[mythtv-users] confusion re lirc_imon and lcdproc

Vincent McIntyre vincent.mcintyre at gmail.com
Tue Feb 22 11:23:21 UTC 2011


Hi

I am running Ubuntu Lucid 10.04 LTS, with hardware support modules
from linuxtv.org/media_build.git, and using a single machine as a myth
FE+BE.

It works! Thanks folks!

The box is an Antec Fusion case with an iMON LCD:
$ lsusb | grep -i imon
 Bus 009 Device 002: ID 15c2:ffdc SoundGraph Inc. iMON PAD Remote Controller

My question is about talking to the LCD. At present it kind of glows
but never displays
anything. I suspect lcdproc is not quite configured correctly but
there are deeper issues.

/dev/lcd0 exists:
crw-rw---- 1 root root 180, 144 2011-02-22 07:03 /dev/lcd0

Trying to write to with "echo" and so forth (from a root shell) just
produces error messages
in the terminal and nothing on the LCD.

After bootup I get this in dmesg:
[    5.251127] IR RC5(x) protocol handler initialized
[    5.253583] input: iMON Panel, Knob and Mouse(15c2:ffdc) as
/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.2/usb9/9-1/9-1:1.0/input/input3
[    5.268547] imon 9-1:1.0: 0xffdc iMON LCD, MCE IR (id 0x9f)
[    5.285115] IR RC6 protocol handler initialized

Now, I am _not_ using this device for remote control, I never had a
remote for it.
That's all done with a remote that came with one of my tuner cards
(dvico dual digital 4).
My interest is in getting the LCD to do ... anything.

I have read the various wiki pages about lcdproc and have been
persuaded that I need to load the lirc_imon driver in order to be able
to talk to this device and do things like display
output from myhtlcdserver, or just plain old LCDd.

But then I read Jarod Wilson's page about remote controls etc
(http://wilsonet.com/?page_id=95) which says:
   Second up, imon users keep being informed by some helpful
configuration scripts or
   something that they need to use the lirc_imon driver. Unless you
have one of the
   really REALLY old (like, 10 years old, and I’ve only ever
encountered one in existence)
   imon device, you now need the imon driver, not lirc_imon, and
you’re not going to see
   an lirc device interface for it.

So now I'm confused. Is my case one of the corner cases Jarod goes on
to talk about?

I have an lirc_imon module in the kernel ubuntu provide, modinfo is shown below.
However when I try to modprobe this module it does not load
successfully and I get:
[    5.238233] lirc_imon: disagrees about version of symbol lirc_register_driver
[    5.238236] lirc_imon: Unknown symbol lirc_register_driver

This is probably to be expected  since the imon.ko I have is from
media_build.git
(ie kernel.org with sharp edges) and the lirc_imon.ko is from ubuntu 2.6.32.

Can anyone suggest a way to resolve this? It looks like a bit of API skew to me.

I can't see any sign of lirc_imon in the media_tree.git, or I would
have tried to build
& install it. I realise I could try building my own kernel (ie
2.6.38+sharps) but I'd prefer
to avoid that, and understand more deeply what is going on here.

Cheers
Vince

$ lsmod|grep imon
rc_imon_mce             1297  0
imon                   20612  0
rc_core                17039  12
ir_kbd_i2c,ir_lirc_codec,ir_sony_decoder,cx23885,ir_jvc_decoder,rc_imon_mce,dvb_usb,ir_rc6_decoder,imon,ir_rc5_decoder,ir_nec_decoder

$ modinfo lirc_imon
filename:
/lib/modules/2.6.32-27-generic/kernel/ubuntu/lirc/lirc_imon/lirc_imon.ko
license:        GPL
version:        0.6
description:    Driver for SoundGraph iMON MultiMedia IR/Display
author:         Venky Raju <dev at venky.ws>
srcversion:     85EC50AE8C01BDD33719436
alias:          usb:v15C2p0046d*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip*
...
depends:        lirc_dev
vermagic:       2.6.32-27-generic SMP mod_unload modversions 586
parm:           debug:Debug messages: 0=no, 1=yes(default: no) (int)
parm:           display_type:Type of attached display. 0=autodetect,
1=vfd, 2=lcd, 3=vga, 4=none (default: autodetect) (int)
parm:           ir_protocol:Which IR protocol to use. 0=native iMON,
1=Windows Media Center Ed. (RC-6), 2=iMON w/o PAD stabilize (default:
native iMON) (int)
parm:           nomouse:Disable mouse input device mode when IR device
is open. 0=don't disable, 1=disable. (default: don't disable) (int)
parm:           pad_thresh:Threshold at which a pad push registers as
an arrow key in kbd mode (default: 28) (int)

$ modinfo imon
filename:       /lib/modules/2.6.32-27-generic/kernel/drivers/media/rc/imon.ko
license:        GPL
version:        0.9.2
description:    Driver for SoundGraph iMON MultiMedia IR/Display
author:         Jarod Wilson <jarod at wilsonet.com>
srcversion:     5100F329E33D93CA58A5344
alias:          usb:v15C2p0046d*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip*
...
depends:        rc-core
vermagic:       2.6.32-27-generic SMP mod_unload modversions 586
parm:           debug:Debug messages: 0=no, 1=yes (default: no) (bool)
parm:           display_type:Type of attached display. 0=autodetect,
1=vfd, 2=lcd, 3=vga, 4=none (default: autodetect) (int)
parm:           pad_stabilize:Apply stabilization algorithm to iMON
PAD presses in arrow key mode. 0=disable, 1=enable (default). (int)
parm:           nomouse:Disable mouse input device mode when IR device
is open. 0=don't disable, 1=disable. (default: don't disable) (bool)
parm:           pad_thresh:Threshold at which a pad push registers as
an arrow key in kbd mode (default: 28) (int)

$ dpkg -l lcdproc
...
ii  lcdproc        0.5.3-0ubuntu2 LCD display driver daemon and clients


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