[mythtv-users] Fedora 19+ and MCE remote

[Stephen Worthington]

On Sun, 14 Dec 2014 18:42:45 -0500, you wrote:

>Thanks everyone for the advice. I had been running kernel 3.15.* and just
>now upgraded to 3.17.6-200 (the latest Fedora 20 stock kernel). I have an
>MSI motherboard and it seems there's no way to disable USB3, so I just have
>to hope that the "while USB3 is enabled, USB is wonky" isn't the case. I
>have some hope that this isn't the case, since I'm using a USB keyboard and
>mouse with this setup and those seem happy.
>
>Further comments inline.
>
>The problem is likely the moving of the IR drivers into the kernel
>> that has been going on.
>>
>
>I suspect that's likely, too.
>
>
>> I use Mythbuntu, and am not familiar with recent Fedora systems.  But
>> you might like to look at the working Mythbuntu setup I have for
>> download on my web server:
>>
>>   http://www.jsw.gen.nz/mythtv/mythbuntu-devinput-lirc.bz2
>
>
>Thanks. I downloaded it and was follow the README. I got to here, though:
>
>===
>After this the out put of "ls -al /dev/lirc*" on my box is:
>
>lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 Sep 27 03:21 /dev/lircd -> /run/lirc/lircd
>lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 Sep 27 03:21 /dev/lirc-mce -> input/event12
>[snip]
>===
>
>and when I do that I don't see "/dev/lircd -> /run/lirc/lircd" but I do see
>a "/dev/lirc0" device. I do see "/dev/lirc-mce -> input/event15'.
>
>When I run 'ir-keytable' I see:
>
>===
>Found /sys/class/rc/rc0/ (/dev/input/event15) with:
>Driver mceusb, table rc-rc6-mce
>Supported protocols: NEC RC-5 RC-6 JVC SONY SANYO LIRC RC-5-SZ SHARP XMP
>other
>Enabled protocols: RC-6
>Name: Media Center Ed. eHome Infrared
>bus: 3, vendor/product: 0471:0815, version: 0x0000
>Repeat delay = 500 ms, repeat period = 125 ms
>===
>
>When I run:
>
>ir-keytable -r -d /dev/lirc-mce
>
>I do see the keytable for the RC6 keytable, but oddly enough the "Enabled
>protocols:" line has nothing after it (should there be?).
>
>Running 'ir-keytable -t' yields no button presses, even though the red
>light on the IR receiver is lighting up (seeming to indicate it's seeing
>*something*).
>
>Questions:
>
>1) Is seeing "/dev/lirc0" but not a "/dev/lircd" a problem?
>2) Even before I get to the lirc stage of the configuration, should I be
>able to see input from the remote via 'ir-keytable -t'?
>
>Thanks.
>-jdm

When testing with ir-keytable, you do not want lircd running, or it
will take the keystrokes.  I have never exactly worked out what
/dev/lircd is used for, but it seems to be created by lircd when it is
run, so if it is present, you need to shut down lircd in order for
ir-keytable -t to work.

You may need to specify the device for ir-keytable:

  ir-keytable -d /dev/lirc-mce -t

or

  it-keytable -s rc0 -t

The default udev rules will normally create a /dev/lirc0 device - the
problem with using it is that if you have more than one tuner with an
IR receiver, the receiver attached to /dev/lirc0 can change on each
reboot.  Hence the need to have your own udev rules and use a name
like /dev/lirc-mce that you have matched to the correct device.

My MCE IR receiver shows "Enabled protocols: RC-6" at the end of its
ir-keytable -r output, which is what you would expect it to default to
for working with any MCE remote as they all use the RC-6 protocol. MCE
IR receivers like yours and mine, and I suspect most of them, can also
receive many of the other protocols used by other remotes such as RC-5
which is also very common and is what is used by my Hauppauge Nova
TD-500 and HVR-900r2 remotes.  So if you have other remotes, you can
use them with the same IR receiver if you switch the protocol being
used.  It is possible that somehow the protocol is not set correctly,
so you could try adding "-p RC-6" to the ir-keytable commands.