[solution] lirc with pctv remote control

[gordin]

I had problems with getting lirc working with my remote control from Pinnacle Sys. (connected to the serial port)
I couldn't find any helpfull entry in the forums.
So I rtfm. And rtfm again. And searched again. Rtfm once more and finally got it working

First edit the ebuilt for lirc (at this time the file is /usr/portage/app-misc/lirc/lirc-0.7.0_pre2.ebuid) and replace --with-driver=serial with --with-driver=pctv and --with-port=0x3f8 with --with-port=/dev/ttyS0 (or to any other serial port device, where you have connected your receiver) in LIRC_OPTS. delete the entry --with-irq=4.
Then

[alitz]

You're a lifesaver! Here is a little more info regarding my experience that may help someone...

1. You do not have to change the "Standard/generic (8250/16550 and compatible UARTs) serial support" for 2.4 kernels to module (M) from staticly compiled (*) in your kernel. It's hard to tell in the lirc docs whether or not it's necessary to do so. I believe the default in the 2.4 kernel is to staticly compile the serial support so you may not have to do anything here.

2. delete the /etc/conf.d/lircd file. It probably only has one line telling lircd to use /dev/lirc/lirc0 or similar as the device. you can make it work this way, but it's probably simpler to just use /dev/lirc.

3. if it doesn't already exist, create a symlink from /dev/lirc to /dev/ttyS0

4. I had to get the serial driver in the kernel to release it's hold on COM1 (/dev/ttyS0) before lircd could use it. to do this: root# setserial /dev/ttyS0 uart 16550a
You can tell if you need to do this or not when you try to test out irw. If you start irw and it dies immediately taking lircd with it check the lircd log (/var/log/lircd). If you see an entry like "caught signal" then irw killed your lircd. start lircd again, enter the setserial command above, and the try irw again. hopefully it will work for you like it did for me!

-ajl

[flax]

[mndar]

Thnx guyz. All your posts were helpful. It turns out lirc was working fine. I just had to create a symlink /dev/lirc0 to /dev/ttyS0. Thnx alib. I think adding LIRC_OPTS="--with-driver=pctv --with-port=/dev/ttyS0" in make.conf is a better idea. Also after doing that and emerging lirc, I didn't have to search of the pctv conf file, it was automatically installed in /etc/lircd.conf

[tuxicated]

I also own a Pinnacle PCTV card with serial-port IR Receiver. But when I try to emerge Lirc (version 0.8.0_pre1) it says the pctv driver cannot be installed on my system:

[gordin]

Hmm, it it some time ago that I configured lirc... I never had any problems with updates
Only thing I could imagine is that you have forgotten to compile generic serial support (CONFIG_SERIAL_8250, directly into the kernel or as a module)
On the other hand, lirc-0.8.0_pre1 is not stable... might be that it is broken for pctv
Have you tried version 0.7.0-r1 (last stable version in portage-tree). Or is there a certain reason that you want to install 0.8.0_pre1?

[tuxicated]

I need 0.8.0 because I run a recent (2.6.14) kernel.

In the end I got everything working, so here is how I did it:

The configure error is very confusing, and it turns out that it is caused by not having the '--with-port' option set correctly. The PCTV driver support compiles perfectly when I have this in my /etc/make.conf:

[troebel]

You guys are AWESOME!! My remote WORKS, FINALLY!!!!!

I just have a small problem with qingy now... If I add lircd to runlevel "default" it starts like normal (i see "* lircd started" during boot), but my loginmanager is terribly slow and once I'm logged in, lircd is not running anymore. If I start lircd again it works.
If I remove lircd from the default runlevel, qingy is just as fast as normal again.
If anyone has a solution or an idea what might cause this please let me hear.

Thanks again for this thread
_________________
d|>_<|b

[Jointy]

Hy @ll,

specially thanks to you. My Remote Controll works very good.....

Finally I needed only to emerge the lirc-0.7.2 with USE="LIRCD_OPTS=--with-driver=pctv" and start the deamon

But some questions be stayed:

1. How can I shutdown my system through the lircd ???

2. How can I controll my alsa sound globally, some programms need oss support and I use "-oss" in /etc/make.conf as USE Flag ???
(with this flag my TVTime don't have access to the mixer device, but the remotecontroil buttons are working)

^^have some an idea how can i controll my sound globally.....means master Out.....u know ???

[gordin]

1: put the following into /etc/lircrc

[Jointy]

at first special thanks to you....it works.....

[Sparkster]

Well, I tried tuxicated method with a few changes. Lirc doesn't support LIRC_OPTS, so I added this to /etc/make.conf