  Either way, this was a large undertaking, but payed off in the end.

MythTV calls Xine to handle DVD and Video Playback, and starts the emulation environment and calls iGuidance for GPS.  For everything else (DVD Ripping, CD Ripping, Video management, MP3 playback, Menuing, I use the standard MythTV interface.  The only disadvantage is the GPS Software is not natvie, so integration with MythTV is just to launch iGuidance. One neat thing about MythTV is it works with Infra-red remotes.

I compiled MythTV from source and made a package to install it and the plugins.
 

Remote Control - LIRC

Linux support for infra-red remotes is through LIRC.  I compiled and installed this, and built my own receiver.  I connected this to the serial port and configured it.  That's really all there is to it.
 

Desktop Shell - FluxBox

FluxBox is a minimal desktop shell.  It is small, customizeable, and very fast.  It was ideal for use in this project.  I compiled this from source, and created a puppy package for installation.