[LINUX] HOW-TO get Hama MCE Remote Control to fully work in Ubuntu 9.04

lx_cool_j Wrote:thank you @TheHeadGear,
there was a copy/paste error in my tutorial... i changed the lines regarding lircstart.sh in my post to the code i use. hope, it works now.

this could also be the solution for @anton610

Thank you!!

I'll try it soon

@DocEvil
hi,
to completely remove lirc enter
in your terminal.

have you replaced [xbmc-user] to your ubuntu username in all of the commands and pathes listed in my tutorial?
for example, if your username is xbmc, the correct command should be:

i only tried this on ubuntu 9.04 (my machine and a friend's) but normally, it should work on 9.10 too.

sure, i completly removed lirc with the command you posted, after that, a complete reinstall was made. So now i can use

irw to look which remote actions are function, but like i wrote, the command you are posting again, have no effect, no output in terminal.

if you see the pressed buttons of the remote in irw, there has to be an error with your Lircmap.xml or remote.xml in the userdata directory of xbmc. the first letter of Lircmap.xml has to be upper case.

do you see a xbmc.log in your xbmc temp directory?
in my case /home/xbmc/.xbmc/temp

also, in my xbmc, i have checked the option "remote control sends keyboard presses" and "enable mouse" from the "input devices" section. you may also check the option debug logging in the system settings.

good look!

Hi,
To make it work under Karmic you have to edit:
./home/[xbmc-user]/lircstart.sh

add one line to it

With this modification it works like a charm in Karmic and XBMC 9.11 beta2.
I have not hama, but Vista MCE Remote VRC-1100 and the codes are identical.

Thanks and regards.

lx_cool_j,

quick q: where did you get the lircd.conf from?

I tried to make one with irrecord, but I get zeros for all of the codes. Bizarrely, I tried to make a conf file for the mouse event device and that worked.

Any info of how you did it would be great.

If anyone else has any advice, it will be appreciated too.

Thanks.

Post #15 works for the Hama MCE remote.

Things not working so far:
- mouse input via remote
- some keys are mapped to "combinations" (e.g. the #-key), which don't work in this configuration.

Any ideas?

I googled around somewhat. Apparently (correct me if I'm wrong) without lirc the remote control acts like a keyboard-mouse-combo.

Has anyone tried getting things to work by modifying the keyboard.xml?

Servus!

I'm using the remote. It took me weeks and months to get XBMC up and running. Even if only a few buttons are working, I'm glad that suspend/resume works.

I'm scared that I screw something, if I try it again.

What are those commands for?

lx_cool_j Wrote:add the following code (IMPORTANT: the entry has to be written before "exit 0") to
/etc/rc.local

Code:

./home/[xbmc-user]/lircstart.sh

read out the event numbers for your hid:

Code:

cat /proc/bus/input/devices

you get something like this (i only copied the important entries containing Name="HID...):

Code:

I: Bus=0003 Vendor=05a4 Product=9881 Version=0110
N: Name="HID 05a4:9881"
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/input3
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=kbd [b]event3[/b]
B: EV=120013
B: KEY=e080ffdf 1cfffff ffffffff fffffffe
B: MSC=10
B: LED=7

I: Bus=0003 Vendor=05a4 Product=9881 Version=0110
N: Name="HID 05a4:9881"
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/input4
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=kbd mouse1 [b]event4[/b]
B: EV=17
B: KEY=1f0000 0 2020000 3878 d801d001 1e0000 0 0 0
B: REL=103
B: MSC=10

event3 and event4 are the two important entries from the cat we made before that we need in the next step. they could be different on your system.

create a file
/home/[xbmc-user]/lircstart.sh

please note that the code change from dec 17, 2009. the old code contained a copy/paste error...

Code:

#!/bin/sh

/etc/init.d/lirc stop
lircd --driver=devinput --device=/dev/input/event3 --pidfile=/var/run/lirc1.pid --listen=9988;
lircd --driver=devinput --device=/dev/input/event4 --pidfile=/var/run/lirc2.pid --connect=localhost:9988;

be careful to change event3 and event4 to the event numbers you got for your system.

I'm curious. Will I need those steps if the remote is recognized and working correctly besides of some buttons?

@Surjio,
i found it somewhere on the internet but edited it for my needs. @leftbit wrote that some keys are mapped to combinations. that's true, i ignored some keys in lircd.conf so they are not interpreted. pressing these buttons are recognized as one key press. the problem is, that some keys are recognized as the same key press. but that's better than nothing...

it's true that the mouse is not working any more, that's the price you have to pay for now. i don't really need it, so no problem for me.

@Evin
servus in den osten österreichs...

simply said - this is for interpreting the remote as a remote and not as keyboard/mouse combination device.