Can anybody suggest a good presentation remote that works well with Linux? I'm using Ubuntu 8.10 with Open Office Impress.

My needs?

-I need an RF remote with a 50-100 ft range.
-I NEED it to page forward, and page back.
-I NEED it to be reliable.
-It must not turn off automatically or loose sync for periods of less than 45 minutes.
-I do not need mouse control or laser pointer.
-It would be nice If it had programable buttons (macros) but that's not nessicary.

The programable buttons would be so that I could play a qued-up video in VLC on another virtual desktop then switch back. ie one button for <ctrl><alt><right> one for <ctrl><alt><left> and one for the space bar (which pauses and un-pauses VLC)

If anyone has any suggestions, I would really appreciate it. I suspect that all presentation remotes are universal and would work with Linux, but I've never used one before, so I don't know.

Have you tried BlueMaemo? It might satisfy your needs without you needing to buy a remote.

I don't think that'll be any good. I tried it with my phone, and it tested great, but it fell down once the room was full of people and/or bluetooth enabled phones. I just don't think BT has the signal strength for my application, and I can't handle the embarrassment of another public failure.

How far were you? o.O I've done presentations with my laptop booted into Vista + n800 using Bluemaemo and it worked just fine (bad graph depiction below)
--------------------------------- PROJECTOR SCREEN
LAPTOP ---------------ME
(distance)
------------------------------ REST OF MY CLASS

I was about 20 feet away. The whole setup is in our church. the projector is in the front of the room (not that that matters), the computer is in the back of the room, and my family and I sit in the middle. The bluetooth adapter was mounted about 6 feet high on a wooden dowel at the end of a usb extension cable. I also used a piece of aluminum flashing to make the antenna directional. My phone is a sony-erricsson w580i, and I had it out, not in a pocket.

I have several theories as to why it didn't work, but none of them really matter. I may try again with the n810 and a different BT adapter, but just for kicks, and not during our main worship service. I'm convinced that an RF solution is the best fit for our situation, for several reasons. Not the least of which is usability in my absence.

have you thought about the bluray controller for the Playstation3?

p.s. at our church we bought a wireless controller from Brando. it worked fine except the batteries it came with were dead. it's small and thin enough to fit into a PCMCIA slot, so you can't lose it.

But is it designed to be put in the PCMCIA slot? I wouldn't shove anything in there that wasn't supposed to be there. - Also leaves the question of Linux compatibility?

Do you see any other Brando remotes of similar size?
http://usb.brando.com/prod_detail.php?prod_id=00428

It's a desktop, so I'd prefer it to be a usb devise. I bought one that I'm testing now, but the results are not very pleasing. I'll add some details later today when I have some more time.