remote help, some buttons not working

[freeballer]

I just upgraded to the beta 3, I am using it on my raspberry pi, model b.
I bought a decent remote off ebay. Some buttons don't work though on xbian, I'm not familiar with xbmc setup so I'd appreciate the help. By default I do not see a lirc install which is what a few forums elsewhere say to configure. To the best of my ability its an arc6 mce remote, probably similar to a gateway/dell model (but there is no actual brand/label on the front). The direction buttons work, so does select and numbers but the mute, volume down, pause, rew/fast do NOT. I'd love it if someone could point me in the right direction. I am just getting back into linux after a year or two...

Geoff

[Koenkk]

Does this help you: http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Keymap#Remote_Section ? (I know it's a bit technical)

[CurlyMo]

We are working hard on MCE Remote support. This is nearly done and will be included in Alpha 4. Enabling the MCE remote takes quit some time and steps. Until then, you can try this fix:

Code:

sudo wget -O - https://raw.github.com/xbianonpi/xbian/xbian-alpha4/etc/lirc/lircd.conf > /etc/lirc/lircd.conf
sudo /etc/init.d/lirc restart
sudo /etc/init.d/xbmc restart

This will probably result in a slightly better supported remote but will still be buggy (that's part of the long story). At least you know we are working hard on it!

[freeballer]

the problem with the how-to on xbmc, or at last the problem I've been having is which configuration file to modify?
The format is actually kind of easy, but I wasn't sure if I should be dealing strictly with lirc, keyboard.xml, remote, Lircdmapping.xml or /etc/lirc/
I could probably plunk away at the receiver codes through debug log but wasn't sure which file, and if needed a specific reference to rc6/mce in remote.conf.

I did try the new lircd.conf file but after I'd done so the /etc/init.d/xbmc script failed, It said could "ERROR: Unable to create application. Exiting"
I had to start xbmc "manually", but didn't have anymore success with the remote buttons. I will try posting again in an hour or two when I get things sorted because now the debug console has zero lines....

[CurlyMo]

Step 1: Remove the red part from /usr/local/share/xbmc/system/Lircmap.xml (https://github.com/xbianonpi/xbian/blob/xbian-alpha4/Patches/xbmc/Lircmap.xml.patch )
Step 2: Paste that red part in /home/xbian/.xbmc/userdata/Lircmap.xml (with <remote device="mceusb"> as its root)
Step 3: Edit /etc/lirc/lircd.conf and rename "mceusb_microsoft" to "mceusb"
Step 4: Edit /etc/lirc/lircd.conf so the button names matches with the Lircmap.xml config, and how the logical behavior should be.

If you want to try an edit, you need to start both XBMC and LIRC. When you have a working combination of Lircmap.xml & lircd.conf post them so we can include them in Alpha 4.

Quote:I did try the new lircd.conf file but after I'd done so the /etc/init.d/xbmc script failed, It said could "ERROR: Unable to create application. Exiting"

This can be caused by my lircd.conf edit. You must have done something else that broke it.

[freeballer]

ok. whatever I did, I undid.
I'm onto step 3/4.

Will I need to add the "scancode" to each entry, individually?
Say this is my output for "pause", in xbmc.log

Code:

15:17:24 T:3042136064   DEBUG: Keyboard: scancode: a8, sym: 0153, unicode: 0000, modifier: 0
15:17:24 T:3042136064   DEBUG: GetActionCode: Trying Hardy keycode for 0xf200
15:17:24 T:3042136064   DEBUG: Previous line repeats 3 times.

will it be?

Code:

<pause>0153</pause>

[CurlyMo]

No, you need to start

Code:

irw

Check the code of a key:

Code:

000000037ff07be4 00 KEY_PREVIOUS logitech-harmony-300i

Then in Lircmap.xml:

Code:

<skipminus>KEY_PREVIOUS</skipminus>

[freeballer]

Code:

[    2.501267] usb 1-1.2: new low-speed USB device number 4 using dwc_otg
[    2.618367] usb 1-1.2: New USB device found, idVendor=0471, idProduct=0613
[    2.631104] usb 1-1.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[    2.637357] usb 1-1.2: Product: MCE USB IR Receiver- Spinel plus
[    2.657396] usb 1-1.2: Manufacturer: PHILIPS
[    2.689501] input: PHILIPS MCE USB IR Receiver- Spinel plus as /devices/platform/bcm2708_usb/usb1/1-1/1-1.2/1-1.2:1.0/input/input0
[    2.710613] hid-generic 0003:0471:0613.0001: input,hiddev0,hidraw0: USB HID v1.00 Keyboard [PHILIPS MCE USB IR Receiver- Spinel plus] on usb-bcm2708_usb-1.2/input0

I know the thing is showing up at startup, but not getting any msgs whatsoever using "irw". I just figured it was because of architecture, distro or modules.. I don't know if it helps but here's output of /var/log/ircd. I'm guessing its looking at /dev/lirc* or whatnot

Code:

Dec 14 16:28:02 RaspberryPi lircd: accepted new client on /var/run/lirc/lircd
Dec 14 16:28:02 RaspberryPi lircd: could not get file information for /dev/lirc0
Dec 14 16:28:02 RaspberryPi lircd: default_init(): No such file or directory
Dec 14 16:28:02 RaspberryPi lircd: WARNING: Failed to initialize hardware
Dec 14 16:28:21 RaspberryPi lircd: removed client
Dec 14 16:28:24 RaspberryPi lircd: accepted new client on /var/run/lirc/lircd
Dec 14 16:28:24 RaspberryPi lircd: could not get file information for /dev/lirc0
Dec 14 16:28:24 RaspberryPi lircd: default_init(): No such file or directory
Dec 14 16:28:24 RaspberryPi lircd: WARNING: Failed to initialize hardware
Dec 14 17:48:50 RaspberryPi lircd: accepted new client on /var/run/lirc/lircd
Dec 14 17:49:42 RaspberryPi lircd: removed client
Dec 14 17:49:48 RaspberryPi lircd: accepted new client on /var/run/lirc/lircd
Dec 14 17:52:03 RaspberryPi lircd: removed client

[CurlyMo]

Get the remote working in the first place is discussed here:
https://github.com/xbianonpi/xbian/issues/71

[freeballer]

the forum post in said link did not work for me... Other than that, I tried everything on that page and still nada
Even the keys that DO WORK in xbmc do not show with "irw"

[CurlyMo]

This specific solution should work in Alpha 3:
https://github.com/xbianonpi/xbian/issues/71#issuecomment-10929474

Also try this to see if the RPi is receiving any signal:
https://github.com/xbianonpi/xbian/issues/71#issuecomment-10349817

[freeballer]

It definitely has to be receiving (a) signal because other buttons work correctly, however some basic functions do NOT including;
volume down, mute, pause, back, fwd, rew. (some others don't either, but I'd be happy with those listed)

I have tried those solutions on a clean install of alpha 3.

[CurlyMo]

So what does 'mode2' output?

Please check this Howto on how to map your remote:
http://xbian.org/forum/showthread.php?tid=49

And also try this fix:
https://github.com/xbianonpi/xbian/issues/170

[m-unit]

I tried following the guide you linked to in issue 170.

after wget'ing the tar file. I try command tar -zxvf lirc.tar.gz -C /

It says

gzip: stdin: not in gzip format
tar: Child returned status 1
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now

please advise

[CurlyMo]

First open the link in your browser, then download the file in XBian. Wierd mediafire functionality.