How to debug the input from an input-device (/dev/input/event*)

You may find useful xinput list and xinput test <device>.

For example,

$ xinput list
⎡ Virtual core pointer                     id=2    [master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer           id=4    [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad           id=11   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard                    id=3    [master keyboard (2)]
    ↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard          id=5    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                         id=6    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Video Bus                            id=7    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Sleep Button                         id=8    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Asus Laptop extra buttons            id=9    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard         id=10   [slave  keyboard (3)]

and I can monitor my keyboard (xinput test 10) or touchpad (xinput test 11, or even xinput test "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad") for all kinds of input events, and they get pretty printed to console, and parameters get extracted and printed too.

This won't solve your problem, but at least will help a bit by deciphering the clutter which e.g. cat /dev/input/event1 produces.

I have the same remote and I have it sending correct keycodes to my 2.6.38-gentoo-r3 kernel. I did not compile keycodes as a module, because they probably haven't had time to make it possible to select individual keymaps yet. It's all or nothing and I don't like a gazillion useless modules cluttering me. Instead I'm letting v4l-utils handle it with udev.

Couple of things I learned:

• Check output of ir-keytable -r, it should list all the keycodes applicable to your remote.
• Load the keytable manually: ir-keytable -c -w bleh/keymaps/imon_pad, after which ir-keytable -r should give you the table back
• You might actually have a faulty receiver, you mention nothing about history. I remember seeing at least one message on lirc-list where guy said sending the case back and getting a new one solved his issues.

Let us know how it went.