[jsimmons]

I recently made a wholesale migration from Windows to Linux (13 machines) at home, and one of them is a HTPC.

Installed Ubuntu 18.04 on a NUC, and have a Microsoft MCE remote (HA-IR01SV). This remote worked fine on Windows/MediaPortal, but Kodi refuses to recognize some of the buttons.

When I run ir-keytable, it sees/identifies all the buttons fine, so I figure Ubuntu is not the problem.

I tried the key-mapper add-on for Kodi, and it doesn't see all the buttons either.

To be honest, I've been messing with this crap on and off for about three weeks, trying various versions and flavors of Ubuntu, and it's always the same story, ir-keytable sees all the buttons, but Kodi doesn't see them all.

I'm pretty fed up at this point and just want this to work, so, it's come down to trying to find out what remote will actually work out-of-the-box with Kodi, because despite claims to the contrary, the MCE remote from Microsoft does NOT.

Which one(s) should I look at? BTW, whatever I get has to be able to be replaced with a Logitech Harmony universal remote.

[NeoCortex]

Just get one of these and use any remote: https://flirc.tv/

I have one hooked up to a RaspPi system and after spending some time on the initial mapping, it's worked great.  On my Windows PC, I use an old StreamZap remote.  It works great, but I had to go through using EventGhost to map everything properly.  Flirc is probably the most reliable to get working since it just emulates keyboard inputs.

[birdwatcher]

Here is the best answer I have found, I have personally done this on two HTPC's now and it's worked great:
Make LIRC work in Ubuntu 18.04, so that you can use your infrared remote in Kodi

[disaacso]

you probably nee to go to /etc/rckeymaps/mce6 (probably not the exact address but close) and change the keys that don't work to have a value kodi understands.  Heres an example, but you can use different values if you want.

[birdwatcher]

Flirc ... just emulates keyboard inputs.

Therein lies the problem - it makes your remote work like a keyboard, not a remote, so if you are used to using an IR remote with LIRC some things will not work as you expect.

Plus it appears to be kind of an expensive little device compared to other devices with similar electronic content.  IMHO something like that should be priced at around $10 US.

[jsimmons]

I know about the FLIRC USB dongle, but if ir-keytable sees the buttons (implying that my infrared receiver is working as it should), what tangible benefit would a different infrared receiver give me?

Not trying to be argumentative, just trying to understand.

[jsimmons]

Here is the best answer I have found, I have personally done this on two HTPC's now and it's worked great:
Make LIRC work in Ubuntu 18.04, so that you can use your infrared remote in Kodi

 That worked! Many thanks, oh Great and Powerful Oz!

[birdwatcher]

I know about the FLIRC USB dongle, but if ir-keytable sees the buttons (implying that my infrared receiver is working as it should), what tangible benefit would a different infrared receiver give me?

Not trying to be argumentative, just trying to understand.

 In my opinion using FLIRC is the "let's throw money at the problem" approach; it basically takes the input from a remote and converts it to keyboard presses, so Kodi thinks it's getting input from a keyboard, not a remote.  Also it's not a real good solution if you want to use your remote to perform some functions outside of Kodi, such as starting Kodi from the desktop or rebooting the system.

The problem with using ir-keytable is that as you have discovered, it doesn't recognize all the keys, and also some have reported that it often recognizes other keys twice.  So it's barely usable, but can give you a frustrating experience in Kodi.  Some people have resorted to various extreme measures to try to fix this but I've seen no uncomplicated solution that involves using ir-keytable.

The problem with using the current version of LIRC in the Ubuntu 18.XX repository is that it just doesn't work.  The developers made some major changes to it and (again in my opinion) turned it into a steaming pile of excrement, and like many developers they appear to be too pigheaded to admit (or just don't care) that they totally broke their software as far as the average user is concerned.  I have not heard of ANYONE getting the current version of LIRC in the Ubuntu 18.04/18.10 repository to work.

As the article I linked in my previous post explains, the solution that really seems to work well for those who have tried it is to use a previous version of LIRC (read all the comments at the end of the article).  Which in my opinion some programmer ought to fork and continue developing, since as far as I am aware it is the only thing that still works well in Kodi and makes all your remote buttons work as you'd expect, at least if you are using a Windows Media Center Edition compatible infrared remote.  It seems quite clear that the original developers want nothing more to do with that version of LIRC, so they really shouldn't be too upset if someone forks it and continues development on it.  I don't know the first thing about programming beyond very simple bash scripts, but someone who knows more than I would do the community a service by rescuing that version of LIRC, and maybe renaming it so it could coexist in the Ubuntu repository with the abomination that's now called LIRC.

[birdwatcher]

Here is the best answer I have found, I have personally done this on two HTPC's now and it's worked great:
Make LIRC work in Ubuntu 18.04, so that you can use your infrared remote in Kodi

 That worked! Many thanks, oh Great and Powerful Oz! 

You're very welcome, glad it worked for you!

[jsimmons]

Well, this is strange. I got it working, snd then I installed samba on the box, and all of a sudden, I'm back to a partially working remote.

I'm going to try the fix again, but maybe the problem may be related to a dependency of LIRC, and not LIRC itself.

[jsimmons]

Well, reapplying the fix I used earlier did not work.

Looks like I have to start over...

[jsimmons]

I started completely over:

- Installed Ubuntu 18.04, installed updates and then turned off automatic updates.
- Installed openssh, samba, MySQL workbench, and Kodi
- Ran update/upgrade
- Installed lirc according to that web site cited earlier

The remote works (for now). It appears as if you install anything that updates a LIRC dependency (after you installed the correct version of LIRC), it breaks the MCE remote.

[jsimmons]

This is bizarre - when I got home from work last night, I tried using the remote on Kodi, and the buttons have stopped working again. I'm stumped, and just a little pissed off...

[dandnsmith]

Sanity check:
After your last updates and LIRC install, did you check automatic updates were still turned off?

[jsimmons]

Sanity check:
After your last updates and LIRC install, did you check automatic updates were still turned off?

 Yeah, but apparently I missed a step - locking LIRC to keep it from being updated.

I have a completely new environment/hardware now, and as you might guess, I have a whole new set of issues. Silver lining - the remote appears to be working.