Ubuntu, from the couch with an IR Remote.
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.
[…] 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 […]
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.