Linux Infrared Remote Control

On 13 February 2011 08:52, Nigel Jewell <nige@...> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Firstly - apologies if you are subscribed to the MythTV mailing list as
> I've posted a similar question there, but rather than bothering those
> kind folks any further I thought that this question would be best
> address to the LIRC list instead.
>
> I have a machine that has three Hauppauge Nova-T's in it.  With CentOS 5
> (x86_64) I was able to pick the right event file from /dev/input and
> then use a lirc built with the devinput driver to receive ir codes.
> Worked fine.

Were you using any udev rules to control/create the /dev/input devices
being created when these cards were modprobed?

In an older Fedora machine I was using a rule to create a
statically-named /dev/input/irremote device that would not change,
even if the order of /dev/input/eventX devices moved around on boot.

> I've since upgraded it to Fedora 14 and using the same config files I
> cannot receive any ir data.  In order to rule out hal, or bad configs I
> have:
>
> - downloaded lirc 0.8.7 and rebuilt it (just with the devinput driver)
> - downloaded the recommended devinput file
> - booted into init level 1 (so no hal in the way)
>
> ... and irw still shows nothing.
>
> If I do "cat /dev/input/event5" (which I know is the right device) I see
> garbage ... so the device is receiving the button presses.
>
> Now I'm getting to point where I am stumped.  How can I try and work out
> what is going on here and why irw is not outputting anything?

Which startup options is lircd starting up with (look at
/etc/sysconfig/lirc on Fedora)? Older LIRC installs needed to know
which /dev/input/eventX device to connect to (LIRC_DEVICE), in
addition to the LIRC driver to use (LIRC_DRIVER). If either of these
are not configured correctly, update these values and restart lircd
(note that irw needs lircd running correctly in order to produce
output).

Note that I haven't reconfigured LIRC in a while, so forgive me if
anything I have written is no longer current.

Cheers,
Nick

-- 
Nick Morrott

MythTV Official wiki: http://mythtv.org/wiki/
MythTV users list archive: http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users

"An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest." - Benjamin Franklin

On 13/02/2011 10:08, Nick Morrott wrote:
> On 13 February 2011 08:52, Nigel Jewell<nige@...>  wrote:
>> I have a machine that has three Hauppauge Nova-T's in it.  With CentOS 5
>> (x86_64) I was able to pick the right event file from /dev/input and
>> then use a lirc built with the devinput driver to receive ir codes.
>> Worked fine.
> Were you using any udev rules to control/create the /dev/input devices
> being created when these cards were modprobed?

No ... but in /etc/rc.d/rc.local I have a couple of lines that do 
something similar.  I'm 99% sure that I've got the right device as when 
I "cat" the device and press buttons on the remote I see characters.

>> Now I'm getting to point where I am stumped.  How can I try and work out
>> what is going on here and why irw is not outputting anything?
> Which startup options is lircd starting up with (look at
> /etc/sysconfig/lirc on Fedora)? Older LIRC installs needed to know
> which /dev/input/eventX device to connect to (LIRC_DEVICE), in
> addition to the LIRC driver to use (LIRC_DRIVER). If either of these
> are not configured correctly, update these values and restart lircd
> (note that irw needs lircd running correctly in order to produce
> output).

I've tried running the daemon manually with:

lircd -H devinput -d /dev/input/event5 -n /etc/lirc/lircd.conf

and with the following /etc/sysconfig/lirc.conf

    # Options to lircd(8).  Typically, this will be empty, as which
    driver to use
    # should be specified using the LIRC_DRIVER variable below.
    LIRCD_OPTIONS=""

    # The infrared receiver (and/or transmitter) driver to be used by
    lircd(8),
    # similar to passing "-H driver" to lircd(8).
    # Run "/usr/sbin/lircd -H help" to get a listing of supported drivers.
    LIRC_DRIVER="devinput"

    # Which lirc device will be used by lircd(8).
    # This is the same as passing "-d device" to lircd.
    # An empty value will use the default /dev/lirc0 device.
    LIRC_DEVICE="/dev/input/event5"

    # If "yes", the init script will try to start lircmd(8) too.
    ENABLE_LIRCMD="no"

    # Options to lircmd(8).
    LIRCMD_OPTIONS=""


Regards,
Nige.

On 13/02/2011 10:36, Nigel Jewell wrote:
> On 13/02/2011 10:08, Nick Morrott wrote:
>> On 13 February 2011 08:52, Nigel Jewell<nige@...>  wrote:
>>> I have a machine that has three Hauppauge Nova-T's in it.  With CentOS 5
>>> (x86_64) I was able to pick the right event file from /dev/input and
>>> then use a lirc built with the devinput driver to receive ir codes.
>>> Worked fine.
>> Were you using any udev rules to control/create the /dev/input devices
>> being created when these cards were modprobed?
>
> No ... but in /etc/rc.d/rc.local I have a couple of lines that do 
> something similar.  I'm 99% sure that I've got the right device as 
> when I "cat" the device and press buttons on the remote I see characters.
>
>>> Now I'm getting to point where I am stumped.  How can I try and work out
>>> what is going on here and why irw is not outputting anything?
>> Which startup options is lircd starting up with (look at
>> /etc/sysconfig/lirc on Fedora)? Older LIRC installs needed to know
>> which /dev/input/eventX device to connect to (LIRC_DEVICE), in
>> addition to the LIRC driver to use (LIRC_DRIVER). If either of these
>> are not configured correctly, update these values and restart lircd
>> (note that irw needs lircd running correctly in order to produce
>> output).
>
> I've tried running the daemon manually with:
>
> lircd -H devinput -d /dev/input/event5 -n /etc/lirc/lircd.conf
>
> and with the following /etc/sysconfig/lirc.conf
>
>     # Options to lircd(8).  Typically, this will be empty, as which
>     driver to use
>     # should be specified using the LIRC_DRIVER variable below.
>     LIRCD_OPTIONS=""
>
>     # The infrared receiver (and/or transmitter) driver to be used by
>     lircd(8),
>     # similar to passing "-H driver" to lircd(8).
>     # Run "/usr/sbin/lircd -H help" to get a listing of supported drivers.
>     LIRC_DRIVER="devinput"
>
>     # Which lirc device will be used by lircd(8).
>     # This is the same as passing "-d device" to lircd.
>     # An empty value will use the default /dev/lirc0 device.
>     LIRC_DEVICE="/dev/input/event5"
>
>     # If "yes", the init script will try to start lircmd(8) too.
>     ENABLE_LIRCMD="no"
>
>     # Options to lircmd(8).
>     LIRCMD_OPTIONS=""
>
>
> Regards,
> Nige.

Okay ... still not getting anywhere with this.

I've just downloaded lirc-0.8.7-1.fc14.src.rpm and rebuilt it with 
debugging enabled (./configure --enable-debug).

The device:

[root@... ~]# ls -al /dev/input/by-path/pci-0000:04:02.0-event-ir
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 9 Feb 13 20:54 
/dev/input/by-path/pci-0000:04:02.0-event-ir -> ../event5

Should there be an entry in /dev/input/by-id?? There isn't if there should.

My symlink:

[root@... ~]# ls -al /dev/input/remote
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 17 Feb 13 20:54 /dev/input/remote -> 
/dev/input/event5

Start lircd:

[root@... ~]# lircd -H devinput -d /dev/input/remote -n -D1 
/etc/lirc/lircd.conf > lircd.log 2>&1

Stopped with Ctrl-C after a while ...

Examine log:

[root@... ~]# head lircd.log
lircd-0.8.7[7105]: started server socket
lircd-0.8.7[7105]: parsing remote
lircd-0.8.7[7105]: parsing devinput remote
lircd-0.8.7[7105]: first signal is a space!
lircd-0.8.7[7105]: first signal is a space!
lircd-0.8.7[7105]: first signal is a space!
lircd-0.8.7[7105]: first signal is a space!

[root@... ~]# tail lircd.log
lircd-0.8.7[7105]: first signal is a space!
lircd-0.8.7[7105]: first signal is a space!
lircd-0.8.7[7105]: first signal is a space!
lircd-0.8.7[7105]: first signal is a space!
lircd-0.8.7[7105]: first signal is a space!
lircd-0.8.7[7105]: nothing to send
lircd-0.8.7[7105]: lengths: 132799 132799 132799 132799
lircd-0.8.7[7105]: config file read
lircd-0.8.7[7105]: lircd(devinput) ready, using /var/run/lirc/lircd
lircd-0.8.7[7105]: caught signal

The "first single is a space!" comment repeats ... a lot.  Is this normal??

Today I've read A LOT of messages on different lists and forums about 
fixable issues with lirc on Fedora 14.  I appreciate that this is due to 
Jarod's changes in 2.6.35+ and that I may need to make some config 
changes, but I've tried everything I can think of.

Clutching at straws I'm wondering if that fact that I have 3 cards with 
the same ir interface is causing some issue (can't think what!) even 
though I'm reading from the correct device for the card I'm using for ir.

Any other ideas?  I don't want to start looking at buying another ir 
device to solve this when I have three attached to the Nova-Ts that 
worked perfectly well with CentOS 4 and 5.

Regards,
Nige.

On 13/02/2011 21:50, Nigel Jewell wrote:
> Okay ... still not getting anywhere with this.
>
> Any other ideas?  I don't want to start looking at buying another ir 
> device to solve this when I have three attached to the Nova-Ts that 
> worked perfectly well with CentOS 4 and 5.

Solved.  It turns out that it was the lircd.conf after all.  The default 
devinput one does not work with the Nova-T.

As I couldn't get irrecord to work I had to manually craft one.

Wife Acceptance Factor restored.

Regards,
Nige.

On Feb 14, 2011, at 3:41 PM, Nigel Jewell wrote:

> On 13/02/2011 21:50, Nigel Jewell wrote:
>> Okay ... still not getting anywhere with this.
>> 
>> Any other ideas?  I don't want to start looking at buying another ir 
>> device to solve this when I have three attached to the Nova-Ts that 
>> worked perfectly well with CentOS 4 and 5.
> 
> Solved.  It turns out that it was the lircd.conf after all.  The default 
> devinput one does not work with the Nova-T.
> 
> As I couldn't get irrecord to work I had to manually craft one.

Please show your work. The default devinput one *should* work, I'd
like to understand why it doesn't.

-- 
Jarod Wilson
jarod@...

On 14/02/2011 21:32, Jarod Wilson wrote:
> On Feb 14, 2011, at 3:41 PM, Nigel Jewell wrote:
>
>> On 13/02/2011 21:50, Nigel Jewell wrote:
>>> Okay ... still not getting anywhere with this.
>>>
>>> Any other ideas?  I don't want to start looking at buying another ir
>>> device to solve this when I have three attached to the Nova-Ts that
>>> worked perfectly well with CentOS 4 and 5.
>>
>> Solved.  It turns out that it was the lircd.conf after all.  The default
>> devinput one does not work with the Nova-T.
>>
>> As I couldn't get irrecord to work I had to manually craft one.
>
> Please show your work. The default devinput one *should* work, I'd
> like to understand why it doesn't.

Sure.  My lircd.conf is below - it may not be 100% correct (or even 10%) 
- but it works!  If you spot something I should correct, or a reason why 
the default devinput doesn't work I'd be interested ...

I monitored the event source with evtest.  It outputted a type (4), code 
(4) and the scancode - hence my lircd.conf.

Oh yes - and I realise that my file doesn't conform to the lirc namespace.

Regards,
Nige.

Using: lirc-0.8.7-1.fc14.x86_64 and kernel-2.6.35.11-83.fc14.x86_64.

LIRC running as: /usr/sbin/lircd --driver=devinput 
--device=/dev/input/event2

begin remote
         name            Hauppauge

         aeps            100
         bits            32
         eps             30
         gap             100000
         pre_data        0x00040004
         pre_data_bits   32
         toggle_bit      0

         begin codes
                 Go              0x00001E3B
                 Power           0x00001E3D
                 TV              0x00001E1C
                 Videos          0x00001E18
                 Music           0x00001E19
                 Pictures        0x00001E1A
                 Guide           0x00001E1B
                 Up              0x00001E14
                 Radio           0x00001E0C
                 Left            0x00001E16
                 OK              0x00001E25
                 Right           0x00001E17
                 Back-Exit       0x00001E1F
                 Down            0x00001E15
                 Menu            0x00001E0D
                 Vol-Up          0x00001E10
                 Prev-Ch         0x00001E12
                 Ch-Up           0x00001E20
                 Vol-Down        0x00001E11
                 Mute            0x00001E0F
                 Ch-Down         0x00001E21
                 Record          0x00001E37
                 Stop            0x00001E36
                 Rewind          0x00001E32
                 Play            0x00001E35
                 Forward         0x00001E34
                 Replay          0x00001E24
                 Pause           0x00001E30
                 Skip            0x00001E1E
                 1               0x00001E01
                 2               0x00001E02
                 3               0x00001E03
                 4               0x00001E04
                 5               0x00001E05
                 6               0x00001E06
                 7               0x00001E07
                 8               0x00001E08
                 9               0x00001E09
                 Star            0x00001E0A
                 0               0x00001E00
                 Hash            0x00001E0E
                 Red             0x00001E0B
                 Green           0x00001E2E
                 Yellow          0x00001E38
                 Blue            0x00001E29
         end codes
end remote