Microsoft MCE Remote and LIRC

Getting our Microsoft MCE remote to work with LIRC (and MythTV) proved to be a little more challenging than expected. However, quite a bit of reading and a few hours of trying later, it works!

First, I tried the easiest option, found in the KnoppMyth user forums:

cp /usr/local/share/knoppmyth/remotes/mceusb2/etc/lircd.conf /etc/lircd.conf
cp /usr/local/share/knoppmyth/remotes/mceusb2/etc/lircrc /home/mythtv/.mythtv/

I also had to change /etc/init.d/lirc from:
start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --exec /usr/sbin/lircd -- $LIRCD_ARGS \
to:
start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --exec /usr/sbin/lircd \

...which, after a reboot, apparently did nothing. I undid these changes and tried the instructions for setting up a Microsoft MCE 2004 remote, according to the KnoppMythWiki. Towards the end of the instructions, you're instructed to wget a new lircrc into /home/mythtv/.mythtv; the URI listed kept timing out. I Googled a bit and found another lircrc file to use. (Though I should have bookmarked the page to share!)

The result was a working remote! irw recognized key presses and MythTV correctly responded, too. Just for kicks, I decided to reboot to ensure it would still work... but it didn't. LIRC gave a few errors about a plugin and not finding the mceusb module (again I should have written down exactly what it said). Try as I might, I couldn't get the remote to work again.

Finally I bounced over to the MythTV Wiki and the MCE Remote page. I followed these instructions--which were primarily different in that I was instructed to use LIRC 0.8.0 rather than 0.7.2. Those instructions did work, and survived a reboot. Everything is good now!

I should point out that since the MCE Remote instructions don't end with detailing how to copy a working lircrc file to your /home/mythtv/.mythtv/ directory, I'd guess it wouldn't actually work in MythTV.

Anyway, it's working now. I'm going to work at keeping better track of all these little things I have to do. I can't contribute to the MythTV project as a programmer, but maybe I can help with the documentation--particularly from the newbie point-of-view.