There are two methods to get remote controls working under Linux

LIRC

Linux Infrared Remote Control package which is included in openSUSE. The nice thing about LIRC is that it has very comprehensive support for all types of remote control receivers as well as remote control handsets. In particular it supports the remote controls that are integrated into many of the TV cards on the market.

Infrared keyboard
Here we use a normal infrared wireless keyboard connected to the PS2 or USB port on our media centre. We then get a learning remote control to learn the keyboard keys that we need. This is almost guaranteed to work out of the box, with little or not configuration and messing drivers. Infrared keyboards are quite hard to find though.

I have had good success with  the Airkey  wireless keyboard and both Logitec and One4all learning remotes.