The init script will see the START_LIRCD="false" and do nothing.
There are a few things to check:
* is LIRC_DCE running?
* if LIRC_DCE is running, check the logs for these messages:
Added remote %s device %d layout %c
and
There are no remote controls -- LIRC will be dormant
If you see the second message, you don't have a remote control setup in lmce-admin. You'll need to set one up. Normally, with a device of the "mce_usb2" template you also get a sibling device of the "Windows XP MC Remote" template.
When LIRC_DCE logs "Added remote", it found one of these sibling devices.
* if LIRC_DCE isn't running, you need to find out why: do you have a mce_usb2 device?, is the "Disabled" box unticked for the device?
Notice that, unless things were changed since I last looked in LinuxMCE, you still have to select "mce_usb2" device (i.e. not "mce_usb", nor the "mce_usb2 (MS)"). LIRC merged mceusb and mceusb2 back into a single driver (which my patch addresses), but LinuxMCE still knows about the old, split, drivers.
Please make sure you comment out the LogLevels line in /etc/pluto.conf so you get verbose logging. You need to reload the router after you make this change.