The adventures of LibreElec and a really old IR remote..

Protocol Zero · March 13, 2019 at 8:24 PM

So yes, I am very much aware I'm using ancient hardware, but I want to at least try to find a way to make this work before I just give up. A little background first: I've been using the really old original Xbox DVD dongle for years, ever since I first made the move from XMBC on the Xbox to XBMC on Ubuntu. It was the hardware I had available and I just kept using it. I kept it when I moved to OpenElec and then to LibreElec. However, on both OE and LE I had to add some custom files to make it work right. It would always work, as in the buttons respond, but there was this awful lag and then rapid button reaction. (I.E. If I press left 3 times quickly, it would move left once - pause - move left about 4 spaces, always more than I pressed it). Some way smarter people than me figured out that you needed a file named "lirc.conf" in "storage/.config/" that has this:

Code

# Please make this file available to others
# by sending it to <lirc@bartelmus.de>
#
# this config file was automatically generated
# using lirc-0.9.1-git(default) on Sat Jan 26 21:54:39 2013
#
# contributed by 
#
# brand:                       xbox.conf
# model no. of remote control: 
# devices being controlled by this remote:
#

begin remote

  name  xbox.conf
  bits            8
  eps            30
  aeps          100

  one             0     0
  zero            0     0
  gap          33950
  min_repeat      4
#  suppress_repeat 4
#  uncomment to suppress unwanted repeats
#  toggle_bit_mask 0x72
  toggle_bit_mask 0xE1

      begin codes
          KEY_OK                   0x0B
          KEY_PLAY                 0xEA
          KEY_STOP                 0xE0
          KEY_PAUSE                0xE6
          KEY_NEXT                 0xDF
          KEY_PREVIOUS             0xDD
          KEY_FASTFORWARD          0xE3
          KEY_REWIND               0xE2
          KEY_PROG1                0xD5
          KEY_EPG                  0xE5
          KEY_INFO                 0xC3
          KEY_UP                   0xA6
          KEY_DOWN                 0xA7
          KEY_LEFT                 0xA9
          KEY_RIGHT                0xA8
          KEY_MENU                 0xF7
          KEY_EXIT                 0xD8
          KEY_0                    0xCF
          KEY_1                    0xCE
          KEY_2                    0xCD
          KEY_3                    0xCC
          KEY_4                    0xCB
          KEY_5                    0xCA
          KEY_6                    0xC9
          KEY_7                    0xC8
          KEY_8                    0xC7
          KEY_9                    0xC6
      end codes

end remote

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And it was specifically the "gap" number that needed to be adjusted for this issue. Now I'm no expert on any of this, I could absolutely be wrong, I was just following a guide that was posted on the OE forums that fixed my issue. It did also mention using lirc_xbox which the wiki mentioned was not added to LE 9.x so maybe that's an issue as well?

The problem I'm having now, is using the file above, I'm able to use this remote on LE 8.x without an issue, but when I move to LE 9.x I start having that same lag and rapid button press reaction again. Only now I have no idea what to do or how to fix it. The remote does technically work and all buttons are recognized and doing the proper command, but how do I stop the rapid button press issue?

Thank you to anyone who can help me, and I am very sorry for wasting any time on ancient hardware!

**HiassofT** · March 13, 2019 at 8:35 PM

If you are using LE on RPi or x86 just delete the lircd.conf file - kernel 4.19 ships with a driver for the old Xbox DVD remote/dongle so it should work fine out of the box.

so long,

Hias

Protocol Zero · March 13, 2019 at 8:51 PM

Oh I'm sorry! I forgot to mention my hardware, I'm just using an HTPC that has LibreELEC-Generic.x86_64-9.0.1.img.gz installed on it. Currently it's a clean install with nothing touched, I'm trying to set this up correctly before I move on! So the lirc.conf file doesn't exist currently but I'm still getting the delay if I press any button too rapidly.

Meganiekje · March 13, 2019 at 8:59 PM

I have problems with my MCE Remote as well. It worked fine for years but since updating to LE9.0.1 (clean install) it has problems with te power button. I can not correctly wake up from suspend. Is there a way to revert back to lirc, and not use the build-in linux driver ?

Protocol Zero · March 15, 2019 at 9:53 AM

So after lots of trials and errors, and installing LE multiple times to confirm it's not a bad install, I'm still having the same issue. Yes the device does technically work out of the box like HiassofT mentioned, but it does not work well. The device is recognized and it does interpret button presses, but there are a few issues using it. Like I mentioned in my original post, if I press any button multiple times quickly, it'll register one press, pause and then rapidly trigger most of the other presses (not all of them, so it's kind of impossible to guess a reaction).

All of this is done on a clean untouched install of LE 9.0.1 with no addons installed. Is there anything that can be done?

Meganiekje You could try using a keymap editor and assign the key manually? I've had to do that with a few keys in the past. Not sure if that'll help though? Just thought I'd try!

**HiassofT** · March 15, 2019 at 10:27 AM

Sluggish response to multiple presses seems to be a known issue with the current driver, see the discussion here: linux: restore Xbox DVD Movie Playback Kit support by benpicco · Pull Request #3015 · LibreELEC/LibreELEC.tv · GitHub

The correct parameters (repeat period and timeout) haven't been measured and configured in the driver yet - see explanation here Re: [RFC] [PATCH] media: rc: Improve responsiveness of Xbox DVD Remote

There's not much we can do about it until someone does that, there are no "knobs to turn".

so long,

Hias

Meganiekje · March 15, 2019 at 6:12 PM

Quote from Protocol Zero

[Meganiekje] You could try using a keymap editor and assign the key manually? I've had to do that with a few keys in the past. Not sure if that'll help though? Just thought I'd try!

Good idear, P.Z. but it does not work, I can 'key edit' all the other buttons, but not the power-on button. It looks like it is kind of 'hard coded' into the kernal.

Protocol Zero · March 17, 2019 at 12:00 AM

HiassofT is there a file somewhere that can be edited? I followed those two pages and tried to find a drivers deep in my install and tried to find config files somewhere, but I couldn't. I don't mean a fix or solution, but at least the file I can create or edit that can alter the response time? I'm thinking maybe you don't want to disclose this information because you don't want people editing system files, I've just always been a "do it yourself" kind of person over a "wait for someone else to do it". I do understand if you can't or wont share the files in question, but I also wonder if I can copy the file in question into the .config folder to edit safely? Since I likely have much much more free time than you busy programmers!

Thanks so much for your help!

Meganiekje I have no idea what can edit the power-on button. I've never really shut down my installs before, so I've never needed to power on any of my devices, I've always just left them on. I'm sorry I can't help anymore.

**HiassofT** · March 17, 2019 at 9:49 AM

Unfortunately the parameters which are responsible for the bad response to repeated button presses are not configurable via config files or standard commands.

One of them, the timeout value, can be set on some IR receivers with "ir-ctl -t ...", but the xbox dvd driver has that set to the default 125ms and doesn't allow changing it. The other parameter, the IR repeat period, is set by the IR core - and as the xbox dvd driver specifies RC_PROTO_UNKNOWN it's 125ms too. The repeat period probably isn't too far off, rc-5, rc-6 and NEC have a period of about 110-115ms, but the timeout is probably far too high.

In combination this means pressing a button quicker than about 4 times a second (250ms) isn't recognized as separate button presses but interpreted as a button held down, so the normal key repeat will kick in after half a second. The key repeat settings are configurable (using ir-keytable -D ... -P ...) but that won't help you much with the case of quickly repeated button presses.

so long,

Hias

Protocol Zero · March 17, 2019 at 8:15 PM

HiassofT Thank you so much for taking the time to explain that! I did read up on the changes that happened from LE8 to LE9, but a lot of it went over my head honestly. Was there a particular reason the system was changed so drastically within the IR devices? On a fresh install of LE8 the Xbox DVD controls exactly the same way, but is fixable with some file edits, so I'm just curious why it doesn't work the same way in LE9?

I'm very sorry for all the questions, I'm just trying my best to stay on top of this, and I really do appreciate your time and effort!

**HiassofT** · March 17, 2019 at 10:43 PM

The old lirc IR drivers in the linux kernel were rewritten and moved to the newer RC subsystem (which existed for quite some tine and allows IR decoding to be handled completely in the kernel, without needing to run lircd). When this was finished the old lirc code in the kernel was removed.

The xbox dvd IR driver, which was based on the kernel lirc code, never made it into the linux kernel and for several years OpenELEC and LibreELEC included it as a separate kernel patch (which required updating on almost every kernel update so this meant quite a bit of work for us).

As the base upon the driver was built was removed we had to remove the driver from LE - it was not longer possible to get it working without a major rewrite and as no one in the team had the hardware to test it the was nothing we could do.

A few months ago Benjamin stepped up, rewrote the driver and submitted it to the Linux kernel and also created a backport for the kernel used in LibreELEC - which means current LibreELEC contains again support for the Xbox DVD remote (which was not available for several months during LE9 development).

so long,

Hias

Protocol Zero · March 18, 2019 at 1:15 AM

HiassofT Wow, that was very informative, thank you! I had no idea it was so much work for this one specific thing! At this point, after so much work has been done, would it better to keep waiting and helping (in anyway that I or someone else can) so all this work wasn't wasted, or would it be better to just upgrade the IR hardware that I (or maybe others) have? In my other installs in my house I have an MCE remote with USB receiver for one and a flirc with a harmony remote with the other, and those work flawlessly in LE9.x. I am more than happy to be patient, I'm just a little confused on what's happening at this point. Is it something that might get better in time, or is it at a complete dead end and will not get worked on anymore?

Thank you so much!

**HiassofT** · March 19, 2019 at 2:23 PM

If your MCE USB receiver is a "real" MCE receiver (using the mceusb driver) or if you have an x86 box with a built-in IR receiver or a Raspberry Pi with a GPIO IR receiver we should be able to create a test setup to get the missing parameters and improve the current xbox driver.

Could you run "ir-keytable" on the box where you use the Xbox DVD dongle and on the one with the MCE USB remote and post the output?

I'lll then think about how to best get the needed info with that equipment (already have some ideas

so long,

Hias

Protocol Zero · March 20, 2019 at 7:39 AM

Alright! Sorry for the delay, I had a small electrical emergency in my house! I ran the code on two device, both are running LE9.0.1. The first is an HTPC using the MCE USB Receiver, and the second is a Raspberry Pi running the Xbox DVD dongle. I'll put the outputs below.

Code

HTPC:~ # ir-keytable
Found /sys/class/rc/rc0/ (/dev/input/event10) with:
        Name: Media Center Ed. eHome Infrared Remote Transceiver (1934:5168)
        Driver: mceusb, table: rc-rc6-mce
        lirc device: /dev/lirc0
        Supported protocols: other lirc rc-5 rc-5-sz jvc sony nec sanyo mce_kbd rc-6 sharp xmp
        Enabled protocols: lirc nec rc-6
        bus: 3, vendor/product: 1934:5168, version: 0x0001
        Repeat delay = 500 ms, repeat period = 125 ms

Then on the Raspberry Pi:

Code

RPi:~ # ir-keytable
Found /sys/class/rc/rc0/ (/dev/input/event0) with:
        Name: Xbox DVD USB Remote Control(045e,0284)
        Driver: xbox_remote, table: rc-xbox-dvd
        lirc device: /dev/lirc0
        Supported protocols: unknown
        Enabled protocols: unknown
        bus: 3, vendor/product: 045e:0284, version: 0x000a
        Repeat delay = 500 ms, repeat period = 125 ms

I hope this helps! I'll gladly help in any other way that I can!

**HiassofT** · March 20, 2019 at 11:22 PM

Thanks for the info, the MCE USB receiver looks fine, I have one with the same chipset here.

I'd like you to run 3 tests, before each test do a cold boot and then stop kodi and eventlircd so they don't interfere with testing:

Code

systemctl stop kodi
systemctl stop eventlircd

For the first test plug in the Xbox DVD remote dongle, stop kodi/eventlircd and then run the following command

Code

ir-keytable -t

Then press each of the buttons "1", "2", "3" for about 1-2 seconds, copy the output you got on the console to a text file and attach it here.

For the second test plug in only the MCE USB receiver, stop kodi/eventlircd.

Then grab the raw signals for each of the buttons "1", "2," and "3" while you press them for about 1-2 seconds. Run the following command (substituting 1.txt according to the button you'll press)

Code

ir-ctl -t 200000 -r1.txt

Press the button for 1-2 seconds, then press control-c in the terminal to stop recording. Attach the 3 files (1.txt, 2.txt, 3.txt).

For the third test plug in both the Xbox DVD receiver dongle and the MCE USB receiver.

After bootup (and stopping kodi/eventlircd) run ir-keytable to see which rcX and /dev/lircX device was assigned to the MCE USB receiver (either the Xbox or the MCE device could be number zero and the other number one). The output should look like this

Code

Found /sys/class/rc/rc0/ (/dev/input/event10) with:
        Name: Media Center Ed. eHome Infrared Remote Transceiver (1934:5168)
        Driver: mceusb, table: rc-rc6-mce
        lirc device: /dev/lirc0
...
Found /sys/class/rc/rc1/ (/dev/input/event0) with:
        Name: Xbox DVD USB Remote Control(045e,0284)
        Driver: xbox_remote, table: rc-xbox-dvd
        lirc device: /dev/lirc1

Note the /sys/class/rc/rc0/ and lirc device: /dev/lirc0 in the output of the "Media Center Ed. eHome Infrared Remote Transceiver" / "Driver: mceusb" block - if you got rc1 and/or /dev/lirc1 or something else substitute rc0 and /dev/lirc0 with your values.

Run the following commands:

Code

ir-keytable -s rc0 -p lirc -c
ir-ctl -d /dev/lirc0 -t 20000
echo "nop" > /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/current_tracer
echo "rc_keydown" > /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/set_ftrace_filter
echo "ir_raw_event_store_with_filter" >> /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/set_ftrace_filter
echo "function" > /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/current_tracer

Now press the button "1" for about 2 seconds. Then run the following command to grab the kernel trace:

Code

cat /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/trace | paste

Note the URL you got on the console and post it here together with the files you grabbed in the previous 2 tests.

With that info it should be rather easy to determine the missing parameters.

so long,

Hias

Protocol Zero · March 22, 2019 at 6:38 AM

Sorry for the delay, but I've completed all the tests! I ran all the tests on my Raspberry Pi that has a clean untouched install of LE9.0.1

TEST ONE

TEST TWO

TEST THREE

The only issue I had was when I ran the command "ir-ctl -t 200000 -r1.txt" nothing appeared to happen. I know it was supposed to export the data to a file named "1.txt" but it either didn't do it or I could not find the file. I was using Putty to do this. So instead, I just ran the code "ir-ctl -t 200000 -r" and copied all the data from the log into a text file. I hope that's acceptable and works!

Please let me know if you need anything else!

**HiassofT** · March 22, 2019 at 9:38 AM

Thanks for the tests! The output of test one looks fine, but the outputs of tests 2 and 3 look like you used the MCE remote.

Can you please repeat these tests with the Xbox DVD remote?

We need the specifics of the Xbox DVD remote protocol, and the MCE USB receiver is able to capture raw signals.

So, for test 2, plug in the MCE USB receiver and capture the buttons 1, 2, 3 of your Xbox DVD remote.

For test 3, plug in both recievers and press button 1 on your Xbox DVD remote for about 2 seconds.

so long,

Hias

Protocol Zero · March 22, 2019 at 8:46 PM

I'm so sorry, I misunderstood that part! I'll include the revised results to test two and three now:

TEST TWO:

Test Two - Xbox Remote 1.txt

Test Two - Xbox Remote 2.txt

Test Two - Xbox Remote 3.txt

TEST THREE:

http://ix.io/1eer

I didn't even know the MCE Receiver could receive the signal from the Xbox DVD remote. The one thing I did notice though, on the MCE Receiver if I'm using the MCE remote that came with it, if I hold down a button for 2 seconds, the light on the receiver will stay lit until I let the button go. However, if I use the Xbox DVD remote and I press a button, the light will only stay lit for about 1 full second and then the light turns off. I'm not sure why this is or if it affects the test in any way, just thought you should know!