No driver for eHome IR Transceiver

Tadzio · April 1, 2018 at 1:03 PM

Hi,

I recently installed Libreelec on an old VAIO home PC and ran into issues with my ir remote control.

libreelec: 8.2.4

Architecture: Generic.x86_64

hardware: VAIO VGX-TP3E

ir transceiver: Build in Sony eHome Tranceiver

When I try to run ir-keytable I get: /sys/class/rc/: No such file or directory

According to the wiki that means no driver is loaded.

dmesg | grep -i usb output list the IR receiver:

[ 2.549355] hid-generic 0003:046D:C016.0002: input,hidraw1: USB HID v1.10 Mouse [Logitech Optical USB Mouse] on usb-0000:00:1d.0-2/input0

[ 3.102884] usb 4-1: new full-speed USB device number 2 using uhci_hcd

[ 3.297191] input: Sony RF Receiver as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.2/usb4/4-1/4-1:1.0/0003:054C:024B.0003/input/input3

[ 3.353222] sony 0003:054C:024B.0003: input,hiddev0,hidraw2: USB HID v1.11 Keyboard [Sony RF Receiver] on usb-0000:00:1d.2-1/input0

[ 3.360983] input: Sony RF Receiver as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.2/usb4/4-1/4-1:1.1/0003:054C:024B.0004/input/input4

[ 3.361187] sony 0003:054C:024B.0004: input,hiddev0,hidraw3: USB HID v1.11 Mouse [Sony RF Receiver] on usb-0000:00:1d.2-1/input1

[ 4.116208] usb 4-2: new full-speed USB device number 3 using uhci_hcd

[ 4.319438] input: SONY IR Receiver as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.2/usb4/4-2/4-2:1.1/0003:054C:037C.0005/input/input5

[ 4.373101] hid-generic 0003:054C:037C.0005: input,hiddev0,hidraw4: USB HID v1.10 Device [SONY IR Receiver] on usb-0000:00:1d.2-2/input1

And also the output of cat /proc/bus/input/devices show the the sony hardware.

I: Bus=0003 Vendor=054c Product=024b Version=0111

N: Name="Sony RF Receiver"

P: Phys=usb-0000:00:1d.2-1/input0

S: Sysfs=/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.2/usb4/4-1/4-1:1.0/0003:054C:024B.0003/input/input3

U: Uniq=

H: Handlers=sysrq kbd leds event3

B: PROP=0

B: EV=12001f

B: KEY=3007f 0 0 4c3ffff17aff32d bf54445600000000 ff 130c130b17c007 ffa67bfad951dfff febeffdfffefffff fffffffffffffffe

B: REL=40

B: ABS=10100000000

B: MSC=10

B: LED=1f

I: Bus=0003 Vendor=054c Product=024b Version=0111

N: Name="Sony RF Receiver"

P: Phys=usb-0000:00:1d.2-1/input1

S: Sysfs=/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.2/usb4/4-1/4-1:1.1/0003:054C:024B.0004/input/input4

U: Uniq=

H: Handlers=mouse1 event4

B: PROP=0

B: EV=17

B: KEY=1f0000 0 0 0 0

B: REL=143

B: MSC=10

I: Bus=0003 Vendor=054c Product=037c Version=0110

N: Name="SONY IR Receiver"

P: Phys=usb-0000:00:1d.2-2/input1

S: Sysfs=/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.2/usb4/4-2/4-2:1.1/0003:054C:037C.0005/input/input5

U: Uniq=SA080206200000a

H: Handlers=kbd event5

B: PROP=0

B: EV=1b

B: KEY=ffffffffffffffff ffffffffffffffff ffffffffffffffff ffffffffffffffff ffffffffffffffff ffffffffffffffff ffffffffffffffff ffffffffffffffff 0 40000010cc00 10168000000000 0

B: ABS=10000000000

B: MSC=10

Any ideas how to get the driver for the SONY IR Receiver loaded?

Tadzio

**HiassofT** · April 1, 2018 at 2:06 PM

There's not much you can do about it, there's no linux driver for this IR receiver - this is why it's showing up as a generic HID device.

so long,

Hias

Tadzio · April 2, 2018 at 7:14 AM

Thanks Hilas,

The driver is supposed to be the mceusb driver. Currently the driver is set as usbhid. I tried unbinding this driver.

echo -n "4-2:1.1" > /sys/bus/usb/drivers/usbhid/unbind

Which was successful. However trying to bind it to the mceusb driver returned:

echo -n "4-2:1.1" > /sys/bus/usb/drivers/mceusb/bind

-sh: write error: No such device

Rebinding it to the (wrong) original driver did however work:

echo -n "4-2:1.1" > /sys/bus/usb/drivers/usbhid/bind

I'm fairly certain the drive should be the mceusb driver. Under windows, this transceiver does show up as a regular Microsoft eHome transceiver. A similar (external) IR device gets bound to the correct driver. Below an extract from dmesg showing the Internal Sony ehome transceiver and the external Philips transceiver.

[ 5.069102] input: SONY IR Receiver as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.2/usb4/4-2/4-2:1.1/0003:054C:037C.0005/input/input5

[ 5.125138] hid-generic 0003:054C:037C.0005: input,hiddev0,hidraw4: USB HID v1.10 Device [SONY IR Receiver] on usb-0000:00:1d.2-2/input1

[ 14.176836] rc rc0: Media Center Ed. eHome Infrared Remote Transceiver (0471:0815) as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.1/usb3/3-1/3-1:1.0/rc/rc0

[ 14.214514] rc rc0: lirc_dev: driver ir-lirc-codec (mceusb) registered at minor = 0

[ 14.289974] input: Media Center Ed. eHome Infrared Remote Transceiver (0471:0815) as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.1/usb3/3-1/3-1:1.0/rc/rc0/input6

[ 14.505328] mceusb 3-1:1.0: Registered Philips eHome Infrared Transceiver with mce emulator interface version 1

[ 14.505331] mceusb 3-1:1.0: 2 tx ports (0x3 cabled) and 2 rx sensors (0x1 active)

[ 14.505414] usbcore: registered new interface driver mceusb

Remains the question how to bind the sony transceiver to mceusb driver.

Tadzio

**HiassofT** · April 2, 2018 at 11:11 AM

Ah, sorry, I completely forgot about the dynamic device id feature.

The unbind from usbhid looks fine, but to use the device with the mceusb driver you have to extend mceusb's device id table. Try this:

Code

echo -n "054c 037c" > /sys/bus/usb/drivers/mceusb/new_id

There exist several variants/generations of MCE USB receivers, the line above will use the MCE Gen2 variant (which is also used by the Philips eHome receiver). If this doesn't work you can tell new_id to copy the configuration from an existing device.

This line should make mceusb use the original Microsoft (MCE GEN1) protocol version:

Code

echo -n "054c 037c 0 045e 006d" > /sys/bus/usb/drivers/mceusb/new_id

"045e 006d" are the USB vendor/product ID of the microsoft MCE receiver. Have a look at the usb device id table in the mceusb driver for supported devices / variants linux/mceusb.c at master · torvalds/linux · GitHub (VENDOR_XXX definitions are a few lines above).

so long,

Hias

Tadzio · April 2, 2018 at 4:59 PM

Hi Hias,

Thanks again! Made great progress today with the input you provided. Here are the commands I run to make the remote work:

modprobe mceusb

echo -n "4-2:1.1" > /sys/bus/usb/drivers/usbhid/unbind

echo -n "054c 037c 0 0609 0322" > /sys/bus/usb/drivers/mceusb/new_id

I'm now struggling with two more issues:

1) How do I make this configuration "permanent"? Now I have to run the above commands at each reboot.

2) All button on the remote seem to work fine, but none of the keys on my mce keyboard are recognized. Is there a way to have the keystrokes of the keyboard recognized. Even tho I use mostly the remote, the keyboard comes in handy for searches, passwords, etc.

Big thanks for all the support,

Tadzio

**HiassofT** · April 2, 2018 at 10:21 PM

Thanks a lot for the feedback, glad you got it working!

To make this permanent create a /storage/.config/autostart.sh file with the 2 commands. You might have to put a "sleep 1" after the unbind command so the kernel has some time to do the unbinding.

Using an MCE keyboard is going to be tricky.

These keyboards use a special IR protocol (mce_kbd) which you have to enable in addition to the rc-6 protocol used for MCE remotes:

Code

ir-keytable -p rc-6,mce_kbd

Now you should see scancodes in ir-keytable -t which you can map to keycodes (not 100% sure, never tried this, I don't have such a keyboard).

One problem though will be that all these scancodes/keycodes will hit kodi as LIRC events, meaning you'd have to map A-Z keys and special keys like "Shift" etc won't be processed as usual.

One way around this would be to disable eventlircd (which translates input to lirc events). If you do this you'll have to use a modified rc6_mce keytable as some keycodes (eg "KEY_OK") aren't supported by kodi.

so long,

Hias

Tadzio · April 4, 2018 at 2:48 PM

Hi Hias,

Again great tips! Got my IR receiver recognized from boot. My keyboard keystrokes do show up in kodi. And the mouse pointer seems to work too. The keystrokes are however recognized as long presses. A single character would be repeated forever. Here is an example from kodi.log:

13:32:59.329 T:140300526767424 DEBUG: Keyboard: scancode: 0x09, sym: 0x001b, unicode: 0x001b, modifier: 0x0 13:33:20.505 T:140298833385216 DEBUG: Previous line repeats 526 times.

The keystrokes from the keyboard do not show up in irww or ir-keytable -p mce_kbd -t even after stopping kodi and eventlircd. Those from the remote appear just fine.

BTW: I did replace the rc6_mce keytable replacing keycodes such as KEY_OK, KEY_PVR, KEY_CHANNELUP, KEY_CHANNELDOWN, etc.

Any idea what causes the keys to be repeated, and why they aren't visible in ir-keytable -t?

Thanks!

Tadzio

**HiassofT** · April 4, 2018 at 5:37 PM

Interesting. It looks like the mce_kbd decoder might be sending a key down event but no key up event.

Also odd that ir-keytable -t doesn't show anything, I'd expected to see KEY_... events from the driver.

Could you install the system tools addon and check with evtest instead of ir-keytable -t? Kodi and eventlircd must be stopped, as usual. Please post the evtest output of a short keypress.

It would also be interesting to have a capture of the raw IR signals, then I could try to reproduce that here. Could you run the following command

Code

ir-ctl --receive=rawkey.txt

then press a key on the IR keyboard, then abort ir-ctl with control-c and upload the file "rawkey.txt" here?

so long,

Hias

Tadzio · April 5, 2018 at 3:34 AM

Hi Hias,

I noticed indeed that it's sending only down keys and no up keys.

Below to extract from evtest (short press 'e' followed by short press 'h'):

Code

# evtest
No device specified, trying to scan all of /dev/input/event*
Available devices:
/dev/input/event0:      Power Button
/dev/input/event1:      Sony RF Receiver
/dev/input/event2:      Sony RF Receiver
/dev/input/event3:      Media Center Ed. eHome Infrared Remote Transceiver (054:037c)
/dev/input/event4:      HDA Digital PCBeep
/dev/input/event5:      HDA Intel Mic
/dev/input/event6:      HDA Intel Headphone
/dev/input/event7:      MCE IR Keyboard/Mouse (mceusb)
Select the device event number [0-7]: 7
Input driver version is 1.0.1
Input device ID: bus 0x0 vendor 0x0 product 0x0 version 0x0
Input device name: "MCE IR Keyboard/Mouse (mceusb)"
Supported events:
  Event type 0 (EV_SYN)
  Event type 1 (EV_KEY)
    Event code 1 (KEY_ESC)
    Event code 2 (KEY_1)
    Event code 3 (KEY_2)
    Event code 4 (KEY_3)
    Event code 5 (KEY_4)
    Event code 6 (KEY_5)
    Event code 7 (KEY_6)
    Event code 8 (KEY_7)
    Event code 9 (KEY_8)
    Event code 10 (KEY_9)
    Event code 11 (KEY_0)
    Event code 12 (KEY_MINUS)
    Event code 13 (KEY_EQUAL)
    Event code 14 (KEY_BACKSPACE)
    Event code 15 (KEY_TAB)
    Event code 16 (KEY_Q)
    Event code 17 (KEY_W)
    Event code 18 (KEY_E)
    Event code 19 (KEY_R)
    Event code 20 (KEY_T)
    Event code 21 (KEY_Y)
    Event code 22 (KEY_U)
    Event code 23 (KEY_I)
    Event code 24 (KEY_O)
    Event code 25 (KEY_P)
    Event code 26 (KEY_LEFTBRACE)
    Event code 27 (KEY_RIGHTBRACE)
    Event code 28 (KEY_ENTER)
    Event code 29 (KEY_LEFTCTRL)
    Event code 30 (KEY_A)
    Event code 31 (KEY_S)
    Event code 32 (KEY_D)
    Event code 33 (KEY_F)
    Event code 34 (KEY_G)
    Event code 35 (KEY_H)
    Event code 36 (KEY_J)
    Event code 37 (KEY_K)
    Event code 38 (KEY_L)
    Event code 39 (KEY_SEMICOLON)
    Event code 40 (KEY_APOSTROPHE)
    Event code 41 (KEY_GRAVE)
    Event code 42 (KEY_LEFTSHIFT)
    Event code 43 (KEY_BACKSLASH)
    Event code 44 (KEY_Z)
    Event code 45 (KEY_X)
    Event code 46 (KEY_C)
    Event code 47 (KEY_V)
    Event code 48 (KEY_B)
    Event code 49 (KEY_N)
    Event code 50 (KEY_M)
    Event code 51 (KEY_COMMA)
    Event code 52 (KEY_DOT)
    Event code 53 (KEY_SLASH)
    Event code 54 (KEY_RIGHTSHIFT)
    Event code 55 (KEY_KPASTERISK)
    Event code 56 (KEY_LEFTALT)
    Event code 57 (KEY_SPACE)
    Event code 58 (KEY_CAPSLOCK)
    Event code 59 (KEY_F1)
    Event code 60 (KEY_F2)
    Event code 61 (KEY_F3)
    Event code 62 (KEY_F4)
    Event code 63 (KEY_F5)
    Event code 64 (KEY_F6)
    Event code 65 (KEY_F7)
    Event code 66 (KEY_F8)
    Event code 67 (KEY_F9)
    Event code 68 (KEY_F10)
    Event code 69 (KEY_NUMLOCK)
    Event code 70 (KEY_SCROLLLOCK)
    Event code 71 (KEY_KP7)
    Event code 72 (KEY_KP8)
    Event code 73 (KEY_KP9)
    Event code 74 (KEY_KPMINUS)
    Event code 75 (KEY_KP4)
    Event code 76 (KEY_KP5)
    Event code 77 (KEY_KP6)
    Event code 78 (KEY_KPPLUS)
    Event code 79 (KEY_KP1)
    Event code 80 (KEY_KP2)
    Event code 81 (KEY_KP3)
    Event code 82 (KEY_KP0)
    Event code 83 (KEY_KPDOT)
    Event code 85 (KEY_ZENKAKUHANKAKU)
    Event code 86 (KEY_102ND)
    Event code 87 (KEY_F11)
    Event code 88 (KEY_F12)
    Event code 89 (KEY_RO)
    Event code 90 (KEY_KATAKANA)
    Event code 91 (KEY_HIRAGANA)
    Event code 92 (KEY_HENKAN)
    Event code 93 (KEY_KATAKANAHIRAGANA)
    Event code 94 (KEY_MUHENKAN)
    Event code 95 (KEY_KPJPCOMMA)
    Event code 96 (KEY_KPENTER)
    Event code 97 (KEY_RIGHTCTRL)
    Event code 98 (KEY_KPSLASH)
    Event code 99 (KEY_SYSRQ)
    Event code 100 (KEY_RIGHTALT)
    Event code 102 (KEY_HOME)
    Event code 103 (KEY_UP)
    Event code 104 (KEY_PAGEUP)
    Event code 105 (KEY_LEFT)
    Event code 106 (KEY_RIGHT)
    Event code 107 (KEY_END)
    Event code 108 (KEY_DOWN)
    Event code 109 (KEY_PAGEDOWN)
    Event code 110 (KEY_INSERT)
    Event code 111 (KEY_DELETE)
    Event code 113 (KEY_MUTE)
    Event code 114 (KEY_VOLUMEDOWN)
    Event code 115 (KEY_VOLUMEUP)
    Event code 116 (KEY_POWER)
    Event code 117 (KEY_KPEQUAL)
    Event code 119 (KEY_PAUSE)
    Event code 121 (KEY_KPCOMMA)
    Event code 122 (KEY_HANGUEL)
    Event code 123 (KEY_HANJA)
    Event code 124 (KEY_YEN)
    Event code 125 (KEY_LEFTMETA)
    Event code 126 (KEY_RIGHTMETA)
    Event code 127 (KEY_COMPOSE)
    Event code 128 (KEY_STOP)
    Event code 129 (KEY_AGAIN)
    Event code 130 (KEY_PROPS)
    Event code 131 (KEY_UNDO)
    Event code 132 (KEY_FRONT)
    Event code 133 (KEY_COPY)
    Event code 134 (KEY_OPEN)
    Event code 135 (KEY_PASTE)
    Event code 136 (KEY_FIND)
    Event code 137 (KEY_CUT)
    Event code 138 (KEY_HELP)
    Event code 140 (KEY_CALC)
    Event code 142 (KEY_SLEEP)
    Event code 150 (KEY_WWW)
    Event code 152 (KEY_SCREENLOCK)
    Event code 158 (KEY_BACK)
    Event code 159 (KEY_FORWARD)
    Event code 161 (KEY_EJECTCD)
    Event code 163 (KEY_NEXTSONG)
    Event code 164 (KEY_PLAYPAUSE)
    Event code 165 (KEY_PREVIOUSSONG)
    Event code 166 (KEY_STOPCD)
    Event code 173 (KEY_REFRESH)
    Event code 176 (KEY_EDIT)
    Event code 177 (KEY_SCROLLUP)
    Event code 178 (KEY_SCROLLDOWN)
    Event code 183 (KEY_F13)
    Event code 184 (KEY_F14)
    Event code 185 (KEY_F15)
    Event code 186 (KEY_F16)
    Event code 187 (KEY_F17)
    Event code 188 (KEY_F18)
    Event code 189 (KEY_F19)
    Event code 190 (KEY_F20)
    Event code 191 (KEY_F21)
    Event code 192 (KEY_F22)
    Event code 193 (KEY_F23)
    Event code 194 (KEY_F24)
    Event code 272 (BTN_LEFT)
    Event code 273 (BTN_RIGHT)
  Event type 2 (EV_REL)
    Event code 0 (REL_X)
    Event code 1 (REL_Y)
  Event type 4 (EV_MSC)
    Event code 4 (MSC_SCAN)
Key repeat handling:
  Repeat type 20 (EV_REP)
    Repeat code 0 (REP_DELAY)
      Value    500
    Repeat code 1 (REP_PERIOD)
      Value     33
Properties:
Testing ... (interrupt to exit)
Event: time 1522893864.169992, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 1 (KEY_ESC), value 0
Event: time 1522893864.169992, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1522893864.304990, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 18 (KEY_E), value 1
Event: time 1522893864.304990, type 4 (EV_MSC), code 4 (MSC_SCAN), value 800
Event: time 1522893864.304990, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1522893879.357130, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 18 (KEY_E), value 0
Event: time 1522893879.357130, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1522893879.409112, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 35 (KEY_H), value 1
Event: time 1522893879.409112, type 4 (EV_MSC), code 4 (MSC_SCAN), value b00
Event: time 1522893879.409112, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------

Display More

And the result of ir-ctl --receive=rawkey.txt is attached.

Thanks,

Tadzio

rawkey.txt

**HiassofT** · April 5, 2018 at 11:39 PM

Thanks a lot for the test output and the capture!

I could reproduce the issue here, it looks like it's a bug in the kernel's MCE keyboard decoder (or probably multiple issues in there).

I'll have a closer look at it and discuss it with the kernel maintainer. I'll keep you posted about the status.

so long,

Hias

**HiassofT** · April 10, 2018 at 11:50 AM

Sean, the kernel maintainer, was faster than me and discovered and fixed the issue before I had time to have a closer look at it [v2,6/7] media: rc: mce_kbd decoder: fix stuck keys - Patchwork

A backport of the fix will be included in LE 8.2.5 [8.2] fix stuck keys with MCE keyboard by HiassofT · Pull Request #2643 · LibreELEC/LibreELEC.tv · GitHub

so long,

Hias

Tadzio · April 12, 2018 at 12:38 AM

Really great news. Thanks a lot.