Snapstream Firefly remote not working

[MaxWildwood]

This remote is listed in the Mythbuntu 7.10 Control Center as Snapstream X10 Remote, but does not work when selected. As a diagnostic step, I ran irw, but there was no response to key presses from the remote.

I tried several things In the ubuntu community forum description of the lirc installation procedure, but to no avail. However, I found a thread from someone having a similar problem. Following their advice, I found that the names that refer to this remote in hardware.conf, lircd.conf, and lircrc are inconsistent. The name "Snapstream X10 Remote" is used in hardware.conf. The name Snapstream Firefly is used in lircd.conf, and lircrc just uses Snapstream. I changed all the names to Snapstream to get it to work.

I did not attempt to determine whether the earlier changes I made affected operation of the remote or not, but clearly the names in the files should be corrected.

[laga (laga)]

Does this work in Mythbuntu 8.04 or later?

[MaxWildwood (nsteve27)]

I do not know for sure, but I think the names would have to be consistent in
any version.

On Sun, Sep 21, 2008 at 1:51 PM, laga <email address hidden> wrote:

> Does this work in Mythbuntu 8.04 or later?
>
> ** Changed in: mythbuntu
> Status: New => Incomplete
>
> --
> Snapstream Firefly remote not working
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/176613
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

[worldwidejoe (worldwidejoe)]

This is still happening in 9.04. This still seems to be quite a cause of confusion and traffic on the forums. It may actually be an Lirc issue, I'm not sure.

[MarcRandolph (mrand)]

Could you attach a link to the forum discussions discussing the various problems and solutions people have come up with? It'll help save the developers just that much more time.

Thank you!

[lightning9 (mh-lightning9)]

Here are a couple forum threads I have created outlining how I fixed the issue.

How I got it working in 8.04/8.10 (which includes a link to unique channel support):
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=884972

How I got it working in 9.04 since /etc/modprobe.d/aliases disappeared in favor of a much more elegant solution:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1162085

I think it really boils down to the inconsistent names in the different files outlined in the original bug post. However, it looks like the names have been fixed in 9.04 but it still didn't work for me OOTB. Perhaps it has to do with the kernel module parameters I had to add in the /etc/modprobe.d/lirc_atiusb? Because, if I remove that file, it doesn't work regardless of which channel codes my remote is emitting.

I am quite linux literate and have a few spare hard drives I can experiment with (although spare time is a bit harder to come by) so let me know how I can help.

Thanks!

[lightning9 (mh-lightning9)]

I started with a blank hard drive, worked through a number of different scenarios and here's what I found (if anybody's interested).

During Myth 9.04 installation, I selected the "Snapstream X10 RF" remote and had it generate the dynamic button mappings (or whatever that checkbox says).

Once installed:
In /etc/lirc/hardware.conf, remote name is Snapstream X10 RF (This name doesn't seem to matter).
In /usr/share/lirc/remotes/atiusb/lircd.conf.atiusb, there are two snapstream remote definitions: "Snapstream Firefly" and "Snapstream_Firefly_R1000" (without the quotes).
In ~/.lirc/*, remote names are "Snapstream" and "Snapstream_Firefly_R1000"

To get debug messages in /var/log/syslog, I created an /etc/modprobe.d/lirc_atiusb.conf file with the contents:
    option lirc_atiusb debug=1

Exit myth frontend
/etc/init.d/lirc stop
rmmod lirc_atiusb
/etc/init.d/lirc restart

Syslog contains message:
    May 21 17:28:40 m0 lircd-0.8.4a[5496]: garbage after 'name' token in line 1941 ignored
where line 1941 of /usr/share/lirc/remotes/atiusb/lircd.conf.atiusb is "name Snapstream Firefly".

buttons are registered in syslog
nothing happens in myth frontend

Obviously, the config parser doesn't like the space in the remote name so,
in /usr/share/lirc/remotes/atiusb/lircd.conf.atiusb,
I removed " Firefly" leaving the name as Snapstream which also makes it consistent with the names in ~/.lirc/*.

However,
Exit myth frontend
/etc/init.d/lirc stop
rmmod lirc_atiusb
/etc/init.d/lirc restart
buttons are registered in syslog
nothing happens in myth frontend

in /usr/share/lirc/remotes/atiusb/lircd.conf.atiusb,
Moved the Snapstream block from lines 1939 - 2053 to top of file
exit myth frontend
rmmod lirc_atiusb
restart lirc
restart myth frontend
buttons are registered in syslog
MYTH WORKS!

in /usr/share/lirc/remotes/atiusb/lircd.conf.atiusb,
Removed the Snapstream block from the top of file, leaving the Snapstream_Firefly_R1000 block down at the end (not exactly sure of the line numbers but is was below the original Snapstream block so it had to be > approx 1850.

exit myth frontend
rmmod lirc_atiusb
restart lirc
restart myth frontend
buttons are registered in syslog
nothing happens in myth frontend

in /usr/share/lirc/remotes/atiusb/lircd.conf.atiusb,
Moved the Snapstream_Firefly_R1000 block from near the bottom of the file to top,
exit myth frontend
rmmod lirc_atiusb
restart lirc
restart myth frontend
buttons are registered in syslog
MYTH WORKS!

At this point, I surmised the include feature of the /etc/lirc/lircd.conf parser works, but there seems to be a limit to the length of the file it can read.

I then started to break the orignal lircd.conf.atiusb down into a Snapstream.conf and other sub-files of different lengths and then including the files in different orders within /etc/lirc/lircd.conf. This is where I got tired of testing the many different scenarios, but here is what I found.

if /etc/lircd.conf looks like this:

  include "/usr/share/lirc/remotes/atiusb/Snapstream.conf"

The remote works.

if /etc/lircd.conf looks like this:

  include "/usr/share/lirc/remotes/atiusb/<approx_100_line_config>"
  include "/usr/share/lirc/remotes/atiusb/Snapstream...

[Thomas Mashos (tgm4883)]

Marking incomplete as this release isn't supported anymore. Can anyone confirm that this issue is still present on a supported Mythbuntu/MythTV release?

[Mike Brinson (mbrinson)]

I can confirm that this is still an issue with the latest release of Mythbuntu/MythTV release.

Please see this bug report-> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/lirc/+bug/787742
And this bug report (should probably be combined) -> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/lirc/+bug/787735
And this forum thread -> http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1765194

[Thomas Mashos (tgm4883)]

We really do appreciate you opening this ticket to help improve Mythbuntu, but it needs to be closed for a number of reasons. The biggest one is that upstream has moved on to a new version and believes this to be fixed. Could you please verify if this issue still exists in the latest version?

Please do not let the closing of this ticket dissuade you from opening a new ticket if this (or any other) problem occurs with the newer versions.