2010 mac mini appleir port not working

micheal · October 31, 2017 at 11:14 AM

I know this issue has been discussed in other threads. In a couple of those threads it was indicated that 8.2.0 would resolve the ir issues with the mac mini. Because of this I waited to post to see if 8.2.0 would resolve my issues. It hasn't. I have no issue that I am aware of with hardware. Atvclient is running but doesn't respond to my remote. If I kill the atvclient process and manually restart the process (ie. atvclient -m) then and only then will I get a response from remote input. I also noticed if I use systemctl to start the atvclient process then I have no response from remote inputs. I had upgraded to 8.2.0 from 8.0.1 so I tried a fresh install with no change. I have tried irrecord to no avail. My applier device is hiddev0 its physical address is /dev/bus/usb/004/003. it is not listed with dmesg | grep lirc but it is listed with lsusb. Is there something else I could be doing to make the atvclient recognize remote inputs aside from a startup script that kills and restarts atvclient?

**HiassofT** · October 31, 2017 at 11:36 AM

This sounds like atvclient might be starting a bit too early.

Could you test if it works after running the following commands:

Code

systemctl stop atvclient
systemctl start atvclient

also please post the output of the following commands (after running the commands above)

Code

cat /proc/bus/input/devices | paste
systemctl status atvclient | paste

so long,

Hias

micheal · October 31, 2017 at 9:54 PM

thank you,

i did like you said. there is no response from atvclient when systemctl is used to start it. here are the links

**HiassofT** · November 1, 2017 at 11:42 AM

According to the logs you posted you seem to have a FLIRC dongle plugged in. That raises 2 important questions:

What kind of remote are you using?

Do you intend to use the remote with the built-in IR receiver or with the FLIRC dongle?

so long,

Hias

micheal · November 1, 2017 at 1:45 PM

the flirc is plugged in for the moment as the computers built-in ir port is not working. I am using a harmony 650 that is setup as multiple apple remotes. I have every intention of using the built-in ir if I can get it working properly.

as stated if I systemctl stop atvclient then type atvclient -m without using systemctl my harmony remote works perfectly with the built-in ir port.

**HiassofT** · November 1, 2017 at 2:22 PM

Thanks for the info!

This is very puzzling. Systemctl start atvclient does exactly the same, it runs atvclient -m, and no errors are logged. No idea why one invocation should work but not the other.

You could try playing around with the Harmony settings. A lot of IR issues stem from the Harmony working quite differently than original remotes. For example, command repeat should be set to 0. Another thing to check is the configured remote profile - there are 2 different apple remotes, see eg here: Apple remote - Official Kodi Wiki . Try both the 6 and 7 button remote profiles.

If none of this helps, it's worth testing with lircd instead of atvclient. First disable atvclient:

Code

systemctl mask atvclient

then reboot (you can later re-enable atvclient with "systemctl unmask atvclient" plus rebooting).

Now copy /etc/lirc/lirc_options.conf to /storage/.config/lirc_options.conf and change the driver and device configuration:

Code

driver          = macmini
device          = /dev/usb/hiddev0

Note: if you have more than one /dev/usb/hiddev* file, test with all of them.

You'll also need a /storage/.config/lircd.conf file matching your remote. You can either try the one from the kodi wiki page linked above or this one - depending on which remote you have configured - lircd.conf.macmini

If you use the latter you have to change the KEY_... definitions to KEY_UP, KEY_DOWN, KEY_LEFT, KEY_RIGHT, KEY_OK and KEY_BACK to get normal control.

Now you can enable Lirc in LibreELEC Settings -> Services and see if it works.

If none of the lircd.conf files work, you can try to create your own using irrecord. Make sure you disable lirc in LE settings before, otherwise irrecord can't access the IR receiver device.

Code

irrecord -H macmini -d /dev/usb/hiddev0

After running that copy the newly created REMOTENAME.lircd.conf file to /storage/.config/lircd.conf and enable lirc in LE settings again.

Note: I haven't tested this myself (don't have the hardware), so it could be that I got something wrong. In this case just post here

so long,

Hias

micheal · November 1, 2017 at 11:59 PM

unfortunately i have no good news to report back i still have no remote even after setting up lirc as you suggested. i even used systemctl to stop kodi just to be sure. when i tried irrecord on /dev/usb/hiddec0 or any other hid dev i got this output

Could not init hardware (lircd running ? --> close it, check permissions)

when i tried ir-keytable this was the output:

/sys/class/rc/: No such file or directory

when i try irrecord on /dev/bus/usb/004/003 it will tell me

Hold down an arbitrary key

then it times out after 10 seconds for no input

jcjdammers · November 4, 2017 at 12:08 PM

i use macmini with the silver apple remote and that works perfectly.

**HiassofT** · November 4, 2017 at 2:52 PM

Could you test this build (it has the appleir kernel module disabled): LibreELEC-Generic.x86_64-8.2-devel-20171030102100-r26198-g0239080387.tar

so long,

Hias

micheal · November 7, 2017 at 12:35 AM

i appreciate all of your help. i had a bit more time this weekend to spend on this and i was able to figure it out. i can't explain why lirc doesn't work and keeps timing out but i have atvclient functioning properly (which is good enough for me).

first issue the customcontrollerharmony.xml i was using uses a 1 in front of all the key codes. so while kodi on libreelec received a code of 01when i pressed up kodi was set to look for 101.

second even when i programed my harmony 650 as an apple remote libreelec would identify it as a multi-remote.

third when scrolling through my bash history i found the ssh client that i would sometimes use from my phone would not send option codes so when i thought i would send atvclient -m only atvclient would be sent. then at that point my harmony would be identified as an apple remote and work.

so i fixed my customcontrollerharmony.xml. and everything is working.

as it turns out it was several issues on my end and not any fault of libreelec. i pass this information on in case anyone else has this happen.

thanks again for your help and this great product