Mailing List Archive

Installing & Running LIRC Problems
I tried installing LIRC on my system, the last thing I need to get up
and running. I am having a bunch of problems getting this to work.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am very new to the whole idea
of linux so any solutions might need to be explained a bit more
thoroughly. Thanks. Here is what I did to install LIRC:

I followed section 8.2 for a Mandrake install (v9.0). I did not
download the kernel from www.kernel.org because I installed it using
urpmi kernel-source at a command prompt, which installed 2.4.19.16mdk
if I am not mistaken. Downloaded and installed LIRC per documents
section 8.2. Skipped to section 8.4 and untar'd and ran setup. I am
using a homebrew receiver, I purchased off of
http://www.zapway.de/index1.htm as listed on LIRCs page. I chose the
default Driver Configuration it had set up. It is plugged into my only
serial 9-pin port. The Driver Configuration listed driver:serial
io:0x3f8 irq:4. According to my bios, COM1 is on io 0x03f8. However, I
am not sure what irq it is using. Is there any way I can find out? I
still continued on with the install. Said I needed to run make, and
make install. I ran $ make from the lirc directory, $ su, # make
install from the lirc directory, and # chmod 666 /dev/lircd from the
lirc directory. Did a ls -l /dev/li* and /dev/lirc was not linked to
ttyS0 (which I found out by reading was COM1 (so I really am learning
things about linux)). Followed the instructions in the DOC to link it
to ttyS0 which I did and checked and confirmed. I then proceeded to
section 8.5 and added the alias char-major-61 lirc_serial line to my
modules.conf. I then did the modprobe lirc_serial and
the /sbin/ldconfig, then I ran /usr/local/sbin/lircd. I went to run
irrecord myremote but recieved the following error:

[derek@localhost derek]$ irrecord myremote

irrecord - application for recording IR-codes for usage with lirc

Copyright (C) 1998,1999 Christoph Bartelmus(lirc@bartelmus.de)

irrecord: could not get hardware features
irrecord: this device driver does not support the new LIRC interface
irrecord: make sure you use a current version of the driver
irrecord: could not init hardware (lircd running ? --> close it, check
permissions)


So I tried rebooting and tried loading modprobe lirc_serial again just
to make sure it loaded it and got:


[root@localhost derek]# modprobe lirc_serial
/lib/modules/2.4.19-16mdk/kernel/3rdparty/lirc/lirc_serial.o.gz:
init_module: Input/output error
Hint: insmod errors can be caused by incorrect module parameters,
including
invalid IO or IRQ parameters.
You may find more information in syslog or the output from dmesg
modprobe: insmod
/lib/modules/2.4.19-16mdk/kernel/3rdparty/lirc/lirc_serial.o.gz failed


So I ran dmesg as listed there and recieved the following output:


lirc_serial: port 03f8 already in use, proceeding anyway
lirc_serial: compile the serial port driver as module and
lirc_serial: make sure this module is loaded first
lirc_serial: auto-detected active low receiver
_devfs_append_entry(serial): dir: "lirc" is not a directory
devfs_register(lirc/serial): could not append to parent, err: -20
lirc_serial: devfs_register failed!
lirc_serial: auto-detected active low receiver


I have tried reinstalling LIRC and have the same problem. I dont know
how to uninstall LIRC if any one can let me know how to do that, so I
can try reinstalling fresh. Otherwise the only thing I can think of is
I am on the wrong irq but I do not know how to check that. Otherwise
if anyone else has a different suggestion please let me know. Thanks.

-Derek
Re: Installing & Running LIRC Problems [ In reply to ]
Hmmm, have you checked
http://www.lirc.org/html/install.html#dependencies ?

Sounds like maybe your kernel serial port driver is grabbing your serial
port, preventing the LIRC driver from getting it. You can either
rebuild your kernel with the serial port driver as a module (or
disabled), or you can use setserial to release the port before loading
the LIRC driver.

-Joe C.
RE: Installing & Running LIRC Problems [ In reply to ]
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OK, do you know for a fact that you need lirc_serial? I just ran
into a similar problem on Mandrake 9.1; the packager for lircd
thought that all serial devices need to use lirc_serial - they don't.

Did the lirc compile mention anything about needing to install a
kernel-driver?

In my case, I've got a Pinnacle TV IR remote, and it uses the
"serial" driver, not any special LIRC hardware driver.

In Mandrake 9.1, the serial driver is compiled into the kernel, so no
external modules need to be loaded.

When you do a $ dmesg | grep tty

what does it show?

Try getting rid of lirc_serial from your /etc/modules.conf and
rebooting - I've found that using lirc_serial when you don't need it
will do bad things to the serial port status.

Anyway, try that again without using lirc_serial.

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RE: Installing & Running LIRC Problems [ In reply to ]
I tried both suggestions. I used setserial as listed on LIRC
Dependencies and then loaded modprobe lirc_serial, still had the same
error messages. I then tried the second suggestion of removing
lirc_serial from boot and not using it. irrecord gave an error. I did
a $ dmesg | grep tty as suggested and received $ ttyS00 at 0x03f8 (irq
= 4_ is a 16550A. Does the fact that its listed as ttyS00 mean
anything? /dev has only a ttyS0 listed. I tried linking LIRC manually
to a ttyS00 but it did not work. LIRC install did not mention
installing a kernel-driver. However, I tried urpmi kernel-driver and
it said "No Such Package". Any other ideas? Thanks.

-Derek

Quoting Robert Kulagowski <rkulagowski@thrupoint.net>:

>
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>
> OK, do you know for a fact that you need lirc_serial? I just ran
> into a similar problem on Mandrake 9.1; the packager for lircd
> thought that all serial devices need to use lirc_serial - they don't.
>
> Did the lirc compile mention anything about needing to install a
> kernel-driver?
>
> In my case, I've got a Pinnacle TV IR remote, and it uses the
> "serial" driver, not any special LIRC hardware driver.
>
> In Mandrake 9.1, the serial driver is compiled into the kernel, so no
> external modules need to be loaded.
>
> When you do a $ dmesg | grep tty
>
> what does it show?
>
> Try getting rid of lirc_serial from your /etc/modules.conf and
> rebooting - I've found that using lirc_serial when you don't need it
> will do bad things to the serial port status.
>
> Anyway, try that again without using lirc_serial.
>
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> 57MgUD83o39wqXMpzsRi6W4Y
> =d/gT
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> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users@snowman.net
> http://www.snowman.net/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>
>
RE: Installing & Running LIRC Problems [ In reply to ]
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OK, the ttyS00 thing isn't a problem.

You said you made a link to ttyS00, but it didn't work. It won't,
because the device you need to link to is ttyS0

# cd /dev
# rm lirc
# ln -sf ttyS0 lirc

There is no "kernel-driver", so that's why "urpmi kernel-driver"
didn't work - I was using that as an example; some remote controls
implement a special kernel-driver, like lirc_serial. If hte lirc
compile didn't mention anything like that, then all the better.

Note that we still haven't established that you just need straight
serial-port access as opposed to lirc_serial.

Take a look at the following and see if it helps:
http://bogmog.sourceforge.net/document_show.php3?doc_id=31

I think anything else lirc related should be asked in the lirc
mailing list, since that's where the expertise will be.

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