New way to get MCE Remote signals in EG (for Vista/Win7)

[Melloware]

Are you on 32 or 64 bit?

Ouch, sorry I am on 64 bit vista Utlimate. There was an error in the admin logs.

Code: Select all

Log Name:      Application
Source:        Windows Error Reporting
Date:          8/11/2009 10:35:21 AM
Event ID:      1001
Task Category: None
Level:         Information
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      
Description:
Fault bucket 682415472, type 5
Event Name: PCA2
Response: None
Cab Id: 0

Problem signature:
P1: AlternateMceIrService.exe
P2: 0.0.0.0
P3: AlternateMceIrService.exe
P4: unknown
P5: unknown
P6: 200
P7: -1
P8: 
P9: 
P10: 

Attached files:
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportQueue\Report0fbaf99b\appcompat.txt
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportQueue\Report0fbaf99b\TabF122.tmp

These files may be available here:
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportQueue\Report0fbaf99b
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
  <System>
    <Provider Name="Windows Error Reporting" />
    <EventID Qualifiers="0">1001</EventID>
    <Level>4</Level>
    <Task>0</Task>
    <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2009-08-11T14:35:21.000Z" />
    <EventRecordID>17132</EventRecordID>
    <Channel>Application</Channel>
    <Computer></Computer>
    <Security />
  </System>
  <EventData>
    <Data>682415472</Data>
    <Data>5</Data>
    <Data>PCA2</Data>
    <Data>None</Data>
    <Data>0</Data>
    <Data>AlternateMceIrService.exe</Data>
    <Data>0.0.0.0</Data>
    <Data>AlternateMceIrService.exe</Data>
    <Data>unknown</Data>
    <Data>unknown</Data>
    <Data>200</Data>
    <Data>-1</Data>
    <Data>
    </Data>
    <Data>
    </Data>
    <Data>
    </Data>
    <Data>
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportQueue\Report0fbaf99b\appcompat.txt
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportQueue\Report0fbaf99b\TabF122.tmp</Data>
    <Data>C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportQueue\Report0fbaf99b</Data>
  </EventData>
</Event>

[stottle]

Can you restart the service and see if there are any other events in the log? Probably the best way to get me more info is to filter (from the actions panel to the right) the log for events from the last hour and export the System and Application logs to csv. Then PM me the output. Tell me in the PM what time the service restart was.

Thanks,
Brett

[Bartman]

Can someone explain to me what's so complicated at getting the MCE remote working?
I don't have one but I read of problems all the time here? (A wiki would be really nice

[Bitmonster]

Can someone explain to me what's so complicated at getting the MCE remote working?
I don't have one but I read of problems all the time here? (A wiki would be really nice

http://www.eventghost.org/forum/viewtop ... 9480#p9480

[Melloware]

Can you restart the service and see if there are any other events in the log? Probably the best way to get me more info is to filter (from the actions panel to the right) the log for events from the last hour and export the System and Application logs to csv. Then PM me the output. Tell me in the PM what time the service restart was.

Thanks,
Brett

I PM'ed you my log with starting and stopping the service. No errors reported. However from looking through the IRSS release notes apparently in a previous version they had to change the "struct" to support x32 and x64 systems. I don't know if that helps or not.

[stottle]

That log was remarkably unhelpful! I've got the IRSS code, so I will take a look at that.

I have a downloaded copy of Win7 RC 64 bit. The problem is that I can't get the MCE Remote to work in a VM (I'm running KVM/Qemu on a Fedora 11 box). I can test USB-UIRT from Win7 32/64 bit VMs, but I can't get the OS to recognize MCE Remote. So I'll have to bite the bullet and install it as the primary OS. I'll see if I can get something out in the next week or so.

Brett

[Melloware]

That log was remarkably unhelpful! I've got the IRSS code, so I will take a look at that.

I have a downloaded copy of Win7 RC 64 bit. The problem is that I can't get the MCE Remote to work in a VM (I'm running KVM/Qemu on a Fedora 11 box). I can test USB-UIRT from Win7 32/64 bit VMs, but I can't get the OS to recognize MCE Remote. So I'll have to bite the bullet and install it as the primary OS. I'll see if I can get something out in the next week or so.

Yeah it was shockingly unhelpful. So it appears you are creating the pipe properly and the service starts properly and I can connect to the pipe and also verify when the service is not running. The only thing it is not doing is receiving the IR signals from the remote and forwarding them down the pipe.

[stottle]

The only thing it is not doing is receiving the IR signals from the remote and forwarding them down the pipe.

Is that a big deal?

[Melloware]

Is that a big deal?

HA! Sorry didn't mean it like that. Meant it looks like everything is operating normally except that one part. I am going to see if I can grab a Vista 32 bit machine to try it out on so we can definitely say it is the 64 bit OS that is the issue.

[Melloware]

OK I tested it on Vista 32 bit with my standalone EXE and I am able to receive raw signals from your named pipe!

Feel free to give this a shot. Next thing I need to figure out is how to decode the raw IR output from your pipe.

[Bitmonster]

@stottle
The service install/uninstall code seems to work good now and I will merge it into the trunk this weekend.

Now there is still the problem with modifying the registry. Your registry modifications need elevated privileges also? If so, you should stuff them into a python module of its own, so one can simply call a function in this module to do the changes and another one to undo them. The reason is, that the code for elevated execution is just starting another EventGhost process, that only imports a single specified python module and calls a function inside.

Then there is the question, if the reboot can be avoided. Have you identified the exact service that is responsible for reacting on the remote? It might work, if we just stop and restart this service, so it is forced to reload its registry keys.

[stottle]

The installer modifies two sets of registry keys:
1) Keys that the service needs to output messages to the event logs
2) Keys for disabling the OS's processing of IR events.

To be clear, you still want an installer msi for the service (with the registry changes for #1 only - which doesn't require reboot), and a separate python script, not part of the msi, that does #2?

That makes sense to me, as long as you still run the installer to handle #1.

As for what service #2 changes that requires a reboot, I don't know. Wish I did, as the reboots are a PITA (Pain-in-the-A**).

BTW, I've got 64 bit working, I was going to post that when I saw this message.... So I will get that up as soon as I make these changes. Don't have the blaster working yet, though.

Brett

[Bitmonster]

To be clear, you still want an installer msi for the service (with the registry changes for #1 only - which doesn't require reboot), and a separate python script, not part of the msi, that does #2?

No, I want to do it all from Python and abandon the msi completely. Otherwise we would get two UAC prompts. So the required changes for the service event log handling should be done from Python also. How do they look like?

[stottle]

How do they look like?

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\EventLog\Application\AlternateMceIrService is the key, with two values:
"EventMessageFile" is a string value, set to "[Directory Service exe is in]\AlternateMceIrService.exe"
"TypesSupported" is a DWORD value, set to 0x7

Brett

[Bitmonster]

How do they look like?

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\EventLog\Application\AlternateMceIrService is the key, with two values:
"EventMessageFile" is a string value, set to "[Directory Service exe is in]\AlternateMceIrService.exe"
"TypesSupported" is a DWORD value, set to 0x7

Brett

Doesn't look like a big deal...

Still hunting the services to avoid the reboot. On Windows 7 I can disable everything thats sound like Media Center, but the default button handling continues to works.