Optional: button remap (hwremap)

Remap hardware buttons on a standalone MPC or Force (an LD_PRELOAD shim: a button can become other buttons, a pad or a screen tap). Pick which remaps you want at install (Force: Mixer, Edit, Clip, Menu and Knobs options; the Mode Menu must be at its default layout for the ones that tap an icon). The author's hwremap was tried on an MPC Live (Hakai, MPC 3.9.1) and a Force (stock 3.9.0); this installer and its Force rules were run on one Force (MPC OS 3.x) on 2026-10-10. Not tried yet: uninstall and the MPC Live map on a device. It does not work together with MidiLoop / MockbaMod's input path.

Not part of any plugin release. hwremap-patch.sh is a standalone script you run on the device yourself, if you want it. The installer app lists it in its read-only "Advanced: device patches" step, next to the 16-pad drum layout and the drive exec patch.

Tried on one Force, not on an MPC Live. On a Force (MPC OS 3.x, 2026-10-10) this script's install ran, status reported patched, and every rule in the default options worked by hand, including the combo rules and the touch taps. The shim itself was also tried by its author on an MPC Live (Hakai, MPC 3.9.1) and a Force (stock firmware 3.9.0). Not yet run: the checklist on a real terminal, the Knobs options, the MPC Live map through this script, and uninstall on a device. It does not work together with MidiLoop or MockbaMod's input path: the buttons reach MPC through a virtual port the remap does not filter, so no rule fires, and MockbaMod's pads and buttons stop working if MidiLoop is switched off (see NOTES 2026-10-10). Use it on a Force that runs the stock path. Save the project before you run it: it stops and starts MPC.

What it does

The devices have no setting for "this button opens that screen". hwremap.so is an LD_PRELOAD library that rewrites the controller's button stream, so a press can become other buttons, a pad, or a touchscreen tap. To MPC it looks like you did it yourself. Holding Menu and tapping a pad opens the icon in that cell of the Mode Menu, which is how a button opens a screen.

The library and the two example maps are inside the one script. Full behaviour, the config language and the button notes are in the upstream README (vendored notes in VENDORED.md): https://github.com/mmiroshnikov/akai_standalone_remap

Device	What the script changes	Default map
Hakai (a launcher `/usr/bin/az01-launch-MPC`)	`/usr/lib/hwremap.so`, and that launcher's `LD_PRELOAD` lines. The root filesystem is remounted writable for a moment.	Pad Bank A–D and `+` / `−` open Mode Menu cells. Shift keeps the original button.
systemd (`acvs` or `inmusic-mpc`; a stock Force)	`/data/hwremap/hwremap.so`, and a drop-in that puts it at the front of the service's `LD_PRELOAD`, keeping whatever was already there (since 0.2.1 the order no longer matters for the other MIDI-port addins; front is kept so the older commander addin, which breaks `RTLD_NEXT` chaining, cannot hide it from them).	The options below (Mixer, Edit, Clip, Menu; the Knobs ones are off unless you pick them).

The Force options

The Force map is a set of options. Install asks which to turn on (a checklist on a terminal) or takes them as flags. The Knobs options change what a Knobs press does, so they start off.

Option	Default	What it does
`mixer-master`	on	Mixer twice: Master (the first press opens the mixer as usual)
`mixer-tabs`	on	Mixer + Up / Down / Left / Right: the mixer's Pan & Volume / Effects / I/O / Sends tabs
`edit-editor`	on	Edit twice: the plugin / track editor (the stock Shift + Clip shortcut)
`clip-arrange`	on	Clip + Left: Menu, then Arrange
`menu-main-mode`	on	Menu twice: tap the Main Mode icon
`knobs-short`	off	Knobs, short press: Shift + Knobs (Shift + Knobs is then a plain Knobs press)
`knobs-long`	off	Knobs, long press: a plain Knobs tap
`knobs-double`	off	Knobs, double press: the original long press (Knobs held while you hold the button, at least `holdms`)

clip-arrange and menu-main-mode tap Mode Menu icons by screen position, so they need the default Mode Menu layout: Arrange in the top-left slot of page 1, and Main Mode where configs/force.conf expects it. The mixer tabs and the Shift + Clip editor shortcut do not depend on any layout.

sh /tmp/hwremap-patch.sh options                          # the list above, with the defaults
sh /tmp/hwremap-patch.sh install                          # a checklist on a terminal, then the typed word
sh /tmp/hwremap-patch.sh install --options mixer-tabs,edit-editor   # exactly these (all and none also work)
sh /tmp/hwremap-patch.sh install --without clip-arrange   # the defaults, minus one
sh /tmp/hwremap-patch.sh install --with knobs-double      # the defaults, plus one

Without a terminal (over ssh with no tty) and without flags, install uses the defaults and says so. --confirmed never asks. The choice is recorded and status shows it. It only applies when the config is written, which is the first install: with a /sdcard/hwremap.conf already there the flags are ignored, so edit that file, or uninstall (an untouched config is removed with it) and install again.

The map is written to /sdcard/hwremap.conf only when that file is not already there. Editing it applies on the next button press; MPC does not restart for a config change. --layout mpc-live or --layout force picks the map on a device that is not the one it was written for.

Use

scp tools/mpc_patch/hwremap/hwremap-patch.sh root@<device-ip>:/tmp/
ssh root@<device-ip>
sh /tmp/hwremap-patch.sh status                 # changes nothing
sh /tmp/hwremap-patch.sh install                # asks you to type PATCH; MPC restarts
sh /tmp/hwremap-patch.sh uninstall              # asks you to type REMOVE; MPC restarts

install --confirmed skips the typed question and the checklist (the installer app will use that later; it is not wired up yet). A backup of the launcher or the service environment goes to /data/mpc-vst-plugins/backups.

To turn the remap off without uninstalling, empty /sdcard/hwremap.conf. With no rules the shim passes every button through.

Uninstall by hand

While the patch is installed it keeps the original launcher at /data/hwremap/az01-launch-MPC.orig. If the script is gone: stop MPC, remount / writable, copy that file back over /usr/bin/az01-launch-MPC, delete /usr/lib/hwremap.so, remount read-only, start MPC.

Force: remove /etc/systemd/system/acvs.service.d/hwremap.conf (or the inmusic-mpc one), systemctl daemon-reload, restart MPC, delete /data/hwremap/hwremap.so.

Credit

hwremap.c and the Live config are https://github.com/mmiroshnikov/akai_standalone_remap at commit 9d2aa57a570b0c4788f88b04ca242bb82176c380, MIT. Local changes: a combo HOLD SRC tokens... rule in hwremap.c (any button can be the modifier, not only Shift), and the Force map, which is this repo's own set of options. The device build here uses arm32v7/gcc:11-bullseye (glibc 2.31; the library needs glibc 2.17). See VENDORED.md.

Tests

python3 tools/test_hwremap_patch.py (a scratch root, shims for systemctl and pidof: both install styles, the typed words, rollback, a config you edited, a preload that is not a plain path). ./build.sh test runs the library's own host tests under ASan. Neither has been run on a device.

All device patches