[mythtv-users] LIRC in Mythbuntu 8.04.1 (now 8.10!!!!)

[James Crow]

On Tue, 2008-11-04 at 17:16 -0500, Harry Devine wrote:

> OK, here's what I get now:
> 
> /var/log/messages:
> Nov  4 17:03:06 hdevine-desktop kernel: [   17.357543] lirc_dev: IR 
> Remote Contr
> ol driver registered, major 61
> Nov  4 17:03:06 hdevine-desktop kernel: [   17.860037] lirc_serial: 
> auto-detecte
> d active low receiver
> Nov  4 17:03:06 hdevine-desktop kernel: [   17.860040] lirc_dev: 
> lirc_register_p
> lugin: sample_rate: 0
> 
> dmesg:
> [   17.357543] lirc_dev: IR Remote Control driver registered, major 61
> [   17.860037] lirc_serial: auto-detected active low receiver
> [   17.860040] lirc_dev: lirc_register_plugin: sample_rate: 0
> 
> 
> Based on those messages, one would think it's working.  However, I still 
> get nothing.  Is there somewhere else I should be looking?  In looking 
> at my frontend log, I get the following:
> 
> 2008-11-04 17:03:26.756 JoystickMenuClient Error: Joystick disabled - 
> Failed to
> read /home/hdevine/.mythtv/joystickmenurc
> mythtv: could not connect to socket
> mythtv: No such file or directory
> 2008-11-04 17:03:26.756 lirc_init failed for mythtv, see preceding messages
> 
> I have verified that /home/hdevine/.lirc/mythtv exists and has the 
> proper ownership and permissions.
> 
> Any ideas?
> Harry
> 
Harry,

  I happen to still have one of the home brew serial adapters I built in
a drawer. I hooked it up to my Ubuntu 8.10 desktop and had it working in
about 30 seconds. Here is what I did:

1) Attach serial IR receiver (this is a home made one from lirc.org
plans)
2) run: sudo dpkg-reconfigure lirc
3) Choose "Home-brew (16x50 UART compatible serial port)" or whatever
your receiver is.
4) I chose none for IR blaster. You  may need one.
5) Choose the serial port. /dev/ttyS0 = COM1, /dev/ttyS1 = COM2, etc
6) Back at the shell prompt cat /etc/serial.conf. You should see a
statement that prevents the kernel serial driver from attaching to the
port you chose for your IR receiver. Mine looks like this:
$ cat /etc/serial.conf
/dev/ttyS0 uart none
7) Check to make sure the lirc drivers have loaded.
lsmod | grep lirc

lirc_serial            23336  0 
lirc_dev               22216  1 lirc_serial
8) Check to see if /dev/lirc0 exists. If the lirc driver does not find
the hardware it is looking for the driver will not create the /dev/lirc0
device.
ls -l /dev/lir*
crw-rw---- 1 root root 61, 0 2008-11-05 08:03 /dev/lirc0
srw-rw-rw- 1 root root     0 2008-11-05 08:03 /dev/lircd

Looks good the driver has loaded and created a device entry for the IR
events.
9) Run mode2 to see if the driver detects any IR.
mode2 --device=/dev/lirc0

The console will just sit there waiting on the lirc driver to pass any
IR events. If mode2 does not generate any errors point your remote at
the receiver and then press a few buttons. You should see data appear in
the console for every button that you press. If you see data from mode2
that means the lirc driver is connected to your hardware and seeing the
IR from the remote. You still need to setup the remote config, but that
should not be too hard. If mode2 does not sense any data from the the
lirc driver then you need to check your hardware. If you built it
yourself go back to lirc.org and follow their troubleshooting steps for
checking home built receivers.

10) Configure your remote. Run the Mythbuntu Control Centre and choose
your remote through it.

Cheers,
James