Linux Remote control and LIRC advice
#1
Hi All,

I am new to this forum, so I hope I am posting correctly.

Technical details Ubuntu 11.10, XBMC 11.0 Git:Unknown (Compiled : Mar 24 2012), on an Acer Aspire Revo R3610 (atom i686)

As of yesterday I was the happiest XBMC user Smile Then my Cyberlink remote control stopped working. I checked and found the batteries were almost dead. Anyway I changed the batteries and the IR leds would not switch off, so I assume the unit is broken.

The CyberLink Remote was set up using the following guide: http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=HOW...e_on_Linux

It was working flawlessly.

Unfortunately I can't find any of these remotes for sale anymore, so I thought I might be able to use a different remote with the same receiver. I found this site that says it is possible: http://flavor8.com/index.php/2010/02/25/...with-lirc/

In that post it mentions the IR device will be at /dev/lirc*. Although on my system I only have /dev/lircd, which I have read is a kind of virtual device that XBMC and other programs use.

my /etc/lirc/hardware.conf is:

Code:
# /etc/lirc/hardware.conf
#
#Chosen Remote Control
REMOTE="Cyberlink Media Centre"
REMOTE_MODULES=""
REMOTE_DRIVER="devinput"
REMOTE_DEVICE="`cat /proc/bus/input/devices | grep -A4 "TopSeed" | grep event | tail -n1 | sed 's/.*\(event[0-9]\+\).*/\/dev\/input\/\1/'`"
REMOTE_SOCKET=""
REMOTE_LIRCD_CONF="/etc/lirc/lircd.conf"
REMOTE_LIRCD_ARGS="--device=`cat /proc/bus/input/devices | grep -A4 "TopSeed" | grep event | tail -n1 | sed 's/.*\(event[0-9]\+\).*/\/dev\/input\/\1/'` --driver=dev/input"

/proc/bus/input/devices

Code:
I: Bus=0003 Vendor=0766 Product=0204 Version=0100
N: Name="TopSeed Tech Corp. USB IR Combo Device "
P: Phys=usb-0000:00:04.0-3/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:04.0/usb2/2-3/2-3:1.0/input/input4
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=sysrq kbd event4
B: PROP=0
B: EV=120013
B: KEY=10000 7 ff9f207a c14057ff febeffdf ffefffff ffffffff fffffffe
B: MSC=10
B: LED=1f

I: Bus=0003 Vendor=0766 Product=0204 Version=0100
N: Name="TopSeed Tech Corp. USB IR Combo Device "
P: Phys=usb-0000:00:04.0-3/input1
S: Sysfs=/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:04.0/usb2/2-3/2-3:1.1/input/input5
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=kbd mouse1 event5
B: PROP=0
B: EV=17
B: KEY=c0390 60d0c00 0 0 70000 4 118000 21f8 d001d804 9e0400 0 0 0
B: REL=103
B: MSC=10

I: Bus=0000 Vendor=0000 Product=0000 Version=0000
N: Name="TopSeed Tech Corp. USB IR Combo Device  (lircd bypass)"
P: Phys=
S: Sysfs=/devices/virtual/input/input11
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=mouse3 event7
B: PROP=0
B: EV=7
B: KEY=70000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
B: REL=103

dmesg

http://pastebin.com/wZy6N00C

I have read that to test the receiver to use mode2 on the device that is listed in the hardware conf.

When I run

Code:
$ `cat /proc/bus/input/devices | grep -A4 "TopSeed" | grep event | tail -n1 | sed 's/.*\(event[0-9]\+\).*/\/dev\/input\/\1/'`

I get /dev/input/event7

Then when I run mode2 with that device I get

Code:
$ sudo mode2 -d /dev/input/event7
mode2: could not get hardware features
mode2: this device driver does not support the LIRC ioctl interface
mode2: did you mean to use the devinput driver instead of the default driver?

I have been searching for the past 2 days and can't find anything to do with this. I have found some people saying that LIRC is broken in Ubuntu 11.10.

Any advice on how to get my IR receiver to work with a different remote would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

K
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#2
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=45972&page=6 starting at the second post.

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=45972&page=7 and the net page third post.
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#3
Hi drivesoslow,

Thanks for the links but I have already tried everything in that post to no avail. I still don't get any /dev/lircN devices or a /dev/irremote device.

I don't know how it was working before as I haven't changed the config at all since I set it up about 10 months ago.

I don't really know what to look for but my dmesg output shows these following lines for the IR receiver

Code:
[   28.785932] input: TopSeed Tech Corp. USB IR Combo Device  (lircd bypass) as /devices/virtual/input/input6
[  628.223138] input: TopSeed Tech Corp. USB IR Combo Device  (lircd bypass) as /devices/virtual/input/input7
[ 3588.653287] input: TopSeed Tech Corp. USB IR Combo Device  (lircd bypass) as /devices/virtual/input/input8
[ 4575.027246] lirc_dev: IR Remote Control driver registered, major 250
[ 4970.259786] input: TopSeed Tech Corp. USB IR Combo Device  (lircd bypass) as /devices/virtual/input/input9
[ 7092.423326] input: TopSeed Tech Corp. USB IR Combo Device  (lircd bypass) as /devices/virtual/input/input11

It appears that it is recognising it and doing something.

I have removed lirc and re-installed it again with the new and the old config and still no lirc device showing up in /dev/,

Thanks

K
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#4
I'll suggest the same thing here that I suggested in another thread:

Install synaptic using apt-get if you don't already have it (you don't HAVE to do this, just makes it easier).

Use Synaptic to search installed packages and find lirc. Mark just the lirc package for complete removal and apply.

After the removal is complete, you can immediately reinstall it, also using synaptic. During the install, it should pop up a window asking you to select your remote. So, select your new remote from the list.

After that it should work.

There MAY be a way to get that configuration popup to come up without uninstalling and reinstalling lirc but the whole process only takes about a minute and it would have taken me much longer to try and find how to make the popup come up without the uninstall/reinstall, so that's what I did.

EDIT: In that other thread, vikjon0 suggested that you may be able to run dpkg-reconfigure lirc to get the remote selection window, without needing to remove and reinstall lirc. I haven't tried that; just mentioning it.
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#5
xbmcliveuser,

Thanks for the information. I had already tried this, but did it again just in case. Still no joy.

I am sorry for the confusion (I haven't posted to a forum like this before). I think I need to clarify the problem I am having.

I have been using XBMC for the past 10 odd months with a CyberLink remote control. The whole system was operating flawlessly. A few days ago my remote control stopped working while I was using the system. To cut a long story short the battery in the remote died and now the remote doesn't work, even with new batteries. So, as I had an old remote lying around, I was looking to reconfigure the CyberLink IR receiver to use a new remote.

I am making the assumption that the IR receiver is working correctly. (If anyone could check the dmesg output to let me know if this is true, it would be useful.)

From this article, http://flavor8.com/index.php/2010/02/25/...with-lirc/, I have found it should be possible to record the keypresses from another remote and then map it to work with my applications.

Now where I was falling into problems was that I can not find the correct device for the IR receiver. All information says that it should be in /dev/lirc0 or /dev/lirc1 etc. I don't have that in my /dev/ only /dev/lircd which is a socket for lircd not the device.

From my hardware.conf (above) I have the device set using a set of commands. It appears to find the receiver on /dev/input/event7 (but that can change if I have a usb mouse attached for example). However when I try to use mode2 to check that device for input I get:

Code:
$ sudo mode2 -d /dev/input/event7
mode2: could not get hardware features
mode2: this device driver does not support the LIRC ioctl interface
mode2: did you mean to use the devinput driver instead of the default driver?

I have noticed that the dmesg output, that is posted above, says "lircd bypass". Now to clarify, everything was working fine before the remote control went fizz. So I assume that the IR receiver is set up and all drivers are operational, but that it is set up in a different way than /dev/lirc0 etc.

So my problem is that I can't find the device that the IR receiver is being set up on.




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