How to get a seamless remote experience

Oops, I was replying to a post on page 1. Excusez-moi.

Thanks so much for this excellent guide! I got mine to work earlier, but I pined for a step-by-step like this one.

Quick question, I don't see anything mentioned about transmitting (as in using an ir-blaster to send signals). I'm assuming I'll need LIRC to communicate with ir-core to do so. Just curious if you knew a way to do so with only ir-core.

(2012-06-10 21:20)brando56894 Wrote:  It may look like it's working correctly but actually it isn't. What you see from ir-keytable is just the commands that the remote is sending, Linux nor XBMC understand those except for volume, mute and up/down/left/right. All that proves is that your receiver is communicating with the remote successfully, which is the first step (obviously! )The first thing you should do is remove lirc, you're not going to need it, ir-keytable is the new replacement for lirc. I know it's a little time consuming but you may want to run ir-keytable -t and go through each button sequentially and write down it's offset (only the last two digits should change per key so you shouldn't have to write down the whole offset, at least that's how mine was) and corresponding function on the remote since all the functions listed in the keymap probably aren't included on the remote, you don't want to be mapping functions to non-existent keys and wondering why the hell they don't work, do you?

You need to take a look at XBMC's keyboard.xml (mentioned in the first post) and make those keys match your rc_rc6_mce file. For example, to get Channel - to scroll down a page while in your library, but to have it decrease channels in something like PseudoTV your rc_rc6_mce file should say 0x800f0413 KEY_PAGEDOWN instead of 0x800f0413 KEY_CHANNELDOWN since your remote is actually emulating your keyboard, you want XBMC to see it as a keyboard not a remote.

You should copy /lib/udev/keymaps/rc_rc6_mce to /etc/rc_keymaps and name it something like rc_rc6_xbmc and edit that file, not the original one in /lib, you also need to place your custom keymaps (the XML file not the one from /lib) for XBMC (for example, if you want to make one button do multiple actions depending on the window you're at) in ~/.xbmc/userdata/keymaps

Here's my ~/.xbmc/userdata/keymaps/rc6-remote.xml and here's my /etc/rc_keymaps/rc6_mce_xbmc

To set your mappings and see if they're set correctly run sudo ir-keytable -c -w /etc/rc_keymaps/whatever you named your file; ir-keytable -t if everything is set correctly the buttons should show what you have them mapped to (channel - would show KEY_PAGEDOWN instead of KEY_CHANNELDOWN)

I know it's a little wordy, but this is how it's exactly explained in the "let the kernel do everything" section Hope that cleared a lot up for you, I'm a huge geek and it took me a good 30-45 minutes to even figure out what the hell I was doing. Once you understand what's actually going on it's pretty simple. Essentially, your remote sends an offset (0x4357348), ir-keytable corresponds that offset to whatever you have set in the keymap, then XBMC does the corresponding action that's set to the ir-keytable keymap. You can even use it outside of XBMC and it will print things just like you're using a keyboard. It's actually pretty nifty. Once you have everything setup the way you want it to, you need to have it autoload the keymap from /etc I put mine in /etc/bash.bashrc

I hope I've included everything I learned, I must have edited this damn post about ten times! lol If this helped please +Rep it!

thank you very much for posting your config, it helps me to make my remote works with xbmc.
Just a small modification I've made: you can change from
to
in your keymap file and your home key will work

(2011-07-10 13:46)teeedubb Wrote:  One thing worth mentioning is that to resume from the remote with newer kernels you need to enable wake up on the actual receiver device aswell as the usb port.

lsusb will list your attached usb devices:

Code:

$ lsusb
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
[b]Bus 004 Device 002: ID 1934:[u]5168[/u] Feature Integration Technology Inc. (Fintek) F71610A or F71612A Consumer Infrared Receiver/Transceiver[/b]
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 006: ID 0b38:0010 Gear Head 107-Key Keyboard
Bus 002 Device 005: ID 046d:c049 Logitech, Inc. G5 Laser Mouse
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0bda:0151 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. Mass Storage Device (Multicard Reader)
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 1a40:0101 TERMINUS TECHNOLOGY INC. USB-2.0 4-Port HUB
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

The bold line of text is my usb mce ir receiver. Use the device id (5168 in my case) with the following command to find your device in /sys/bus/usb/devices

Code:

$ grep 5168 /sys/bus/usb/devices/*/idProduct
/sys/bus/usb/devices/4-2/idProduct:5168

Now use that location to check if wakeup from the device is enabled with:

Code:

$ cat /sys/bus/usb/devices/4-2/power/wakeup
disabled

The following command will change this setting to enabled:

Code:

$ sudo sh -c 'echo "enabled" > /sys/bus/usb/devices/4-2/power/wakeup'

This setting will be reset on boot so to enable it on every boot I added the following line to my /etc/rc.local file (the first line is to enable wake up on the usb port, as per this wiki article.)

Code:

echo USB1 > /proc/acpi/wakeup
echo enabled > /sys/bus/usb/devices/4-2/power/wakeup

Make sure /etc/rc.local is executable with the command

Code:

sudo chmod +x /etc/rc.local

This got wake from the remote working for me, and after some testing it seems to work more reliably than on lucid...

Thanks for this, but it's not quite working for me.

I have an Acer Revo AR3610 HTPC with XBMCbuntu and a Windows MCE IR remote + USB sensor. The remote worked great out of the box (although I did have to fix the LIRC config at one point, as it got an apt-get update at one point that made it start expecting the wrong device name or something), except that it won't wake the HTPC from suspend/sleep.

I followed your guide, and it did make the LED on the USB IR work when the HTPC is asleep, but the HTPC still doesn't wake up when I press the power button (or any other button) on the MCE remote.

I tried running with the BIOS set to S1 and then with S3, with no success. All "wake on X" options are enabled except for "wake on RTC" (which lets you choose a time to wake up), including "wake on USB keyboard/mouse".


Here is my setup:

As you can see, everything is configured correctly per your guide.

EDIT: Never mind! It turns out I needed to set wakeup enabled on USB0 instead of USB2. Works great now!

Thanks for this great guide, i'm almost 100% happy with my remote/xbmc configuration, except for one issue.

Only in xbmc my remote responds to a quick double key press with an unpredictable repetition of the key press. Here is my info.

I have one of these ir recievers: http://shop.inteset.com/Products/28-inte...oards.aspx

but I was having similar issues with my usb ir reciever

Running Ubuntu 12.04 with the stable PPA install of xbmc Eden but I had similar issues running xbmc Eden on 11.10
no lirc

receiver detected fine

Got the config loading on boot

the file /etc/rc_keymaps/rc6_mce is a copy of the default rc6_mce file, no changes made so far.

Here is a pastebin of the output of ir-keytable -t : http://paste.ubuntu.com/1261418/

Here is a xbmc debug log of the same events : http://paste.ubuntu.com/1261421/ (sorry should have turned off library scans before rebooting, the relevant stuff is near the bottom)

You can see i press the down button key two times, but xbmc registers like 20 presses.

So far the only solution i've seen is to install lirc and it works. I'd rather figure out what is going on then just default to lirc.

Any ideas?

Thank you very much LB06 for taking the time to write this guide, it has made things clearer for me. I am hoping it will help me to finally get my remote control working properly?

I am a Linux and XBMC newbie and have been really struggling to get my MCE remote control working with a Soundgraph iMON receiver. I initially followed this guide here which kinda works but I end up with lots of buttons on the remote control that send double commands / presses so it doesn't work well as all.

I am trying to do part 2.3 Let the kernel cooperate with LIRC. As I intend to later use irexec to launch scripts to run wget commands to control some thing on my home automation system. Anyways..

When I run this command:

xbmc@xbmc01:~$ sudo /usr/bin/ir-keytable -c -w /lib/udev/rc_keymaps/imon_mce -p RC-6,LIRC
Read imon_mce table
Old keytable cleared
Wrote 77 keycode(s) to driver
Protocols changed to RC-6 LIRC

My remote control stops working all together. If I run the command again but take off the LIRC Protocol my remote starts working again.

xbmc@xbmc01:~$ sudo /usr/bin/ir-keytable -c -w /lib/udev/rc_keymaps/imon_mce -p RC-6
Read imon_mce table
Old keytable cleared
Wrote 77 keycode(s) to driver
Protocols changed to RC-6

I also ran this command: sudo modprobe ir-lirc-codec

Any ideas? I have been right through the imon_mce keymap file and checked all the scancodes are correct with ir-keytable -t

I think LIRC is setup correctly.

lircd.conf


hardware.conf


Also ir-keytable -t only seems to work when LIRC is disabled or not configured to use the Linux Input Layer, should both ir-keytable -t and irw work at the same time?

Thanks

Just want to give anyone else struggling with this with Debian Wheezy and median X10.

All worked in ir-keytable and everything was mapped correctly but irw would not take any arguments when using the remote. Turns out I was missing the inputlirc package somehow and as soon as I installed this irw started to work.

Hope it helps anyone. Took me a while

I decided to try the do everything in kernel option, so I uninstalled LIRC.

After making some changes in the imon_mce keymap file most buttons are now working OK and I no longer have the double command / presses problem!

In the keymap file I had to change things like KEY_INFO to KEY_I and KEY_STOP to KEY_X for these buttons to then start working. I was using this page here which list XBMC Keyboard shortcuts.

However some buttons are still not working:

1. All the number buttons 0-9 do not work. FIXED Changing KEY_NUMERIC_1 to KEY_1
2. On the MCE remote control there are buttons that say Pictures / Video / Music etc, I would like these buttons to jump me in to those parts of XBMC but I don't know how to do this ? CTRL+I on the keyboard opens pictures but I can't put in CTRL+I in to the imon_mce keymap file ?
3. The skip and previous buttons don't do anything, shouldnt they skip music tracks back and forth ? I've tried using comma and period

Can anyone help me fix these buttons that are not working?

I haven't really started looking at the keyboard.xml file yet, all I have done is copied the one from here and put it in this folder: :/home/xbmc/.xbmc/userdata/keymaps

Below is my current imon_mce keymap file which is in /etc/rc_keymaps.


I am using an OrigenAE M10 HTTP case which has a SoundGraph VF-310 unit.

Bus 002 Device 003: ID 15c2:0036 SoundGraph Inc. LC16M VFD Display/IR Receiver

I am using a Logitech Harmony 895 remote control programmed as a MCE remote. I also have a standard Microsoft MCE remote here for testing as well.

Thanks

EDIT:

I got SkipNext and SkipPrevious working, I added the following in to the keyboard.xml file


This then meant I could press F1 on the keyboard to Skip and F2 for Previous.

I then changed the buttons in the imon_mce keymap file


Now when I am playing music the Skip / Previous buttons are working. Not sure if this was the best way to do it? But at least it works.

One thing I don't like the PowerToggle button on the remote control handset brings up the Shutdown menu in XBMC. Before it would just suspend the PC.

EDIT2:

XBMC.ShutDown() = Shutdown and power off

I just added this line in to the keyboard.xml file


I then edited the imon_mce keymap file and changed


to be


Now when I press the powertoggle button on the MCE remote control the PC is suspended (S3 Sleep mode). I also have it set to suspend in the XBMC Settings -> System -> Power saving -> Shutdown function = Suspend.

(2011-09-15 23:29)koekiemonster Wrote:  so now my problem:
when i'm in plain ubuntu (nautilus for instance) the resonse is perfect: tapping down once steps 1 down, tapping 3 times steps down 3 items, holding the button starts scrolling a little faster.
however when i'm inside XBMC, it gets messy. pressing a button once works, pressing it two times sometimes works, sometimes steps down only 1. but when pressing a button 3 times fast, it jumps a lot of items (something between 4 to 10 or more).
i've tried all sort of things with the interkey delay in the harmony software: no difference.
also fiddeling with the repeat delay and repeat period in the ir-keytable doesn't change anything. (not strange, ubuntu is working fine, its XBMC that's acting funny)

I was hoping that your remote controller knowledge also extends a bit into XBMC itself, can you help me with this anoying problem?

Yeap, same issue here. Tapping a button sometimes does not go the required number of steps, and holding an arrow button makes it zoom all over the place extremely fast, it's like 100 presses in a second. While holding the volume buttons does nothing, I have to tap them to slowly change the volume.

I know that if I use it with LIRC, it will work, but I want to find out why it won't work with the pure in-kernel solution. Part of the reason is that I have had problems when resuming LIRC, the remote simply didn't respond, and I can't do anything with wakeup, because it's a PCI remote, not a USB one. (Then again, the whole card used to lock up every time it resumed from sleep, so it might have been related to that - solved by having systemd automatically remove the kernel module for the card before going to sleep, and reinserting it on wakeup. Still, if I took the time to set this up with the in-kernel method, it would be nice to finish the task...)

Have you guys tried changind the repeat and delays? Eg:

sudo ir-keytable --delay 500
sudo ir-keytable --period 50

?