[ATrpms-users] lirc not working with kernel 2.6.22 and Leadtek Winfast 2000XP

[Jeffrey J. Kosowsky]

Axel Thimm wrote at about 16:44:46 +0200 on Tuesday, November 6, 2007:
 > On Tue, Nov 06, 2007 at 09:37:55AM -0500, Jeffrey J. Kosowsky wrote:
 > > Before kernel 2.6.22, I was successfully using lirc 0.8.2 and the
 > > lirc_gpio kernel module to run lirc using my Leadtek Winfast 2000XP
 > > Deluxe ir controller and remote.
 > > 
 > > Apparently, some change in kernel 2.6.22 broke the lirc_gpio kernel
 > > module. Specifically, when I try to load it, I get the error message:
 > > 
 > > FATAL: Error inserting lirc_gpio
 > > (/lib/modules/2.6.22.9-61.fc6/updates/drivers/lirc/lirc_gpio.ko):
 > > Operation not permitted 
 > > 
 > > So, then I tried to use the newer method using the /proc/bus/input
 > > drivers.
 > > 
 > > Specifically, I now start lircd using:
 > > 	 lircd -H dev/input -d name="bttv IR (card=34)"
 > > 
 > > So far, everything seems to work in that I get the following syslog
 > > messages: 
 > >      lircd-0.8.3-CVS[17684]: lircd(userspace) ready
 > > (note: I upgraded to lirc-0.8.3 too)
 > > 
 > > However, none of the clients I run seem to work now. For example, when
 > > I run 'irw', I get no response.
 > > 
 > > Note that according to the syslog, things seem to be working fine
 > > since I get the following messages when starting a lirc client
 > > 	  lircd-0.8.3-CVS[17684]: accepted new client on/dev/lircd
 > > 	  lircd-0.8.3-CVS[17684]: initializing'name=bttv IR (card=34)'
 > > 
 > > and when closing the client:
 > > 	  lircd-0.8.3-CVS[17684]: removed client
 > > 	  lircd-0.8.3-CVS[17684]: closing '/dev/input/event3'
 > > 
 > > 
 > > I also tried running irrecord as follows:
 > >   irrecord -H dev/input -d name="bttv IR (card=34)" myfile
 > > 
 > > However, I get the following error message:
 > > 	irrecord: gap not found, can't continue
 > > 	irrecord: closing '/dev/input/event3'
 > > 
 > > - Any ideas on what is going wrong and how to fix it?
 > 
 > Yes, you actually gave a good description of the issue: lirc_gpio is
 > broken on >= 2.6.22.

Any idea on why I can't get the /dev/input method to work? i.e., is it
really a hardware limitation specific to my ir controller/remote or is
there a (potential) software or configuration fix?

 > And while the lirc community is aware of this
 > issue noone has stepped up to get this fixed.

Though I am a bit amazed that a 2.6.21 -> 2.6.22 upgrade would break
something pretty common like lirc without preserving any backward
compatibility. Also surprised that no fix has emerged in the 3 months
since the release of 2.6.22 (I wish I could step up to fix it but I am
far from being a kernel/driver hacker).
 
 > You could build a system on RHEL5. It will not come with any such
 > surprises in the next 3-4 years and then you can look at RHEL6 or RHEL7 :)
 > (replace RHEL with CentOS or SL for a simple multimedia
 > license/support free system)
 > -- 

:)