The 'pro' of this remote however is that it's a 'standard' MCE RC6 remote so the buttons can be translated and mapped with lirc. I couldn't do this with my old remote as it emulates a keyboard device.
For a relatively popular remote, surprisingly little information can be found on the web on how to set it up properly with lirc and XBMC, just the usual array of forum posts and incomplete or non-working advice. So some reading was required of the lirc & XBMC's Lircmap.xml documentation.
So here's the solution, if you discount creating the map files (as I've supplied them here) it's actually very simple. I've tested this on Debian (Testing) & Fedora 18 so I assume this would work just as well on derivatives such as Ubuntu/Mint and CentOS/RHEL respectively.
So first, install lirc...
Either use your preferred software installer GUI or save time by opening a terminal & using the command line;On Debian & Ubuntu
sudo apt-get install lirc
On Fedora
sudo yum install lirc
Configure lirc
The lirc daemon is configured with the file /etc/lirc/lircd.conf.In the terminal, you can open this file for editing in gedit (or your preferred text editor);
sudo gedit /etc/lirc/lircd.conf
begin remote
name rc118
bits 13
flags RC6|CONST_LENGTH
eps 30
aeps 100
header 2700 855
one 486 419
zero 486 419
pre_data_bits 24
pre_data 0x1BFF83
gap 107341
min_repeat 1
toggle_bit_mask 0x8000
rc6_mask 0x100000000
begin codes
Power 0x1BF3
Record 0x1BE8
Stop 0x1BE6
Pause 0x1BE7
Rewind 0x1BEA
Forward 0x1BEB
Previous 0x1BE4
Play 0x1BE9
Next 0x1BE5
Zoomout 0x1BD9
Zoomin 0x1BDA
Eject 0x1BB7
Select 0x1BDB
Menu 0x1BF2
Back 0x1BDC
Info 0x1BF0
Up 0x1BE1
Down 0x1BE0
Left 0x1BDF
Right 0x1BDE
OK 0x1BDD
Vol+ 0x1BEF
Vol- 0x1BEE
Chan+ 0x1BED
Chan- 0x1BEC
Mute 0x1BF1
PICTURES 0x1BB6
VIDEOS 0x1BB5
MUSIC 0x1BB8
1 0x1BFE
2 0x1BFD
3 0x1BFC
4 0x1BFB
5 0x1BFA
6 0x1BF9
7 0x1BF8
8 0x1BF7
9 0x1BF6
0 0x1BFF
Star 0x1BE2
Hash 0x1BE3
Clear 0x1BF5
Keyboard 0x1BA5
Edit 0x1BF4
Red 0x1BA4
Green 0x1BA3
Yellow 0x1BA2
Blue 0x1BA1
end codes
end remote
On Debian...
The Debian package of lirc comes with a /etc/lirc/hardware.conf file, the Fedora install does not and just works without one. On Debian I had to also amend the hardware.conf file by amending the DRIVER & DEVICE variables to... DRIVER="default"
DEVICE="/dev/lirc0"
ls -l /dev/lirc*
Restart lirc
sudo service lirc restart
Configure XBMC
XBMC already comes with a set of key maps for remote controls via lirc in the file /usr/share/xbmc/system/Lircmap.xml. You can also have a user specific Lircmap.xml in your ~/.xbmc/userdata directory.Here we'll put our mappings for our 'rc118' lirc remote (this name being defined in our /etc/lirc/lircd.conf file) to our user Lircmap.xml file.
In a terminal, open a new file in gedit (or your preferred text editor);
gedit ~/.xbmc/userdata/Lircmap.xml
<lircmap>
<remote device="rc118">
<mypictures>PICTURES</mypictures>
<liveradio>RADIO</liveradio>
<myvideo>VIDEOS</myvideo>
<mymusic>MUSIC</mymusic>
<record>Record</record>
<pause>Pause</pause>
<stop>Stop</stop>
<skipminus>Previous</skipminus>
<play>Play</play>
<skipplus>Next</skipplus>
<reverse>Rewind</reverse>
<forward>Forward</forward>
<start>Menu</start>
<back>Back</back>
<info>Info</info>
<volumeplus>Vol+</volumeplus>
<volumeminus>Vol-</volumeminus>
<left>Left</left>
<right>Right</right>
<up>Up</up>
<down>Down</down>
<select>OK</select>
<channelplus>Chan+</channelplus>
<channelminus>Chan-</channelminus>
<mute>Mute</mute>
<recordedtv>Eject</recordedtv>
<guide>Zoomout</guide>
<livetv>Zoomin</livetv>
<menu>Select</menu>
<one>1</one>
<two>2</two>
<three>3</three>
<four>4</four>
<five>5</five>
<six>6</six>
<seven>7</seven>
<eight>8</eight>
<nine>9</nine>
<star>Star</star>
<zero>0</zero>
<hash>Hash</hash>
<clear>Clear</clear>
<teletext>Keyboard</teletext>
<enter>Edit</enter>
<red>Red</red>
<green>Green</green>
<yellow>Yellow</yellow>
<blue>Blue</blue>
</remote>
</lircmap>
Disable the remote's kernel driver
Now the RC118 remote is handled by lirc you have no need for the Linux kernel to handle it. To prevent XBMC from receiving input from both lirc and xinput (resulting in double key presses for those buttons that did work out of the box) you need to disable the relevant kernel module.Unload the RC6 decoder driver with the following command;
sudo modprobe -r ir_rc6_decoder
echo "blacklist ir_rc6_decoder" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/ir_rc6_decoder.conf
Now start or restart XBMC and your AIM RC118 remote works completely.
