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There are a number of situations where you may want to configure/control flirc from the command line rather than the GUI. For example, XBMCbuntu is made to boot directly to XBMC without ever displaying a desktop environment. You may also like to be able to modify your flirc configuration via ssh without interrupting an XBMC session. In this tutorial I'll cover some basic steps for getting started with flirc from a command line. INSTALLATION First, we'll install the flirc software. To do this, you need to add flirc to your apt-get sources. You can do this with any text editor. Easiest is probably nano: sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list Scroll all the way to the bottom of the file (Ctrl+V is page down) and add these lines: # flirc deb http://apt.flirc.tv/arch/i386 binary/ Save your changes (Ctrl+X exits nano, prompting you to save. Hit Y for yes, and enter to save without changing the file name). Then update apt-get to include your new source: sudo apt-get update Now you can install the flirc software: sudo apt-get install flirc Now it's possible to run all flirc commands from the command line, including programming the device, backing up your configuration, firmare installs, etc. For a list of flirc commands, you can just type 'flirc' and press enter, or 'flirc help'. For help with a specific flirc command, use 'flirc help <command>'. FIRMWARE You'll want a place for storing flirc firmware and config files. Here's how I do it: Go to your home directory if you aren't there already (in Linux, the tilde (~) represents your home directory, so if you're using XBMCbuntu and logged in as the xbmc user, 'cd ~' will take you to your home directory). If you're using another computer to do all of this via ssh, your ssh sessions will start in your home directory anyway by default. Make a folder called .flirc: mkdir .flirc Go to your new folder: cd .flirc To pull down firmware 1.0: wget http://downloads.flirc.tv/fw/fw_1.0.bin (Optional) Linux tip: If you use 'ls' you will see that there's now a file called fw_1.0.bin in your ~/.flirc/ folder. I use 'ls -al' (or just 'll' on most Linux builds), as that will also show hidden files and folders (like the ones with dots (.) in front of them) and the list is formatted nicer and provides much more info than ls alone. To install the firmware, make sure your flirc is connected and run: flirc upgrade fw_1.0.bin I don't know direct addresses for beta firmware. I'm not sure if Jason wants those to be public anyway. If he does he can add them to this thread. Either way, I'll add a post about copying files to and from an XBMCbuntu box soon. Also, since the flirc software is now installed, you can get to the GUI if you really need to as well, by exiting XBMC and logging into xbmcbuntu from the log in window, using the same account/password as your xbmc account. Flirc will most likely be one of very few apps installed so it's not hard to find, and it looks the same on Linux as is does on Windows or Mac, but I really like using flirc from the command line honestly. It's really easy to use 'flirc delete' and 'flirc record <key>' to change buttons on the fly without interrupting your xbmc sessions.

I have XBMC installed on my Win7-system. Using the command line would be possible of course. :) To be frankly, I am too lazy, because everything is working fine, now.

Here is how you switch between two monitors (e. g. TFT and Plasma TV) with one click on my remote. my setup: Win7 desktop TFT-monitor (DVI) Plasma TV (HDMI) First you download and instell a little commandline-tool called "Display Changer". http://12noon.com/?page_id=80 Then let Display Changer list the available monitors dc64.exe -listmonitors The current monitor is "\\.\DISPLAY1". (I am not sure, but it seems Display1 is always the current one. Otherwise my script would not work.) So, what we want the script to do, is to set the second dosplay as acive and deactivate the current one. And we don't want to keep the current resolution (1680x1050 px) since the Plasma TV is FullHD (1920x1080 px). Instead we always want to use the native (read maximum) resolution. (same for colordepth and refreshrate) So we need one command to set the second display to be the primary one. (DisplayCharger is able to configure and arrange many monitors at the same time) dc64cmd.exe -monitor="\\.\DISPLAY2" -width=max -height=max -refresh=max -depth=max -primary And another command to disable the current monitor. dc64cmd.exe -monitor="\\.\DISPLAY1" -detach Display Changer is able to "remember" the first command and executes it not before we told it all our commands. So we add "-more" to the first line and "-apply" to the second. (This may be bad english. Sorry.) My final script looks like this: cd "C:\Program Files\12noon Display Changer\" dc64cmd.exe -monitor="\\.\DISPLAY2" -more -width=max -height=max -refresh=max -depth=max -primary dc64cmd.exe -monitor="\\.\DISPLAY1" -apply -detach Just save it as "switch_monitors.cmd", so you can doubleclick it to try it out. Everytime you execute the script the other monitor should become the active monitor. To execute this script by pressing a button on your remote, you first need to create a link to the script on your desktop. To create a link you just drag'n'drop the script while holding the ALT-key. Right-click the shortcut and select properties. Click on the field next to "Shortcut" and press your preferred key-combination (e.g. Ctrl+Shift+M) (Can anyone provide an english screenhot?) Click OK and try out the new hotkey. :) The last step is to map a button on your remote the the selected key-combination. I think you know how to do that. Good luck. advise: Use dc.exe if you don't have a 64-bit system. Remember the options you get when you press Win+P With this hotkey (and direction-keys and enter) you are able to switch the monitor arrangement blindly. In case you get two black displays. ;) Add "PAUSE" to the end of the script to see any errors while testing If you know a better way for switching between two monitors, let me know. I am not responsible if anything bad happens! Do it at your own risk!

FWIW, I really like using the command line to program Flirc. I did have a buggy Flirc unit at first, but even that one I could program from the CLI without issue. I got so used to doing it that way that that's how I do it even with a perfect replacement Flirc. And not only does this make it easy to tell what's mapping correctly and what's not, but in my setup it has the additional benefit of allowing me to make changes to my remote without leaving XBMC. I'm not sure about your setup, but I'm using Flirc to control an HTPC that runs XBMC. So I can ssh to the XBMC box and delete/remap a key from a laptop without ever exiting XBMC and opening the Flirc GUI. Have you tried it that way? And do you perhaps have another system you can use to see if your problem is persistent on different computers?

Hello to every one, this "how to" guide is writen for people who are new both to flirc and XBMC, and to all who want to personalize their flirc/xbmc expirince. I would like to thank Jason for flirc an all of his hard work on it, to jhsrennie for his Keymapedit and to Chris! for his help with this guide. Keep up the good work guys! I am just an end user like you guys - so I don't know how all of this things work, but i know they work - that is important. INTRO XBMC can be personalized to the smallest detail - keyboard also. You can program flirc as minimal remote, xbmc remote or keyboard - I use the latter (keyboard) as it will give you most flexibility and you can "unlock secret xbmc treasures" this way. On XBMC wiki you will find "full list" of built in keyboard controls for xbmc. ABOUT ADDITIONAL FUNCTIONS IN XBMC I use uni remote, like many remotes (for me) it has a design flaw, media contol keys are all the way down, so you need to move your hand when moving from navigation keys to ff/rev and pause (when you are watching your favorite TVshow and you want to ff intro). I have my remote setup that way that when in full screen video my left/right navigation keys are used as ff/rev keys, my up/down keys are used for direct subtitle +/- offset and OK button is used for pause. My power button will put XBMC to sleep - without need to go through power menu and so on. For me this is the ultimate - because there are so many thing that you can do by just pressing one button on your keyboard, the beauty of this combination is that you can assign any key on your remote to any key on your keyboard. For example: you can send update library command when in main menu - if you have recently added video enabled in your skin, you can go directly to latest movie/tvshow episode from recently added menu, without need to search them in library - if you have lots of movies or tv shows with many seasons you know this is great. You can go directly to video/music/settings window and so on One of my favorites is running scripts with key press - I only use it to run "Cinema expirience" normally you have to go to movie info and select CE "button" to run it, if you have lets say F2 key assigned to run script you can run it directly from your library https://lh5.googleus...xcpoc_EfaKlu3sQ HOW TO - IN A FEW EASY STEPS First locate your "\XBMC\userdata\keymaps\" folder - its position will depend on OS you are running your XBMC on, the folder will be empty - latter on will put keyboard.xml there IMPORTANT: all keys that you put in this file will override default behaviour of your keyboard keys, so be careful what key you chose (use link to wiki to chose keys that have no function assigned in XBMC). 1. METHOD OF CHOICE There are two ways of doing this that I know of: 1. manually make kayboard.xml - you will need to know functions of xbmc + html - PLS DO NOT ASK ME ABOUT THIS METHOD - haven't got a clue 2. Use KeyMapEdit - it is only for Windows though - you Linux guys can run some vitual machine to set it up or something - maybe there is a linux version i don't know 2. USING KEYMAPEDIT Using this little program is pretty easy - apart from the fact that there are so many functions You have to things that need your attencion: a) append section B) append key a) append section - will not add commands but make a "sub section" so you can assign same key to diferent function when in diferent menu/window of XBMC -like my full screen video left key is rew in full screen video, but if i call OSD it is again left. B) append key is where you actually assign letters to function. You will need to explore and try some thingS on your own, there are so many functions that there is no point for me to try explain all of them. It is simple - chose key on your keyboard - chose what you want it to do NOTE: some buttons (in my experience) will not work well when you try to assign double functions to them so it my be needed to change some default buttons to max out your setup, for example I have assigned leter "J" to be my select buton - if I leave "enter" it will not work properly for pause in full screen video. 3.USING YOUR NEW SETTINGS Save your config file as keyboard.xml and put it in \XBMC\userdata\keymaps\. NOTE: you need to restart your xbmc to pick up your keyboard.xml as it will only serch for this file and load it on start. You can add /delete keys at will, no need to make new file every time. TIP: Make your self shortcut to your \XBMC\userdata\keymaps\ and put it in documents map as Keymapedit will not remeber path to file when restarted - so you will be able to navigate to keyboard.xml easily. If you have any questions please be free to ask them, we will try to help you in any way we can.

If I understand correctly you would like to press button on your remote to power off your xbmc machine - put it to sleep I don't have harmony but i think the way it works is that when you press "all off" it sends code for itch device that is programmed on your remote. Doing this in means of connecting your remote and flir should not be a problem - cause you connect your power button for pc with some key on your keyboard. If you connect it with letter s - that wont work ok cause it will only bring up "power" menu and you need to confirm sleep command with additional enter. I promised Chris to make a short how to and promise top do it as soon as possible. :( Ok there are a lot of hidden functions that can be accessed directly, for those functions to work you need to have keyboard.xml file in your xbmc (there is a folder called keyboard under user data) Now you chose some button on your keyboard that is not in use by xbmc already - lets say f2. You copy text below to any text editor (I use notepad++ it works 10+ and it is free) and save as keyboard.xml. Put it in keyboard folder, you restart your box from now on when you press f2 xbmc should go to sleep. be careful not to use any button already in use from xbmc - cause you will override defoult action! <!--Template XBMC keyboard file--> <keymap> <global> <keyboard> <f2>Suspend</f2> </keyboard> </global> </keymap> [/html] BTW I have Openelec on my machine - Zotac H55 MBO - I wake up my machine with any key on remote.

Another tip for starting applications from a windows desktop with the remote, is to place all programs in the task bar next to start menu button. Then you program your remote to start programs with the command "Windows key + 1" for the first program, "Windows key + 2" for the next program. Program no.1 is always the program next to the start menu. Requires Windows 7

All depending of your KVM switch , I just try with mine ( opniplex ).. and FLIRC works flawlessly.. for example ; in case that you want to switch from your HTPC to other Pc using the KVMs must of them use ( scroll - scroll ) key ..in my HTPC with the FLIRC I programed a hot key binding to SCROLL LOCK key ..press twice , and get to switch work .... I did that for compare how s working XBMC on windows 7 vs windows Home server 2011 .. with a same or different configs... I have a harmony remote with a couple of keys available to prog. 1- my HTPC XBMC windows 7 64 -with FLIRC in a usb3.0 ; no keyboard , no mouse ( using XBMC in start up and a key for sleep - wakeup power set on in My custom plan - power option) 2- my 2d HTPC XBMC WHS 64 - with out FLIRC ( optional if you want to add a second flirc to a second PC ) with a logitech keyboad - mouse more than 10 ` feet operational ... .. well in my final conclusion . I stay with my HTPC-XBMC with windows 7 64 for others reason...( Included the Flirc ) curiously : in any of these pc on when i hit the key in my harmony 700 programed with a double command key to Scroll - Scroll funtion.. the pcs switching perfect..I think beacuse the Flirc in a usb 3.0 sufficient voltage feeding on even when I switched to another pc.. but if i change the flirc to the other one in a regular usb 2.0.. doesnt work...and the flirc get interference with video issues when i try to play some video file ( MKV ) into the XMC.. well i think you got my language ... sorry for my bad english good luck regards

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).

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)". 3. Type "BCDEDIT -SET LOADOPTIONS DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS" and press enter. 4. Type "Bcdedit.exe -set TESTSIGNING ON" and press enter. 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). 10. Type "inf2cat /driver:c:\test\ /os:8_x64" and press enter. 11. Move mouse to the left bottom corner and right click to bring up the administrative menu. 12. Click "Device Manager" 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.

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: Log on to Windows 8 computer on which installation of unsigned drivers is to be managed. 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. From the context menu click Run as administrator and on the appeared User Account Control confirmation box click Yes to allow. On the opened elevated command prompt type BCDEDIT –Set LoadOptions DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS and press enter key. Once the command successfully completes type BCDEDIT –Set TESTSIGNING ON 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. Restart the computer to allow the changes to take effect. taken from here: http://www.advicehow...soft-windows-8/

Also, what do you see when you try the following command? cat /proc/acpi/wakeup I finally got a little bit of a guide started: See if it's enough to get you started. If not, post the output of that command here and we can start troubleshooting from there.

First we need to enable wakeup on the USB bus to which your Flirc is connected. Determine which USB buses (if any) already have wakeup enabled: cat /proc/acpi/wakeup On my system, here's the result: $ cat /proc/acpi/wakeup Device S-state Status Sysfs node P0P1 S4 *disabled pci:0000:00:1e.0 P0P4 S4 *disabled pci:0000:00:1c.0 P0P5 S4 *disabled pci:0000:00:1c.1 P0P6 S4 *disabled pci:0000:00:1c.2 P0P7 S4 *disabled P0P8 S4 *disabled P0P9 S4 *disabled USB0 S3 *disabled pci:0000:00:1d.0 USB1 S3 *disabled pci:0000:00:1d.1 USB2 S3 *disabled pci:0000:00:1d.2 USB3 S3 *disabled pci:0000:00:1d.3 EUSB S3 *disabled pci:0000:00:1d.7 You'll need to be root for the next part, so: sudo su You need to determine which of those USB buses (the ones with USBX in the first column) is the one your Flirc is plugged into. Starting with the first bus in the list above, run: echo USB0 > /proc/acpi/wakeup If you run the command from step 1 again, the USB0 line should say enabled instead of disabled. Suspend the system, and see if you can wake it up with your remote. If the machine won't wake with your remote, wake it with the power button or over LAN and repeat step three using USB1 in place of USB0, then repeat step 4. Keep going until you find the bus to which your Flirc is attached. Once you've found the bus the Flirc is on, it will keep working until you reboot the machine, unless you add the command to enable it to rc.local. To do so:leave root: exit edit the file: sudo nano /etc/rc.local Add this to the file below the comments and above the exit line: sh -c 'echo "USB0"' > /proc/acpi/wakeup echo "rc.local has completed sucessfully." >> /tmp/resume.log Note: this assumes USB0 is the bus that worked in the top section. If yours worked on a different bus, change the number in this step accordingly. Here's an example of what the file might look like: #!/bin/sh -e # # rc.local # # This script is executed at the end of each multiuser runlevel. # Make sure that the script will "exit 0" on success or any other # value on error. # # In order to enable or disable this script just change the execution # bits. # # By default this script does nothing. sh -c 'echo "USB0"' > /proc/acpi/wakeup echo "rc.local has completed sucessfully." >> /tmp/resume.log exit 0 Save the file (Ctrl+X to save and exit, Y for yes, Enter to confirm the file name is the same). Reboot. If all went well, you should be able to wake your machine from sleep using your Flirc. Note: if you want to eliminate the guess work in the top section and don't have a lot of USB devices that might interfere, you can just enable them all in rc.local. I've seen an Ubuntu forum poster say his rc.local file looks like this: sh -c 'echo "USB4" > /proc/acpi/wakeup' sh -c 'echo "USB3" > /proc/acpi/wakeup' sh -c 'echo "USB2" > /proc/acpi/wakeup' sh -c 'echo "USB1" > /proc/acpi/wakeup' sh -c 'echo "USB0" > /proc/acpi/wakeup' exit 0 There's also some steps you can take specifically if you're running XBMC and the machine wakes immediately when you put it to sleep. There's lots of good troubleshooting info and more to read at: http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Enable_Wake-On-Device http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=HOW-TO:Suspend_and_wake_in_Ubuntu#Remote_Suspend_.2F_Wake

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.

I did just got it working on a different machine. Must be something with my Dell Laptop. Yes. I can do a little command line.

I'm extremely puzzled by this. Selfish question, do you have another machine you can try this on? Everything looks fine and there shouldn't be a reason the GUI can't find flirc. Are you familiar with windows command prompt?

Ok I found, let's call it, a bug in the whole proccess. Everytime I take the Flirc from Windows7 x64 to XBMCbuntu it stays in the bootloader. To make it work again with the long keypress FW (fw_repeat.bin) I first have to put the fw_1.0.bin firmware. Only after that I can put the fw_repeat.bin and load the keys config I have saved. I had to do the same proccess in Windows 7 x64 to make it work again. Here is a log of what I've done in XBMCbuntu: highlander@XBMC-SALA:~$ flirc version Flirc Version 1.0.2 [c6ade381b9852122] Bootloader Detected: v1.400000 highlander@XBMC-SALA:~$ flirc format Formatting Device, please wait...can't execute command, device in bootloader highlander@XBMC-SALA:~$ flirc upgrade fw_ fw_1.0.bin fw_repeat.bin fw_wake_v6.bin highlander@XBMC-SALA:~$ flirc upgrade fw_1.0.bin Uploading image: fw_1.0.bin to "flirc.tv" 0x20A0 [DEVICE] Waiting [DEVICE] Bootloader Detected [DEVICE] Uploading [uPLOADING] ------------------------------------------------------------------ Pages Total Pages Progress 0x03b80 ... 0x03c00 [========================================>] 100% -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [DEVICE] Waiting. [DEVICE] FW Detected [DEVICE] EOK highlander@XBMC-SALA:~$ flirc format Formatting Device, please wait... Done! highlander@XBMC-SALA:~$ flirc loadconfig good_flirc_xbmc_final.fcfg Loading Configuration File 'good_flirc_xbmc_final.fcfg' to Device [========================================>] 100% Configuration File Loaded Successfully highlander@XBMC-SALA:~$ flirc format Formatting Device, please wait... Done! highlander@XBMC-SALA:~$ flirc upgrade fw_repeat.bin Uploading image: fw_repeat.bin to "flirc.tv" 0x20A0 [DEVICE] Waiting [DEVICE] FW Detected [DEVICE] Setting DFU [DEVICE] Waiting. [DEVICE] Bootloader Detected [DEVICE] Uploading [uPLOADING] ------------------------------------------------------------------ Pages Total Pages Progress 0x03b80 ... 0x03c00 [========================================>] 100% -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [DEVICE] Waiting. [DEVICE] FW Detected [DEVICE] EOK highlander@XBMC-SALA:~$ flirc loadconfig good_flirc_xbmc_final.fcfg Loading Configuration File 'good_flirc_xbmc_final.fcfg' to Device [========================================>] 100% Configuration File Loaded Successfully After all this, the Flirc is working fine in XBMCbuntu. BUG? I guess I have to do the same for the other beta firmwares if I want to test them. Cheers!

When I plugged the Flirc into XBMCbuntu I get this: highlander@XBMC-SALA:~$ flirc version Flirc Version 1.0.2 [c6ade381b9852122] Bootloader Detected: v1.400000 highlander@XBMC-SALA:~$ pwd /home/highlander highlander@XBMC-SALA:~$ flirc saveconfig xbox_long_press Saving Configuration File 'xbox_long_press.fcfg' to Disk can't execute command, device in bootloader Last time I had to re-write the firmware for it to work again. What causes Flirc to get into bootloader after removing from windows and plug into linux? Thanks.

I'm not going to lie, it took me some time to set some things with XBMCbuntu as well. For example, 5.1 sound over HDMI was a bit of a challenge. Then I had to manually configure Wake on LAN (in BIOS), wake on device (instrux coming shortly), bluetooth pairing for my keyboard and trackpad so I can use a web browser when I want to launch one, etc. You can really get sucked into tweaking a system like this for a long time. But in general, there's a lot more Ubuntu left in XBMCbuntu than there is in OpenELEC, so as long as your system is decent I think your logic here is sound. My system is extremely flexible and is still nice and quick. The only advantage I can see for OpenELEC is that it is probably faster on older hardware, but XBMCbuntu really is a great balance of Ubuntu goodies and streamlined, minimal approach. On Linux I have trouble with the beta Flirc firmwares that include support for the wake command, but I don't really need them either. Firmware 1.0 doesn't interfere with the suspend command, so I configure the wake on device using a handful of commands on the Linux box, and then ANY mapped button on my remote will wake the XBMCbuntu box, as it's basically setup as if I want to be able to press any keyboard key to wake it up. The upside of firmware 1.0 is that it's nice and stable. The downsides are that I can't make it so that only a single button mapped to 'wake' will wake it up, and it takes a little longer to respond to the other buttons with firmware 1.0 than it did using the wake command and one of the beta fw_wake firmware versions. Jason's working on better implementations of wake for Linux, but you don't have to wait for newer firmware to start playing.

Well, I was all set to write such a thing, but I'm still having trouble with wake using Flirc with XBMCbuntu. I got suspend working correctly from the command line and I can wake it by enabling wakeup on the proper USB bus, but whenever I plug a Flirc into a port on that bus, the machine wakes immediately after I suspend it. Jason is working on another approach for sleep/wake on Linux machines, so as soon as a version of Flirc firware is available that behaves as expected, I'll document everything I've tried so far.

Welcome to the forums Amadeus, Yep, new features are being worked on. However Jason has a full-time job as well as this project (of which he is the only one coding for) so progress may appear slower than other larger projects. Your Questions: 1) Waking up your mac from hibernate using Flirc and the beta firmware At the moment the beta firmware associates a button with the command to wake up the machine. This command cannot be used for another function (only wakes the device). I believe this is planned to be changed so perhaps any button could wake the machine up/the wake button would have another user defined function Also it is destined to come out of beta when tested and ready. 2) Will Flirc work facing away from the remote control (i.e. in the back of a computer) Whilst Flirc does have great reception (largely due to Jason's intentional choice of materials and design), I/R is line of sight so given that you may be sat a fair distance away from the box also, this combination may hinder usability. You could turn your macmini around or buy a small USB extender cable. 3)Is it possible to have a place on the forum/site where users could download configurations created by other users Users can share profiles in the forum - I would suggest doing this in the "remote controls" section: http://forum.flirc.t...emote-controls/ 4) Sorry for so many questions but I'm based in the UK so postage for the device adds quite a lot to the cost so I want to make sure it do (either now or in the future) what I'm looking for before I buy No problem. I live in the UK too

I don't know, but I tried out WMC to check this and it's kind of flaky on whether it accepts the command from the real keyboard or not. Nothing happens about 1 once every 3 tries. According to Aqua's KeyTest, there's nothing flaky about the keyboard, and when sending the command through the remote to Flirc, both keys appear to be pressed at the same time and will stay held down as I hold down the remote button. I was wondering if it had something to do with WMC wanting Ctrl to be held down longer or something. EDIT: this doesn't seem to be a Flirc issue, per se. It turns out that WMC doesn't recognize simultaneous keypresses, at least for these commands. I can get the keyboard to skip forward every time if I do it like this: press and hold Ctrl, then press F, then release F (before releasing Ctrl). I think Flirc is sending both keys simultaneously and that's why it doesn't work.

Yeah, now that Jason got me all schooled on how to record modifier keys properly from the CLI, I'm quite sure this is not the same issue. Especially since rgm probably used the GUI to record the button and wouldn't have introduced the dumb user error factor that I did. The more I play with the Flirc, the more I realize the quirks are not due to a mistake in what the Flirc receives or outputs, but most likely an issue with the software receiving the keystrokes. As rgm noted, his is correctly sending ctrl+F, as it executes the find function in Wordpad. In my case what was baffling me was the strange coincidence that I was trying to map ctrl+M, but erroneously used a command that probably mapped it to ctrl+G, and XBMC reacted to the button same way it would to an M, so it made me think it had mapped incorrectly or was not receiving/sending correct signals. I know I'm not a dev or moderator, but FWIW I second Chris!'s suggestion to see if WMC responds properly to ctrl+F from a standard USB keyboard. The other thing I thought it might make sense to try is testing more alternative Harmony profiles, but it sounds like you were already on that path. Since some Harmony profiles seem to result in different results regarding the way that press-and-hold is interpreted and translated by Flirc, it seems plausible to me that a slight difference is possible in this case too, and maybe WMC just doesn't like the slight difference in the way the keystroke is received.

I do think a press of the select button being mapped to one thing (like say the enter key) and a press-and-hold being mapped to a different key (like say the C key for an XBMC context menu) is a fantastic idea. Very intuitive if you're used to touchscreen interfaces, and a good way to cram more functionality onto a remote with only 7 buttons. Obviously I have no idea what it would take to implement. Similar functionality on the direction buttons might be tricky, because as Chris! points out, the intended effect of the press-and-hold in a lot of situations involving mapping of arrow keys is specifically intended to keep sending the same key. Maybe if there were an option to record a secondary key for each button? One key for press, one key for hold. If the second one isn't set, it could default to keep pressing the key mapped to the first button press. If it stayed like that, people wouldn't even have to reconfigure their Flirc when the feature is introduced. Then there could be a single button added to the GUI for 'hold', and you click hold first and then second key you're trying to map, then press your remote button, and flirc gives that button the secondary function of pressing the second key instead of the first one? Form the command line, something life 'flirc record_hold C' and press select on the remote? Then you could do the same with the arrow buttons if you ant something like wbrinkman describes, and if you elect not to, flirc recognizes that there's no second function of your arrow button and only continues to send the original key when you hold the button? Again, I don't have any clue how hard this would be to implement or if my own comments are even helpful, but I agree it's a great idea.

Well, using Flirc fully configured on my Mac tonight, I can't reproduce the problem at all. It only seems to happen when I'm programming it, so perhaps it's some kind of UI bug related to my specific remote or something? I opened a text editor and every remote button sends the correct key press and never sticks. I think this is good news, as I actually prefer configuring the device from the command line anyway, and I'm pretty confident it's not doing something it's not supposed to on the Linux box as well. I'm sure my wake issues are just with Linux and my Zotac box. I have no idea why the Mac app sends it into a panic, but I don't think my Flirc itself is defective. Thanks for brainstorming with me!