[mythtv-users] Setting up USB MCE remote in LIRC?

[Chad Sims]

Nathan Whittacre wrote:

> So you got the new style remote working with lirc?  Could you share 
> some insight on what you did to get it to work.  I am using kernel 
> version 2.6.11.8 and lirc 0.7.0 and can't get it to work.  It 
> recognizes the remote, but I can't get any data from it.  I've also 
> tried lirc 0.7.1.
>
> Thanks,
> Nathan
>
> David Sims wrote:
>
>> On Apr 29, 2005, at 4:53 PM, Lee wrote:
>>
>>> Having just got my new MythTV install running nicely, I'd like to 
>>> integrate my (old style) Windows MCE remote into the set up. I've 
>>> googled for ages and there are lot's of people that seem to have got 
>>> it working (include Jarod), but I can't find any how-to's or crib 
>>> sheets. Being a total Linux noob, this leave  me at a loss, can 
>>> anyone point me in the right direction?
>>>
>>> Many thanks,
>>> Lee
>>
>>
>>
>> I haven't had any experience with the old style MCE remotes, but I 
>> recently worked with setting up one of the new style remotes with 
>> pretty good success.  I'm not sure how far back you can go with lirc, 
>> but I know lirc 0.7.0 and newer has a driver for the old style MCE 
>> remote.  If you're comfortable building and installing packages from 
>> source code, it's really very easy to do with lirc.  I haven't had 
>> much luck getting the ATrpms.net lirc packages to work in my setup, 
>> so I can't really help if you prefer to go that route.
>>
>> I didn't find any detailed how-to's on the MCE remote either, so I'll 
>> describe what my brother and I did to get the new style remote 
>> working.  Hopefully this can get you going as well.
>>
>> I obtained the lirc 0.7.0 source from the lirc web site: 
>> http://www.lirc.org
>>
>> - Extract the source tarball and then configure and build from the 
>> extracted source directory like this:
>>
>>     # ./configure --with-kerneldir=/lib/modules/`uname -r`/build 
>> --with-driver=mceusb
>>     # make
>>     # make install
>>
>>     The install should copy the correct lircd.conf file to 
>> /etc/lircd.conf.
>>
>> - You'll also want to put the following in /etc/modprobe.conf:
>>
>>     alias char-major-61 lirc_mceusb
>>
>> - I'm not sure if this is really required, but I saw it in some lirc 
>> instructions somewhere.  Create the /etc/udev/rules.d/lirc.rules and 
>> put this in it:
>>
>>     KERNEL="lirc[0-9]*",    NAME="lirc%n"
>>     KERNEL="lirc0",         SYMLINK="lirc"
>>
>> - Then make sure the usb receiver is plugged in and load the lirc 
>> modules:
>>
>>     # modprobe lirc_mceusb
>>
>> - Try out lircd and irw to see if it works:
>>
>>     # lircd -n &
>>     # irw
>>
>>     You should see a message printed indicating that lircd accepted a 
>> new client connection.  Then if you press buttons on the remote you 
>> should see messages indicating which buttons are being pressed.  If 
>> that doesn't work, you may need to reboot.  If you reboot with the 
>> usb receiver plugged in, the lirc modules should automatically load 
>> which you can verify with the lsmod command:
>>
>>     # lsmod | grep lirc
>>     lirc_mceusb            10884  1
>>     lirc_dev               13388  1 lirc_mceusb
>>
>> then try the lircd and irw commands again.
>>
>> One last thing to note.  I'm not sure if this is due to the driver 
>> for the new style MCE remote, lirc, the kernel, or my own 
>> incompetence, but we couldn't get lirc working correctly with version 
>> 0.7.1 of lirc or the 2.6.10-1.770 kernel from ATrpms.  We had to use 
>> lirc 0.7.0 and kernel version 2.6.11.7 built from source.
>>
>> Hope that helps,
>> David
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
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>>
>
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Use Martin Blatter's driver.  
http://www.blatter.com/mceusb/mceusb.0.21-20050401.tar.bz2  Recompile 
lirc0.7.0 after replacing the mceusb driver with this one. We have it 
running on 2.6.11.7, Myth0.18, lirc0.7.0.