[mythtv-users] remote control mostly stopped working

[Stephen Worthington]

On Thu, 26 Nov 2020 00:59:39 -0800 (PST), you wrote:

>> Am Dienstag, 24. November 2020, 06:46:57 CET schrieb TODD ANDERSON:
>> > It seems that some Ubuntu update screwed up my remote control.  I have a
>> > Hauppauge remote and the arrow keys still work but basically nothing else. 
>> > From ir-keytable, it seems like /etc/rc_keymaps/hauppauge isn't being
>> > loaded at startup anymore.  If I load the file manually with ir-keytable -c
>> > -w /etc/rc_keymaps/hauppague then ir-keytable -t will report the correct
>> > scancodes and mappings when I push the remote buttons but it is like those
>> > keystrokes aren't sent to mythfrontend because still only the arrow keys
>> > work.
>> > 
>> > In mythfrontend setup, when using ir-keytable, I just want to make sure that
>> > LIRC daemon socket should be empty.  Should the evdev device name go
>> > anywhere in the mythfrontend setup?
>> > 
>> > Any suggestions for what the problem could be?
>> 
>> Like Stephen suggested, the configs and mappings are configured different. My 
>> appraoch for this (debian not ubuntu, and I'm lazy) was to just configure 
>> mythfrontend to react to the unmapped values. So you can just go to config 
>> screen, if you call the menu with blue-button (like I do) try to map menu to 
>> blue-button in frontend instead of mapping blue-button to m in system.
>
>I have previously tried "edit keys" and was able to map a couple additional buttons.
>However, for some buttons (like the 4 color buttons at the bottom of the remote)
>when I go into edit keys and select the function I want to map to and select an
>empty slot and it asks me to press the key on the remote, I do, and then nothing
>happens.  The buttons that I really miss are pause and the 4 color buttons.

Do the non-working keys show up when you test them with ir-keytable
-t?  If not, then there is a problem with the keymap.  What version of
Ubuntu are we talking about?  I found that there have been some
changes to the names of the keys in the keymap files between 18.04 and
20.04.  And the keymap files themselves have changed - they now have a
.toml extension and are found in /lib/udev/rc_keymaps.

The first thing to do is to make sure that all the keys on the remote
work with ir-keytable -t.  That is necessary for using lirc or using
the key mappings directly in MythTV.

Next, you have to decide whether you are going to use lirc or not.  If
you have more than one program that you want to use lirc with (eg
MythTV, mplayer and irexec in my case), then it is almost certain that
you will need to use lirc.  If you want to be able to select which
keys will autorepeat or not, and the autorepeat rate, you also need to
use lirc.

If you decide not to use lirc, you may need to use a custom keymap
file to remap any keys that MythTV can not see to KEY_ values it is
able to use.  Find the hauppauge.toml file in /lib/udev/rc_keymaps and
copy it to /etc/rc_keymaps and edit it there.  In /etc/rc_maps.cfg,
change the "hauppauge.toml" entry to "/etc/rc_keymaps/hauppauge.toml".

It has been a while since I last modified my key mappings - I have
reverted to using the standard mappings and changing things in the
lirc config.  But if I remember correctly, to test your changes you
need to run "ir-keytable -a" or if you have multiple remote receivers,
"ir-keytable -a -s rcX" (with X set to the remote number).  That
should load your new keymap and you can then test it with "ir-keytable
-t".  I am not sure if that is sufficient to get your new keytable
loaded on boot though - try rebooting and see if your changes are
still there.  If not, you will need to add your "ir-keytable -a"
command to /etc/rc.local or create a systemd unit to run that command
at boot.

In 20.04, the valid KEY_ names you can use are found in:

/usr/src/linux-headers-xxxxx/include/uapi/linux/input-event-codes.h

where xxxxx is your current kernel version number.