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testmetest

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Windows 8 build 8250 is out. I think they call it public preview or something like that. I've been using it and love it. I like the much faster boot and so was wondering if this would work. Right now my drivers for the remote doesn't work in Win8, so I thought I'd give this a chance.

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The Flirc is going to show up as a generic USB keyboard, so hardware compatibility won't be an issue. That means that once you have a Flirc that's programmed to interpret your remote's buttons, your remote will send keystrokes to your computer (regardless of the platform). But like Chris!, I don't know if the software for programming the device is compatible with Win8. I think the only person who can answer that is probably Jason, unless another user has already tried it and can report their findings here.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi,

I just got it today, thanks! As promised here is my report on Windows 8 Consumer Preview build 8250:

1. Plugging in flirc: Win8 device manager lists Other devices, flirc with an exclamation/alert pointing that it doesn't have drivers.

2. flirc 0.96 did install though it gave an alert box that it didn't install correctly and to check DPINT.txt.

Here is the relevant part of the DPINT, sorry for the clutter:

INFO: 04/25/2012 23:55:33

INFO: Product Version 2.1.0.0.

INFO: Version: 6.0.6000

INFO: Platform ID: 2 (NT)

INFO: Service Pack: 0.0

INFO: Suite: 0x0100, Product Type: 1

INFO: Architecture: AMD64.

INFO: Interactive Windows Station

INFO: Command Line: '"C:\Program Files (x86)\flirc\driver\dpinst.exe"'

INFO: DPInst is not multi-lingual.

INFO: ****************************************

INFO: Current working directory: 'C:\Program Files (x86)\flirc\driver'

INFO: Running on path 'C:\Program Files (x86)\flirc\driver'

INFO: DPInst.xml does not list the current UI language.

INFO: User UI Language is 0x409.

INFO: Install option set: Suppressing Wizard but no OS popups.

INFO: Install option set: legacy mode on.

INFO: Install option set: Install all driver packages or none.

INFO: Found driver package: 'C:\Program Files (x86)\flirc\driver\flirc.inf'.

INFO: Found driver package: 'C:\Program Files (x86)\flirc\driver\flirc_bootloader.inf'.

INFO: Preinstalling 'c:\program files (x86)\flirc\driver\flirc.inf' ...

INFO: ENTER: DriverPackagePreinstallW

INFO: RETURN: DriverPackagePreinstallW (0xE000022F)

INFO: Returning with code 0x80020000

INFO: 04/25/2012 23:55:33

3. I am able to run flirc, but it says the device is disconnected.

My feeling? I think Win8 is not recognizing it as a keyboard or is wanting to find drivers and can't.

I'm happy to help trouble shoot if you tell me what you want me to do. I'm sure you'll have more people using Win8 in the future.

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So I'm really trying to get this to work. Here's my latest findings:

Control Panel > flirc > update driver > choose \flirc\driver and I get the following message:

Windows found driver software for your device but encountered an error while attempting to install it. The third-party INF does not contain digital signature information.

Any ideas?

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Give this a shot:

How to Enable or Disable Installation of Unsigned Drivers?

Administrators must follow the steps below in order to enable or disable installation of unsigned drivers:

  1. Log on to Windows 8 computer on which installation of unsigned drivers is to be managed.
  2. Assuming that classic start menu has been enabled, go to Start > All Programs > Accessories and from the available list of applications right click Command Prompt.
  3. From the context menu click Run as administrator and on the appeared User Account Control confirmation box click Yes to allow.
  4. On the opened elevated command prompt type
    BCDEDIT –Set LoadOptions DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS
    and press enter key.
  5. Once the command successfully completes type
    BCDEDIT –Set TESTSIGNING ON
    Manage-Driver-Signing-300x150.jpg
  6. In order to revert the changes back to their normal state repeat steps 4 and 5 but with the commands:
    BCDEDIT –Set LoadOptions DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS
    and
    BCDEDIT –Set TESTSIGNING ON


    respectively.

  7. Restart the computer to allow the changes to take effect.

taken from here: http://www.advicehow...soft-windows-8/

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I cleaned up my post/instructions, thanks to digitalb0y for helping.

To install flirc on Windows 8 Consumer Preview (build 8250)

1. Move mouse to the left bottom corner and right click to bring up the administrative menu.

2. Click "Command Prompt (Admin)".

38261402.png

3. Type "BCDEDIT -SET LOADOPTIONS DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS" and press enter.

4. Type "Bcdedit.exe -set TESTSIGNING ON" and press enter.

47944265.png

5. Reboot the computer.

6. Download and install Visual Studio 11 Professional Beta from microsoft.com. This takes about 50 minutes.

7. Move contents from c:\program files (x86)\flirc\driver to c:\test\

8. Move mouse to the bottom left corner of your desktop and open your metro start screen.

9. Open the "Developer Command Prompt" (type "developer" if you can't find it).

43874375.png

10. Type "inf2cat /driver:c:\test\ /os:8_x64" and press enter.

38600735.png

11. Move mouse to the left bottom corner and right click to bring up the administrative menu.

12. Click "Device Manager"

25768552.png

13. Find your flirc device > right click > update driver, choose the directory c:\test\ and ok.

14. The driver should be installed. Now you can run flirc.exe and program your buttons.

15. Open a command prompt (admin) and run "Bcdedit.exe -set TESTSIGNING OFF".

16. ENJOY!

Basically, I believe this is a two step process. One is to allow signing of drivers in test mode. Two is to create a driver catalog file that Windows 8 needs. Then you can install the driver.

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Basically, I believe this is a two step process. One is to allow signing of drivers in test mode. Two is to create a driver catalog file that Windows 8 needs.
Step 2 there took about an an hour to download and install VB and then 1 second to run the command to create the catalog file. If Jason can include this file in flirc.exe, it will save people a ton of time installing it. He may need to create 2 catalog files, one for 32-bit and one for 64-bit.

This will cut install time down from 1 hour to 3 minutes. I'm not sure what to recommend about how to bypass step 1 (which I think would involve a digital signature).

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1) Thanks for figuring out all the hoops to jump through to get this working in Win8.

2) Will this be getting incorporated into the installer anytime soon? I just rec'd my Flirc and would like to second getting this incorporated into the Windows installer.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hi everyone, I'm new here, got my Flirc today. Was excited to test it when got same issue on Windows 8. Followed all the steps, long time installing Visual Studio, but the most important step failed:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\VC>inf2cat /driver:c:\test\ /os:8_x64

'inf2cat' is not recognized as an internal or external command,

operable program or batch file.

Any suggestion?

Thank you!

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OMG, installed Windows 8 Released Preview and driver with my previous changes is invalid, need to reinstall WDK and use inf2cat again. Or better, I'm not sure, because the error message is a little different now:

A problem was encountered while attempting to add the driver to the store

--------------------------------------------------------------------

EDIT: oh, my bad, forgot to disable driver signing on Bcdedit command. Anyway this post would be useful for someone seaching about same error message.

Edited by tbs
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  • 1 month later...

Oh, figured out the solution.Your recommendation about to install Visual Studio, is wrong. User need to install Windows Driver Kit (WDK).

Here is my driver with necessary changes: Flirc_driver_Windows8.zip.

I hope you add it to Flirc installer.

Thanks testmetest to share the steps about inf2cat.

This driver worked great for me! Thank you so much for saving others the effort!

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Yes, working fine, but not trivial, you need to follow steps explained by testmetest at this (only steps 1-5, so 15º) and use my adapted driver Flirc_driver_Windows8.zip.

Until the installer is improved, the "easy setup" statement on Flirc.tv homepage is false.

Awesome work! Thank you for making this available to future users. Chris, perhaps this can be added to your FAQs?

P.S. - To be fair, I wouldn't say the flirc page is lying when it says set up is easy. Win 8 isn't even officially out yet, and on all currently official OSes it's pretty darn simple. Just sayin' ;-)

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