[mythtv-users] IR pvr150 requirements with kernel 2.6.36 and lirc_zilog ??

[Jarod Wilson]

On Nov 7, 2010, at 8:02 AM, Thomas Lewis-Flood wrote:

> Had a nicely running mythtv setup under slackware 10.2 with a hauppauge pvr150 tuner card. The infrared receiving and transmitting (blaster) both worked well. I upgraded my system due to hardware failure, and since the new CPU was a 64bit, I'm now running slackware 13.1 with all the 64bit libraries etc, and I've unfortunately been subject to the various lirc changes underfoot in recent times. I'm confused with the order of things and slackware's module loading in relation to udev device management.
> 
> I compiled new kernel 2.6.36 and at least I now get a several Good Things:
> 
> 1) I learned that lirc_zilog module is needed for the hauppauge cards. So when I manually load lirc_zilog with modprobe lirc_zilog: 
> 
> relevant lsmod output after modprobe:
> # lsmod|grep -i lirc
> lirc_zilog             14956  0 
> lirc_dev               11347  1 lirc_zilog
> i2c_core               19884  11 lirc_zilog,nvidia,tuner_simple,wm8775,tuner,cx25840,ivtv,v4l2_common,videodev,i2c_algo_bit,tveeprom
> 
> dmesg additions after modprobe:
> lirc_dev: IR Remote Control driver registered, major 61 
> lirc_zilog: module is from the staging directory, the quality is unknown, you have been warned.
> lirc_zilog: Zilog/Hauppauge IR driver initializing
> lirc_zilog: chip found with RX and TX
> lirc_dev: lirc_register_driver: sample_rate: 0
> lirc_zilog: Zilog/Hauppauge IR blaster firmware version 2.1.0 loaded
> lirc_zilog: chip found with RX and TX
> lirc_dev: lirc_register_driver: sample_rate: 0
> lirc_zilog: Zilog/Hauppauge IR blaster firmware version 2.1.0 loaded
> lirc_zilog: initialization complete
> 
> I even finally got automatically created devices (although I vaguely recall using only a single /dev/lirc with my old slackware), and I don't know which is receiver and which is the blaster:
> # ls -l /dev/lirc*
> crw-rw---- 1 root root 61, 0 2010-11-07 07:36 /dev/lirc0
> crw-rw---- 1 root root 61, 1 2010-11-07 07:36 /dev/lirc1
> 
> And wait! There's more! I get junk from both devices when I push the buttons on the remote:

And you only have a single device? That's odd... with zilog, receive and transmit aren't supposed to be split between two different devices. And I'm not quite sure how you still got char major 61, also odd (we use dynamic miscdevs now, so you should be seeing something in the 240-255-ish range). This doesn't actually look like lirc_zilog and/or lirc_dev from 2.6.36, but rather a patched up out of tree build of lirc_zilog. Though, it should possible to make it work in either case.

> I wish I new what to do next, but I'm not sure about the state of affairs of lirc-0.8.7 and do I even need it? I'm thinking I need two working lircd instances--one for the receiver and one for the transmitter. I also need the irsend for a channel changing script and I remember using irw with the old slack10.2 setup to configure the remote buttons. So. I guess I'm stuck until I can make lirc run in a meaningful way. Thanks for anyone who can help!

So for starters, yes, you definitely still need lirc userspace. And based on your char major 61, lirc 0.8.7 might even be the ticket. The truly in-kernel lirc bits require either a patched 0.8.7, or moving to lirc 0.9.0-pre1 (or later).


-- 
Jarod Wilson
jarod at wilsonet.com