[mythtv-users] Should I just give up on lirc_serial?

Phill Edwards philledwards at gmail.com
Mon Mar 10 11:24:21 UTC 2008


For at least the past 12 months my serial port infrared remote control
has been pausing periodically. The only time it's ever worked properly
is when I first installed MythTV on FC2 which was about 3 years ago.
The problems started when I went to FC4. I've lived with this and
tried some pretty desperate measures, none of which worked:

- Upgrading from FC4 to FC6
- Switching from FC6 to Centos 5.1
- Buying a new model of the same remote and receiver

The problems is that the system stops responding to the remote
control. This happens periodically, unpredictably and lasts 1 or 2
minutes and is very, very frustrating. I'm now finding that the remote
will work for 1 or 2 presses and then just stop - and this is the new
remote. When I try to run irrecord it can't receive enough signals to
keep going and stops with the "gap" error.

I've noticed these messages in /var/log/messages:
Mar  9 04:30:24 elm kernel: lirc_serialAIEEEE: 0 0 47d2cd30 47d2ccb8 3f0a 1054
Mar  9 04:31:14 elm kernel: lirc_serialAIEEEE: 1 1 47d2cd62 47d2cd30 e9222 3f48
Mar  9 04:39:49 elm kernel: lirc_serialAIEEEE: 0 0 47d2cf65 47d2cf16 303b2 e5dfd
etc...
and
Mar 10 21:53:18 elm kernel: lirc_serial: ignoring spike: 0 0 47d5131e
47d5131e 634ac 63490
Mar 10 21:53:38 elm kernel: lirc_serial: ignoring spike: 0 0 47d51332
47d51332 27ddd 27dc1
Mar 10 21:53:40 elm kernel: lirc_serial: ignoring spike: 0 0 47d51334
47d51333 b6764 85acc

I have no idea what these mean, but assume that they're something to
do with the fact that my remote isn't working.

I have these lines in /etc/modprobe.conf:
alias char-major-61 lirc_serial
options lirc_serial irq=4 io=0x3f8
install lirc_serial /bin/setserial /dev/ttyS0 uart none ;
/sbin/modprobe --ignore-install lirc_serial

I read something in the past few days that said that kernel modules
may no longer be required for lirc as they're now built into the
kernels. I'm running 2.6.18-53.1.13.el5.centos.plus on Centos Plus 5.1
- does anyone know if this has the kernel drivers built into the
kernel?

Ultimately, am I ever going to get this working, or should I just give
up and buy a remote which has a USB receiver? If I did is that going
to be more reliable? If I should move to USB, can anyone suggest one
that's available in Australia?

Regards,
Phill


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