irw is the command to test if your IR Remote is working. I’m using a “Windows Vista Certified” MCE remote. irw becomes available when lirc has been installed, so go ahead and install lirc now if you havent’ already.

sudo apt-get install lirc

superm1 at the Ubuntu forums says:

Start out by installing lirc-modules-source
sudo apt-get install lirc-modules-source

Next grab the lirc_mceusb2.c source file from LIRC CVS.

Drop it in the appropriate directory in /usr/src/lirc-0.8.3/
sudo cp lirc_mceusb2.c /usr/src/lirc-0.8.3/lirc_mceusb2

Now issue these commands:
sudo dkms -m lirc -v 0.8.3 build
sudo dkms -m lirc -v 0.8.3 install

Remove and reload the module
sudo rmmod lirc_mceusb2
sudo modprobe lirc_mceusb2

Restart lirc to try it (assuming that it has been configured for a mceusb2 properly)
sudo /etc/init.d/lirc restart

Now you can give irw a try from the command line. It’ll start listening for button presses from the remote. If you press play and it shows that you pushed the play button (or left arrow, right arrow, stop, pause, etc) and the buttons match then that’s good.

Troubleshooting (like I had to do)

If you do this

sudo dkms -m lirc -v 0.8.3 build

and you get this

Error! This module/version has already been built on: 2.6.24-19-generic
Directory: /var/lib/dkms/lirc/0.8.3/2.6.24-19-generic/x86_64
already exists.  Use the dkms remove function before trying to build again.

Then you’ll have to do what it says and use the dkms remove function like this

sudo dkms remove -m lirc -v 0.8.3 --all

followed by

sudo dkms add -m lirc -v 0.8.3

And then pick up from the build stage again. That should set things straight.

2 Responses to “Ubuntu, from the couch with an IR Remote.”

1. n3wt0n! » XBMC, from the couch with an IR Remote says:

   February 13, 2009 at 10:02 pm

   […] your XBMC working with a remote control. Here’s the short of it. If you’ve followed my guide for installing MCE remote control using LIRC with Ubuntu 8.10, and assuming that worked, then this may very well work for […]

2. kdnewton says:

   May 30, 2009 at 7:15 pm

   Note to self:

   To install in Ubuntu 9.04, follow the steps above. Odds are the lirc version will be 0.8.4a so use that in place of the 0.8.3

   irw will not work, it’ll give the following message:

   connect: No such file or directory

   At this point, copy the entire contents of /etc/lirc from the Ubuntu 8.10 partition. Paste them over the contents of the Ubuntu 9.04 /etc/lirc directory.

   Restart lirc with:

   sudo /etc/init.d/lirc restart

   and then try irw again. It should work now.