gen install confusion

[Andy L. <ali...@ab...>]

Hi all,
  I have a general question and a more specific question- feel free to answer either. :)

General:  I've read the documentation several times and searched through the lists 
but have been unable to find out exactly what a working install should look like.  In 
particular I am interested in things relating to modules.  From reading docs it seems 
that an install will generally fall into 1 of 2 categories 1) you will use a lirc kernel 
module (like lirc_serial) or 2) you will use a compiled driver.
  If that assumption is correct then where I get confused is when you should or 
should not load the serial kernel module and the lirc_dev module.  If your hardware 
requires the lirc_serial module, does the compiled lirc_serial module take the place 
of the serial module?  Or are you supposed to load them both? What is lirc_dev for?  
Do I need to load lirc_dev in both cases or is it a driver module like lirc_serial that 
you would load separately for some non-serial receiver?  The same questions are 
relevant for the situations where your hardware doesn't require one of the lirc kernel 
modules.
  I guess from the documentation I'm having a hard time seeing how it all fits together 
logically.  Most posts seem to favor a "try this if this doesn't work approach" that 
doesn't explain what/why you're trying.  If someone can clear it up for me I'd be 
happy to put together a little flow chart that might help people in the future...

My specific case is installing a pinnacle pctv serial ir remote/receiver on COM1on a 
Gentoo 2004.0 system with a 2.4.25 kernel.  I am emerging the lirc.0.7.0_pre3 and I 
edited the ebuild to use the --with-driver=pctv.  The compile output indicated that my 
hardware does not need a kernel module so I don't *believe* I need to load lirc_dev 
or lirc_serial. (although I have tried several variations with them loaded with no 
success).  As stated above I am unsure whether or not I should load the kernel 
module "serial".
if anyone has this working can you tell me all pertinent info such as:
compile time options
lircd.conf contents
relevant modules loaded (or just lsmod output if you prefer)
ls -al /dev/lir*
any other tips

Thanks a million,
 Andy