[mythtv-users] Fedora 11 and lirc

[Jarod Wilson]

On Jun 25, 2009, at 11:26 AM, Tom Dexter wrote:

> On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 10:13 AM, Jarod Wilson<jarod at wilsonet.com>  
> wrote:
>> Some misc lirc notes for Fedora 11 users:
>>
>> 3) lirc_serial appears to be broken. I swear it worked last I tried  
>> it, but
>> its been a while. For the record, I think lirc_serial is rather  
>> grotty code,
>> and everyone should stay away from it and use something usb-based  
>> instead. I
>> still intend to look at it and get it fixed though.
>>
>
> I have vehemently disagree with that statement, and I think it's
> seriously misguided advise to posting, especially without any
> explanation.

Um, "is rather grotty code" *was* my explanation. Seriously. Have you  
*looked* at the lirc_serial code?

But if you insist, how 'bout these for further explanation:

- requires disabling the standard serial port driver
- no auto-loading when receiver is connected
- next to nil device type auto-detection (see multitude of modparam  
options)
- requires directly polling pins on the serial interface, not  
interrupt driven
- hard-coded such that is only works on traditional com1/com2, can't  
be used with a serial add-on card or a usb-serial adapter


> I've used lirc_serial on countless machines long before
> I used MythTV...going back over seven years.  I don't recall ever
> having an issue with it.
>
> I've been using it on my current MythTV frontend for two years now
> under Gentoo over more kernels than I can count...currently on 2.6.28.

My original mail said the code was nasty, not that it didn't work (in  
the non-Fedora 11 release kernel case, anyway). I'm quite aware that  
it works for a lot of people. Doesn't change the fact that the code  
and the way it operates are craptastic.

> Seems to me that most of the lirc problems I read about here are with
> USB.  For me, the remote was one of the easiest things to get working
> on my MythTV system.

I've seen more than plenty folks having problems with both lirc_serial  
and any number of usb-based receivers. To put it quite bluntly though,  
there are a lot of users out there that don't know wtf they're doing  
to begin with.

I can drop an lircd.conf in place, plug in a supported usb receiver,  
start lircd up, and it Just Works. No dicking around with the serial  
port, no manual module loading, no modparams, etc.

I stand by my statement that lirc_serial sucks.

-- 
Jarod Wilson
jarod at wilsonet.com