[Matt Devo]

What was the Openelec configuration using that Gallium doesn't when it comes to recognizing the Microsoft IR devices on the working list in the wiki?

Have you used an IR remote with Kodi out of Gallium?

OE/LE are set up with all the most common remote drivers/config OOTB, GaOS as a general Linux distro doesn't. I'd imagine the mceusb driver is already present in the kernel (dmesg will tell you if the receiver is detected/functional), but the remote config itself would need to be handled by something like lirc. I've never bothered to set that up myself, instead using a distro which supports it OOTB like LE or SteamOS.