[Linux] MCE Remote Woes
#1
Question 
Hi,

I've got a lovely installation here on Fedora 14 on a Zotac MAG box. Neat little setup, everything works great. I'm using the build from rpmfusion (xbmc-10.0-1.fc14.x86_64)

This morning I find myself trying to get an old Windows MCE remote going. The one in question that I have does NOT have the teletext button, it is marked Model 1039 and RC6 on the back. I've got its receiver plugged in via USB.

I'm finding a lot of conflicting information out on the web about this setup (it should just work, or needs lirc with config A, or needs lirc with config B, etc...)

From what I can tell, the remote works with or without lirc. What I'm finding is that with lirc (0.8.7-1 from Fedora 14's repo), more buttons work, but the remote seems too sensitive - a single button press gets measured as many, and a list takes off scrolling when the intent was just to increment one item.

Without lirc, the remote works and is somewhat more controllable, but almost none of the buttons respond. Arrows work, power works, mute works, but not much else.

What is the best way to go about resolving this? lirc here seems to be playing the role of an unnecessary intermediary, what can I twiddle in the XBMC config to get more buttons working? Or do i need a different config in lirc?

Thanks!
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#2
did you try the "remote sends keypress" option in setting - system ?
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#3
ral67 Wrote:did you try the "remote sends keypress" option in setting - system ?

I did, same buttons work. Specifically missing seem to be Back, Info/More, OK, Volume Up/Down, and Start.
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#4
I would suggest to turn on debugging and the do a tail -f ~/.xbox/temp/xbmc.log to see if your buttons create any events
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#5
ral67 Wrote:I would suggest to turn on debugging and the do a tail -f ~/.xbox/temp/xbmc.log to see if your buttons create any events

Excellent idea, I took a look. And the plot thickens....

For keys that work, I get a message like this:

Code:
15:47:35 T:139934985865472 M:1532465152   DEBUG: OnKey: 61478
pressed, action is Up

For SOME keys that are not working, I get a message like this. This particular example is the "Start" button:

Code:
15:47:43 T:139934985865472 M:1532473344   DEBUG: SDLKeyboard:
scancode: 156, sym: 0, unicode: 0, modifier: 0

And yet for other keys that are not working (i.e. the "More/Info" button) the log does not register anything at all. The little LED in the remote's receiver indicates however that it did receive a signal.

Thoughts?
Thanks!
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#6
Any progress made on this? I'm running ubuntu and I have a RC6 remote. Same issue.

Working Buttons: Up, Down, Left, Right, enter, play, pause, ff, rw, vol up, vol down, mute

Other buttons do nothing. Some of the buttons that do nothing register in the log file like yours, with a scan code. A lot of the buttons don't show up in the log.

I would like to be able to configure this remote so all the buttons do somethings.

The enter button works and is at the bottom of the remote. I would like to be able to use the OK button at the center of the navigation buttons (up down etc) instead of enter.

Any help appreciated.
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#7
How did you install lirc?
I've generally resolved the problem having installed it from a .deb package; the configure let me select which remote, etc. It's been working OK since then. As far as I know all the buttons (well, at least the ones I use) seem to work.

Cannot comment as to specific buttons - as soon as I got it working, I set up my Logitech Harmony to send the appropriate commands and haven't looked back.
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#8
Well, if it has the scancode reported in the xbmc log, I think you should be able to map the key. I developed my own USB IR receiver for XBMC so mine does not behave exactly like yours but basically, it emits scancodes just like a keyboard and your remote. The scancode you have there (156/0x9c) is "Keyboard Clear". Not sure what key that is. However, you can look through the source to see how these are handled and map them accordingly. For instance, the "Tab" key in the xml keymaps is the literal string "tab".
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#9
Some of my remote buttons were working out of the box with ubuntu minimal and xbmc installed. I had tried Lirc and wasn't getting any response from the remote inside xbmc so I uninstalled it to get the buttons that were working back.

After I posted yesterday I reinstalled LIRC with

sudo apt-get install lirc

I think I had installed it differently previously. After a reboot everything works perfectly now. Simple.
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