getting homebrew serial reciever to work?

[mr_bungalow]

I followed the guides over at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Install_Lirc_Gutsy and I can't seem to get this to work. Every time I try to do IRW I get

connect: connection refused

.
When I restart lircd nothing even populates in my dmesg. I think I'm close but I'm not sure where to go from here! I think I need kernel modules (?).

[superm1]

When LIRC was installed, did you choose the proper option for the serial receiver?

If not (or your not sure), then do this:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure lirc

Choose the serial receiver option (or the serial igor variant if you have an igor receiver built).


Since you are using your own remote configuration to go with the receiver, copy it into the /etc/lirc/lircd.conf file already there.

Open up mythbuntu control centre, and hit the checkbox to regenerate a dynamic button mappings.

[mr_bungalow]

I need LIRC (IRW or mode2) to work in order to create my own .lircd file. I did select the proper option to load the serial receiver.

In mythbuntu control center, I only have the option to select a remote and mine isn't available. When I try to select a remote, there is none that require no driver and the lirc_serial module.

For some reason SSH isn't working today so I'll try this when I get home over lunch.

[dannyboy79]

if you don't have a lircd.conf than you need to use irrecord first to create one. irw parses your lircd.conf so if it's not there, I am guessing that it's making lircd crash. After you run irw, and you get the error. What happens if you issue this command:
ps aux | grep lirc
Does it return a line like this:
root 5365 0.0 0.0 2876 576 ? Ss Oct05 0:00 /usr/sbin/lircd --device=/dev/lirc0 --device=/dev/lirc0

If not, than your lircd crashed and closed.

Just chose none for now with mythbuntu and we'll create your lircd.conf remote file outside of mythbuntu control setup. Some other things to check just in case, my serial port is COM1 where I have seen many guides that say the default is COM2. You can find this by looking at your dmesg output using this command:
dmesg | grep ttyS
If it returns this:
[ 1.521568] serial8250: ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
[ 1.522180] 00:0a: ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
Than that means that your serial receiver is connected to COM1 NOT COM2.
Also, if you're using the serial IR receiver, you'll need to disable the kernel serial support, See the wiki towards the bottom.

Then see lower on the website you linked to and follow the part: "Recording a Remote" This requires that NO other lircd is active, so if it's on, kill it using ps aux and kill the program id using "sudo kill xxxx". then follow the guide for creating a remote.

Good luck

[mr_bungalow]

Thanks for the tips!! I figured out that everything was working but I needed to specify the -d in irrecord to point to lirc0 instead of lirc or ttys0. Once again, mythbuntu has amazed me!

[dannyboy79]

I forgot I was going to write that also except I didn't even know about the -d switch, I just created a symlink for /dev/lirc to point to /dev/lirc0. Not sure which is a better solution but most likely NOT mine as another symlink isn't the best thing. Good catch and glad you got it working. Mythbuntu has amazed me also!!

[latev]

Hey guys, mind if I use your help for getting my Igor IR receiver to work under Ubuntu x64?
I've managed to get the lirc installed properly /I think/, the modules are in the kernel /lirc_serial_igor/ and seems like my IR is detected properly. However I don't seem to be receiving any input from my remote after I issue
cat /dev/lirc0

Any suggestions?

[Murz]

Originally Posted by latev Hey guys, mind if I use your help for getting my Igor IR receiver to work under Ubuntu x64? I've managed to get the lirc installed properly /I think/, the modules are in the kernel /lirc_serial_igor/ and seems like my IR is detected properly. However I don't seem to be receiving any input from my remote after I issue cat /dev/lirc0 Any suggestions?

Same problem on Kubuntu Jaunty amd64 and Igor Cesko's serial IR receiver (on 1 and 2 COM port). This receiver works good with Girder 3.2 and IgorXP.dll, but didn't work on lirc!

$ lircd -v
lircd 0.8.4a

$ ls /dev/lirc*
/dev/lirc0  /dev/lircd

$ lsmod | grep lirc
lirc_serial_igor       23336  0
lirc_dev               22088  1 lirc_serial_igor

$ cat /etc/lirc/hardware.conf | grep -v ^# | grep -v ^$
REMOTE="Home-brew (Igor Cesko's variant)(16x50 UART compatible serial port)"
REMOTE_MODULES="lirc_dev lirc_serial_igor"
REMOTE_DRIVER=""
REMOTE_LIRCD_CONF=""
REMOTE_LIRCD_ARGS=""
TRANSMITTER="None"
TRANSMITTER_MODULES=""
TRANSMITTER_DRIVER=""
TRANSMITTER_DEVICE=""
TRANSMITTER_LIRCD_CONF=""
TRANSMITTER_LIRCD_ARGS=""
START_LIRCD="true"
LOAD_MODULES="true"
LIRCMD_CONF=""
FORCE_NONINTERACTIVE_RECONFIGURATION="false"
START_LIRCMD=""
REMOTE_DEVICE="/dev/lirc0"

When I start "irw" or "mode2 -d /dev/lirc0" and press some keys on IR transmitter, I see no output.
How can I turn on more debug level for get additional info where is the problem? How I can sniff an input signals on com port (/dev/ttyS0)?

[SiHa]

Did you disable the kernel serial support?

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/InstallLirc/Gutsy, search for setserial

[Murz]

Originally Posted by SiHa Did you disable the kernel serial support? https://help.ubuntu.com/community/InstallLirc/Gutsy, search for setserial

Yes, I disable it (all, ttyS0 and ttyS1) and restart lirc, but it isn't help. What can I try else?