After much searching and inquiries.... no, irk does not go w/ gpe. xirk isn't available.
It seems for a look a debian that lirc is the thing to use.
This querstion is pretty specific.
Has anyone succeded in using an ir keyboard on OZ gpe?
Is it reasonably possible?
And, while on input devices, mice? does gpe support mice?
I currently use both on sharprom, and in xqt when xforwarded into another box -- I think kdrive/gpe is going to be a much better combo than qtopia/xqt, but it is really nice to have mouse and keyboard. really nice.
Am I a lone idiot howling in the wilderness (regarding this--we'll leave out a more general analysis, ok?)? Has everyone either solved this or renounced comfy desktop input, and decided that I just don't need to know?
-adf