Getting a non standard MCE IR receiver to work with XBMC

That is, one that doesn't work 'out of the box'.  I bought this remote and reciever:

...thinking because it was another MCE remote/reciever and supported RC6 like my other one (a Rock Vista Remote) - it would just be plug in and go.

Not so much.

No response what so ever from the remote.  In a shell, tried 'irw' - no response at all.  Oh dear.  Is it broken?  Probably not, tried it under Windows, ok it works.

In the shell, lsusb gives:

• Bus 005 Device 002: ID 147a:e03e Formosa Industrial Computing, Inc.


• Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub


• Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub


• Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub


• Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub


• Bus 001 Device 004: ID 04d9:1203 Holtek Semiconductor, Inc. MC Industries Keyboard


• Bus 001 Device 002: ID 05e3:0605 Genesys Logic, Inc. USB 2.0 Hub [ednet]


• Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

That top device is the reciever (unplug it and it goes away, plug it in and there it is, that's my fancy way of working it out!) Turns out that reciever is not supported by the lirc that comes with XBMCLive (well, this Freak B2T3 version anyway).

Followed this guide to add the device to the list of MCE compatible recievers: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/InstallLirc/Hardy#Adding%20support%20for%20more%20remotes One caveat - I had to do one extra thing as there's been a recent change in lirc:

sudo rmmod lirc_mceusb2
sudo rmmod lirc_dev
sudo modprobe lirc_dev
sudo modprobe lirc_mceusb2
sudo /etc/init.d/lirc restart

(the extra bit is to remove lirc_dev and add the new one back in).

Wa la - remote works just like my other one.