[mythtv-users] Configuring mceusb for frontend with 3.0 kernel

boehm100 at comcast.net boehm100 at comcast.net
Wed Dec 28 20:14:22 UTC 2011


Hi Ken, 

I just set up a mceusb receiver/transmitter this week on Ubuntu 11.10 64bit this week. Hope I can help. 

I have an HP model that was so cheap at a few months back 
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/456009 

I don't use and mce remote with it as the receiver will accept IR codes from my favorite Tivo remote. 

This link wasn't bad but there is a lot conflicting / old / muddled info in it. 
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/MCE_Remote 

The key to setting it up was configuring the lircd daemon. 2 files are important to setup correctly, /etc/hardware.conf and /etc/lircd.conf. 

lircd.conf is where you define remote button presses. Its not where you define what myth does with the button press. The file is custom to the remote you are going to use and therefore I've given a link to the one I'm using only as a reference. 
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5009656/lircd.conf 

hardware.conf is where you tell lircd daemon how to contact your mceusb receiver/transmitter. You can probably just use mine. 
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5009656/hardware.conf 

To get mythtv to do stuff with your remote you need to run irexec at startup with a config file. I have a startup script that runs this line 
/usr/bin/irexec -d /home/jboehm/.mythtv/lircrc 
Here is my lircrc file. Its custom so mine is only an example. 
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5009656/lircrc 

Other hints: 
* Make sure lirc is installed 
* There are several different versions of mceusb. Some versions may not work right. (From what I've heard) 
* I didn't need to add anything to my modprob startup file 
* irw app is very good as a sanity check that lircd is setup properly. (come with the lirc package) 
* ps axu | grep APP_NAME this is very helpful for determining if the deamon started correctly. 
* look for error and warning is /var/log/syslog 

Hope that helps, 
Jon 




----- Original Message -----
From: "Kenneth Emerson" <kenneth.emerson at gmail.com> 
To: "Discussion about mythtv" <mythtv-users at mythtv.org> 
Sent: Wednesday, December 28, 2011 9:33:21 AM 
Subject: [mythtv-users] Configuring mceusb for frontend with 3.0 kernel 

I got the parts to build my first (separate) frontend for Christmas :-) . I spent most of the day Monday (close to 12 hours) reconfiguring my FE/BE combo to allow for networking and, right or wrong, I chose to install Ubuntu 11.10 on the new frontend (I'm running 10.4 on the backend). I still have to deal with the window manager issue, but that's just a minor issue/irritation that I can figure out myself. What I cannot figure out is how to configure IR remotes with this new kernel. It seems that everything about IR is different )-: . 


I've googled until I'm blue in the face and continue to find conflicting information. Most information I've found is related to XBMC with very little about MythTV. It appears that the mceusb driver is now in the kernel and the device is treated as a keyboard device. I find some references to lirc and others that say lirc is no longer involved. My receiver is detected by the kernel and I can run ir-keytable -t and see all of the key presses (scan codes appear. I've found the where the keymaps are stored and where I can override them. What I cannot figure out is how to get this information to the frontend. It looks like it is now a product of X? Since is is an input device? 


I've tried linking the lircd to the /dev/input/event3 the mceusb dongle is assigned to, but I get nothing from irw. 


Has anyone gone down this road yet or am I the first (yuck)? 


Any help much appreciated even if it is just to links. I cannot believe that this has changed so drastically without some documentation about how the data path is constructed from input device to application. 


-- Ken E. 
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