Control Your Raspberry Pi with a Repurposed IR Remote: Shutdown & Reboot via LIRC

Introduction

Have an unused infrared remote lying around? Turn it into a convenient power control for your Raspberry Pi—no keyboard or mouse required.

Scope

This guide covers how to install and configure the LIRC client irexec to map remote button presses to Pi shutdown and reboot commands. Adding the IR receiver to the Pi is addressed in a separate tutorial.

Target Readers

Anyone who owns a Raspberry Pi equipped with an IR receiver.

Step 1: Record and map infrared codes to LIRC events

Follow the instructions in our prior guide, "Record Infrared Codes of Any Remote Control Unit for Linux Infrared Remote Control (LIRC) on Raspberry Pi", to capture the remote’s button codes.

Step 2: Install and configure the LIRC daemon

Use the steps outlined in our earlier post to install LIRC and set it up to listen to the receiver.

Step 3: Create an irexec configuration file

Create or edit the /etc/lirc/lircrc file to tell irexec what action to perform when a LIRC event occurs.

sudo vi /etc/lirc/lircrc

Example configuration (replace remote_name and codes with the values you recorded):

begin remote
        name = remote_name
        bits = 12
        flags = RC5
        eps = 30
        aeps = 200

[KEY_RESTART]
        codes = 0x1FEA45, 0x1FECAD
begin
        program = /usr/bin/irexec
        arguments = -e "sudo reboot"
end

[KEY_POWER]
        codes = 0x1FEA1C, 0x1FEA1D
begin
        program = /usr/bin/irexec
        arguments = -e "sudo poweroff"
end
end remote

Step 4: Test the setup

Reboot the Raspberry Pi with sudo reboot, then point the remote at the receiver and press the button mapped to KEY_RESTART—the Pi should reboot. Press the button mapped to KEY_POWER—the Pi should power off. If nothing happens, consult the LIRC logs or check that the receiver is correctly connected.

For more details, see our related tutorial: Reuse Unwanted Infrared Remote Control to Shutdown and Reboot Raspberry Pi.