[opensuse] YaST, LIRC Need advice
I am trying to setup the LIRC daemon so that I can use a Hauppauge PRV-350 remote to control my media center. Running SuSE 11.2 x86_64, KDE 4.4.2 and have been seeking advice on the mthyTV and LIRC groups. From what I have been able to grok, it appears that something is broke, both with how YaST is setting up the LIRC daemon and with a kernel module - ir-kbd-i2c When using the TV setup in YaST, it configures the /etc/sysconfig/lirc file with the LIRC_MODULE="ir_kbd_i2c" but it sets the LIRCD_DRIVER="/dev/lircd" I am being told that this LIRCD_DRIVER setting is wrong for usage with the ir_kbd_i2c kernel module. (I am told that /dev/lircd is the socket for the lirc daemon when using the lirc_i2c kernel module) Instead it should be something in /dev/input/??? I don't know what but in /dev/input there is a link called ir that links to /dev/input/event7 and guessing by the name "ir" (infrared???) that looks like a possible candidate?? As the LIRC configuration currently stands, using low level utilities such as xev, showkey -s and showkey -k I am finding an inconsistent pattern in what buttons are being recognized from the remote. All of these utilities recognize the numeric buttons and the volume up/down but what seems weird (to me) is that as for the rest of the buttons, some are recognized by each of these utilities but not the same set of buttons! Each recognizes a different set, even showkey -k and showkey -s respond to different sets of the buttons from my remote! To this non-expert that seems especially odd. What I am being told is that this is due to an improperly defined "key map" which is some kind of table in the ir_kbd_i2c module. Incidentally this ir_kbd_i2c is mapping the numeric buttons and the volume up/down into equivalent key strokes as can be seen by bringing up an empty shell and seeing the corresponding numeric letters being shown. (That, as I later found out, renders the utilities - ircat and irw useless (and confusing) in determining what the LIRC daemon is doing.) Incidentally, I also tried to follow the instructions given at http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Ir-kbd-i2c to set the option for the hauppauge=1 as I am using the gray remote. - modprobe ir-kbd-i2c hauppauge=1 and I created the file named /etc/modprobe.d/hauppauge-remote containing the following line: options ir-kbd-i2c hauppauge=1 and when I restarted the lirc daemon it complained about the hauppauge-remote file not having a .conf extension. So I renamed that file and got no more complaints. I guess that the kernel and/or lirc daemon magically finds all .conf files in this directory and executes them??? Anywise bottom line is that this made no difference in what was being recognized from my remote... So, I am being advised to stop using the ir_kbd_i2c module and use the older lirc_i2c module instead. (also according to the LIRC website I am suppose to install the lirc_dev module also) Since I am not an expert on managing kernel modules, my research leads me to believe I use the following commands to accomplish this - rmmod ir_kbd_i2c insmod lirc_i2c insmod lirc_dev or should I use modprobe -r ir_kbd_i2c modprobe lirc_i2c modprobe lirc_dev Not sure what the difference between these commands are exactly... And tinkering with the kernel kinda makes me nervous! So guess I thought I would ask for some expert guidance before I proceed any further... Someone apparently decided not to allow YaST to offer the usage of the lirc_i2c module as a fallback so to me that seems like a warning flag not to change the kernel. So what will I break if I do this, or am I on my own in some unexplored territory and left to experiment with my system? If I fallback to using the lirc_i2c module, I think I understand the rest of the process of setting up the lircd.conf and .lircrc files needed to get mythTV up and working with the remote.... Much appreciate any and all offers of advice/help in getting the remote to work... Marc...
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA256 On 2010-04-01 18:02, Marc Chamberlin wrote:
So, I am being advised to stop using the ir_kbd_i2c module and use the older lirc_i2c module instead. (also according to the LIRC website I am suppose to install the lirc_dev module also) Since I am not an expert on managing kernel modules, my research leads me to believe I use the following commands to accomplish this -
rmmod ir_kbd_i2c insmod lirc_i2c insmod lirc_dev
or should I use
modprobe -r ir_kbd_i2c modprobe lirc_i2c modprobe lirc_dev
Not sure what the difference between these commands are exactly... And tinkering with the kernel kinda makes me nervous!
At the very worst the system would crash, and I doubt it. At normal worst, if things go bad you could loose use of the remote, which is no big deal, and perhaps have to reboot to recover to a "known status". Changes are not permanent, just the current runtime. Fear not :-) The first group of commands remove/load kernel modules (from memory) directly, no questions asked. The second group ask a few questions (of the config files) and may load/unload other modules it thinks are needed to complete the request. More in the respective manual pages. About your main question, how to get the remote working, sorry, no idea. - -- Cheers / Saludos, Carlos E. R. (from 11.2 x86_64 "Emerald" GM (Minas Tirith)) -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.12 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with SUSE - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iF4EAREIAAYFAku04sUACgkQja8UbcUWM1wvBgD/VpA2u5VpQvkw5NlS8CBLJQJj ArIgP5HNjj4U1AGAAOkA/2TeIbtfR/5IWVxTex6goOc8eoxdVXkVQBMIEcB3G7h0 =y3Dn -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On 4/1/2010 11:15 AM, Carlos E. R. wrote:
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA256
On 2010-04-01 18:02, Marc Chamberlin wrote:
So, I am being advised to stop using the ir_kbd_i2c module and use the older lirc_i2c module instead. (also according to the LIRC website I am suppose to install the lirc_dev module also) Since I am not an expert on managing kernel modules, my research leads me to believe I use the following commands to accomplish this -
rmmod ir_kbd_i2c insmod lirc_i2c insmod lirc_dev
or should I use
modprobe -r ir_kbd_i2c modprobe lirc_i2c modprobe lirc_dev
Not sure what the difference between these commands are exactly... And tinkering with the kernel kinda makes me nervous!
At the very worst the system would crash, and I doubt it. At normal worst, if things go bad you could loose use of the remote, which is no big deal, and perhaps have to reboot to recover to a "known status". Changes are not permanent, just the current runtime. Fear not :-)
The first group of commands remove/load kernel modules (from memory) directly, no questions asked. The second group ask a few questions (of the config files) and may load/unload other modules it thinks are needed to complete the request.
More in the respective manual pages.
About your main question, how to get the remote working, sorry, no idea.
Thanks Carlos for replying, I always feel it is a good idea to get second opinions before I do something that I don't fully understand... So I took the plunge and removed the kernel module ir_kbd_i2c and installed the two kernel modules lirc_i2c and lirc_dev. Changed the config file /etc/sysconfig/lirc manually to use the lirc_i2c module and restarted the lirc daemon... No Joy! Now nothing from my remote is recognized anymore and I believe the rest of my lirc configuration files are correct... So I am stuck! and dunno what to try next... Any lirc gurus around? Marc...
On Thu, 2010-04-01 at 13:50 -0700, Marc Chamberlin wrote:
On 4/1/2010 11:15 AM, Carlos E. R. wrote:
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA256
On 2010-04-01 18:02, Marc Chamberlin wrote:
So, I am being advised to stop using the ir_kbd_i2c module and use the older lirc_i2c module instead. (also according to the LIRC website I am suppose to install the lirc_dev module also) Since I am not an expert on managing kernel modules, my research leads me to believe I use the following commands to accomplish this -
rmmod ir_kbd_i2c insmod lirc_i2c insmod lirc_dev
or should I use
modprobe -r ir_kbd_i2c modprobe lirc_i2c modprobe lirc_dev
Not sure what the difference between these commands are exactly... And tinkering with the kernel kinda makes me nervous!
At the very worst the system would crash, and I doubt it. At normal worst, if things go bad you could loose use of the remote, which is no big deal, and perhaps have to reboot to recover to a "known status". Changes are not permanent, just the current runtime. Fear not :-)
The first group of commands remove/load kernel modules (from memory) directly, no questions asked. The second group ask a few questions (of the config files) and may load/unload other modules it thinks are needed to complete the request.
More in the respective manual pages.
About your main question, how to get the remote working, sorry, no idea.
Thanks Carlos for replying, I always feel it is a good idea to get second opinions before I do something that I don't fully understand...
So I took the plunge and removed the kernel module ir_kbd_i2c and installed the two kernel modules lirc_i2c and lirc_dev. Changed the config file /etc/sysconfig/lirc manually to use the lirc_i2c module and restarted the lirc daemon...
No Joy! Now nothing from my remote is recognized anymore and I believe the rest of my lirc configuration files are correct... So I am stuck! and dunno what to try next... Any lirc gurus around?
Hi Marc, I've been following your trials across a couple of lists. I have the PVR-150, and _did_ actually have the remote working, under both oS11.1 and Ubuntu9.04,, however it ceased functioning about the same time on both (still works fine in Windows though, so it's not hardware). I have a whacked idea that I might just try. I have a copy of KnoppMYTH that kicks, I'm gonna boot it and see if the remote works. Make sure that you have the LIRC tools installed, the one that will tell you you're talking to the card is irw which is run in a shell environment. I was involved in this discussion here on this list in the last year with someone (you?) and got back to the thread after some months to tell how I initially got LIRC set up, it did not involve using YaST at all, but a lot of info from Ubuntu forums. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On 4/1/2010 9:36 PM, Mike McMullin wrote:
On Thu, 2010-04-01 at 13:50 -0700, Marc Chamberlin wrote:
On 4/1/2010 11:15 AM, Carlos E. R. wrote:
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA256
On 2010-04-01 18:02, Marc Chamberlin wrote:
So, I am being advised to stop using the ir_kbd_i2c module and use the older lirc_i2c module instead. (also according to the LIRC website I am suppose to install the lirc_dev module also) Since I am not an expert on managing kernel modules, my research leads me to believe I use the following commands to accomplish this -
rmmod ir_kbd_i2c insmod lirc_i2c insmod lirc_dev
or should I use
modprobe -r ir_kbd_i2c modprobe lirc_i2c modprobe lirc_dev
Not sure what the difference between these commands are exactly... And tinkering with the kernel kinda makes me nervous!
At the very worst the system would crash, and I doubt it. At normal worst, if things go bad you could loose use of the remote, which is no big deal, and perhaps have to reboot to recover to a "known status". Changes are not permanent, just the current runtime. Fear not :-)
The first group of commands remove/load kernel modules (from memory) directly, no questions asked. The second group ask a few questions (of the config files) and may load/unload other modules it thinks are needed to complete the request.
More in the respective manual pages.
About your main question, how to get the remote working, sorry, no idea.
Thanks Carlos for replying, I always feel it is a good idea to get second opinions before I do something that I don't fully understand...
So I took the plunge and removed the kernel module ir_kbd_i2c and installed the two kernel modules lirc_i2c and lirc_dev. Changed the config file /etc/sysconfig/lirc manually to use the lirc_i2c module and restarted the lirc daemon...
No Joy! Now nothing from my remote is recognized anymore and I believe the rest of my lirc configuration files are correct... So I am stuck! and dunno what to try next... Any lirc gurus around?
Hi Marc, I've been following your trials across a couple of lists. I have the PVR-150, and _did_ actually have the remote working, under both oS11.1 and Ubuntu9.04,, however it ceased functioning about the same time on both (still works fine in Windows though, so it's not hardware). I have a whacked idea that I might just try. I have a copy of KnoppMYTH that kicks, I'm gonna boot it and see if the remote works.
Make sure that you have the LIRC tools installed, the one that will tell you you're talking to the card is irw which is run in a shell environment. I was involved in this discussion here on this list in the last year with someone (you?) and got back to the thread after some months to tell how I initially got LIRC set up, it did not involve using YaST at all, but a lot of info from Ubuntu forums.
Mike - Yes I believe you and I talked last year about this LIRC issue when I was trying to get it up an running then.. I gave up for quite awhile, but decided to upgrade to SuSE11.2 and see if anything got better... It didn't, but a couple of guys over in the mythTV mail list have now gotten me over this hurdle. Using YaST to try an set up my remote really screwed things up, and apparently the kernel module ir_kbd_i2c is just not ready for prime time either. So we backed it out of the kernel and went back to using the two modules lirc_i2c and lirc_dev instead. Then with some reconfiguring of the /etc/sysconfig/lirc file, we managed to get the system to recognize button presses from my Hauppauge remote. I think someone really dropped the ball with this release and didn't do a lot of testing to make sure the new model they are headed for will work, nor provide an easy way to back down to the way remotes have been working in the past, in case it didn't... Between this issue and sound issues, so far it has been pretty painful getting my media center back up and running, but I am making progress! There are some good helpers around if you can find em! Let me know if I can help you... Marc..
participants (3)
-
Carlos E. R. -
Marc Chamberlin -
Mike McMullin