[mythtv] 0.18.1 compile on x86_64 and lirc troubles

[Johan Reinalda]

All,
after playing with irxevent some to get the remote working under the x86_64
package, and being unhappy with it, I decided to venture into compiling
0.18.1 from source.

After installing lirc-lib-devel, and modifying ld.so.conf.d to add
/usr/lib64 so configure would find the lirc_client libraries (and running 
ldconfig),
I ran

./configure --enable-xvmc --disable-joystick-menu

and it showed it will enable lirc support.

The package built fine in about 10 minutes.
After installing, when I run the new "mythfrontend -v all", I still don't
get lirc native support, but no errors related to lirc showing...

I see no messages in /var/log/messages about lirc device being opened (like 
when
you run irw)

How can I troubleshoot this?

TIA,

Johan
PS  I have tested my serial remote with mode2/irw and that works fine. I 
also have a proper ~mythtv/.myth/lircrc; this all works fine on my dev linux 
system running i386 on an older thunderbird cpu...