[mythtv-users] One way to use multiple lirc drivers simultaneously, such as hauppauge & serial\

[Scott Alfter]

While getting a new 27" LCD working with my MythTV box, I figured I'd have
another crack at getting lirc to work with both the receiver on my PVR-350
and a homebrew transmitter of the type described at lirc.org.  While lirc
doesn't appear to let you build support for multiple device types in one
shot, the kernel modules it builds tend to pile up.  By straightening out
your init scripts and paying attention to what goes into /dev, you can get
both the PVR-x50 IR receiver and an RS-232 IR transmitter working.

(I'm runnning Gentoo on an Athlon XP 2400+ on an nForce2 motherboard (an FIC
AU13, more specifically).  I'm using a vanilla Linux 2.6.9 kernel, with the
built-in ALSA driver and added-in ivtv (0.1.9) and nVidia kernel modules.  I
use udev to manage /dev, since devfs has been deprecated.  I use a PVR-350
and an M179 for input, and I'm looking at moving my digital-cable box from
my TiVo to my MythTV box.  All software is generated with the Gentoo
ebuilds...there's no need to hand-compile anything.)

Assuming that you already have your PVR-x50 working for recording stuff (and
for playing it back, if you have a PVR-350 and you want to use its onboard
MPEG decoder), here's a rough outline of what you need to do.  These steps
are for Gentoo, but you can probably figure it out for other distros.

1)  Make sure your Portage tree is reasonably current.
    (lirc-0.7.0_pre7-r1.ebuild should be under /usr/portage/app-misc/lirc.)
2)  Build lirc with PVR-x50 support:
    ACCEPT_KEYWORDS=~x86 LIRC_OPTS="--with-driver=hauppauge" emerge lirc
3)  Build lirc with RS-232 support:
    ACCEPT_KEYWORDS=~x86 LIRC_OPTS="--with-driver=hauppauge --with-driver=serial --with-transmitter" emerge lirc
    (yes, you should leave "--with-driver=hauppauge" in)
4)  Check /lib/modules/$KERNEL_VERSION/misc and verify that it has the
    following modules:
    lirc_dev.ko
    lirc_i2c.ko
    lirc_serial.ko
    The timestamp on lirc_i2c.ko will be a little bit older than the other
    two.  This is OK.
5)  Edit /etc/modules.d/ivtv so that it loads the lirc modules...it should
    have lines in it like these:
    alias char-major-61-0 lirc_i2c
    alias char-major-61-1 lirc_serial
    options lirc_serial type=0 io=0x3F8 irq=4
    add above ivtv lirc_dev lirc_i2c lirc_serial
    (Set the I/O and IRQ options for lirc_serial to whatever's appropriate
    for your system; my transmitter is plugged into COM1:.)
    Run modules-update to commit the changes.
6)  Copy /etc/init.d/lircd to /etc/init.d/lircd-hauppauge and to
    /etc/init.d/lircd-serial.  They need to be modified so they won't
    interfere with each other.
7)  In /etc/init.d/lircd-hauppauge, the line that starts lircd needs to 
    be changed to read as follows:
    start-stop-daemon --start --quiet -p /var/run/lircd-hauppauge.pid -a -a /usr/sbin/lircd -- -o /dev/lircd0 -d /dev/lirc0 -P /var/run/lircd-hauppauge.pid
    The line that stops lircd needs to be changed to read as follows:
    start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet -p /var/run/lircd-hauppauge.pid
8)  In /etc/init.d/lircd-serial, the line that starts lircd needs to be
    changed to read as follows:
    start-stop-daemon --start --quiet -p /var/run/lircd-serial.pid -a -a /usr/sbin/lircd -- -o /dev/lircd1 -d /dev/lirc1 -P /var/run/lircd-serial.pid
    The line that stops lircd needs to be changed to read as follows:
    start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet -p /var/run/lircd-serial.pid
9)  If you built MythTV with its internal lirc support (instead of using 
    irxevent), it wants to connect to /dev/lircd, which won't have a daemon
    running it (if it even exists).  Append the following to 
    /etc/conf.d/local.start so that a symbolic link to /dev/lircd0 is
    regenerated at boot time:
    /bin/ln -sf /dev/lircd0 /dev/lircd
10) Make sure local, lircd-hauppauge, and lircd-serial get started at boot
    time:
    for i in local lircd-hauppauge lircd-serial; do rc-update add $i default; done
11) Create /etc/lircd.conf.  You can crib the Hauppauge remote codes from
    /usr/share/doc/ivtv-0.1.9-r4/lircd-g.conf.gz.  You can get codes for 
    many cable boxes and satellite receivers from 
    http://lirc.sourceforge.net/remotes/.
12) Restart local and start lircd-hauppauge and lircd-serial:
    /etc/init.d/local restart
    /etc/init.d/lircd-hauppauge start
    /etc/init.d/lircd-serial start
13) Test your Hauppauge remote:
    irw /dev/lircd0
    Press some buttons on the remote; you should see the names of the buttons
    scroll by.  Press Ctrl-C to exit.
14) Test your transmitter.  The exact parameters to irsend will vary according
    to the device, but this switches my cable box (a Scientific-Atlanta
    Explorer 2100) on and off:
    irsend -d /dev/lircd1 SEND_ONCE SA2000 POWER

You might also consider knocking together a shell script that'll change
channels, since MythTV will need that.  With the Explorer 2100, I found I
got the fastest channel change by sending SELECT and C after the digits, so
here's my channel-changing script (saved as /usr/local/bin/chchannel):

#!/bin/sh
if [ $# != 1 ]
then
  echo Usage: `echo $0 | sed "s/.*\///g"` channum
  exit -1
fi
for i in `echo $1 | sed "s/\(.\)/\1 /g"` SELECT C
do
  irsend -d /dev/lircd1 SEND_ONCE SA2000 $i
done

The only error-checking done is to make sure there's one parameter; it
doesn't check to see if that parameter is numeric.

A quick check of the archives didn't turn up anything useful on the subject,
but it's possible I missed an earlier post.  Hopefully this will save
someone else the time involved in reinventing this wheel.

  _/_
 / v \ Scott Alfter
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