Batocera RemotePi support

Because after some Linux kernel changes the integrated support for the RemotePi hardware is currently not working properly, I was asked by RobertMV if I can help to make the already working scripts for LibreELEC work with Batocera as well. The following scripts are the result and tested on real RemotePi hardware with RPi4 and Batocera v40/v41. Many thanks to Robert for testing on real hardware during different troubleshooting sessions. Since I don't own a RemotePi myself, my troubleshooting options are very limited without the help of an owner of this type of hardware. I also assume that the integrated support for the MSL Digital Solutions RemotePi will be corrected in one of the next versions of Batocera.

• /userdata/system/remotepi/irswitch.py
• /userdata/system/remotepi/shutdown.py
• /userdata/system/custom.sh

Precaution

The integrated support for MSL Digital Solutions RemotePi: "Any remote control as pswitch v2013" or "Any remote control as pswitch v2015" must not be enabled to not conflict with this solution.

Installation

Connect via SSH/PuTTY to Batocera. You are already in the correct path /userdata/system.

• Download the tar archive directly from the releases at GitHub.

  wget https://github.com/HungerHa/batocera_remotepi/releases/latest/download/remotepi.tgz

  or copy the remotepi.tgz via SCP (WinSCP, FileZilla ...) to /userdata/system if you want.

• Unarchive the scripts. This ensures that the required directories are created and the file permissions are set correctly.

  ATTENTION: If a custom.sh already exists with other customizations, you should first create a backup of this file and adjust the changes again after the installation. The custom.sh will be replaced by the following process !

  tar -xvzf remotepi.tgz && rm remotepi.tgz

  Optional: Wget automatically creates a hidden HSTS file (HTTP Strict Transport Security) as a Known Hosts database during the download process. If someone does not like this or is bothered by it, the file can also be removed.

  rm .wget-hsts

• Activate the background service to observe power button events. Alternatively you can do a reboot.

  bash /userdata/system/custom.sh start

Uninstallation

Connect via SSH/PuTTY to Batocera. Then stop the running process and delete the scripts including the directory that contains them.

bash /userdata/system/custom.sh stop
rm -rf /userdata/system/remotepi

ATTENTION: As mentioned during the installation, the custom.sh can be a shared file. If you have made additional changes, you may want to make a backup or keep the file. In all other cases, delete this file as well.

rm custom.sh

Known issues

The content of custom.sh was originally intended to work as a Batocera service, as custom.sh is deprecated. But during final testing on real hardware, we found that the remotepi service was unexpectedly killed during shutdown before it could complete the required communication with the RemotePi hardware. As a workaround, the service was moved back to custom.sh to make it reliable.

Usage as a service

If you are brave and want to ignore the part with the known problems, you can convert the custom.sh into remotepi service:

bash /userdata/system/custom.sh stop
mkdir /userdata/system/services/
mv custom.sh /userdata/system/services/remotepi
batocera-services enable remotepi
batocera-services start remotepi

To check if the service is available and running

batocera-services list

batocera-services status remotepi