  
    
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
    
      
	
	  
 
	  
	
      
      
	
 	  
	    
	      
 	      
     
    
    
Dependencies
    
    
    
      To use LIRC's 
setup.sh script you need the dialog
      package. It already should be installed on most systems. The
      setup.sh script makes configuration of LIRC much easier but
      using it is not obligatory.
    
    
      If you want to compile and use all tools, you also need an
      installed 
svgalib (used by smode2) and the X
      Windows header files (needed by 
irxevent and
      
xmode2). You can get svgalib from ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/libs/graphics/	ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/libs/graphics/
. The
      configure script will notify you if some necessary files are
      missing and the according tools won't be compiled.
    
    
      
Irman (=UIR) : To use your Irman with LIRC you need the
      latest 
http://www.lirc.org/software/snapshots/      
libirman  library. At the time this has been written
      the current libirman version was 0.4.3. Former versions won't
      work. Please also read 
#updatingUpdating from
      lirc-0.5.4
.
    
    
    
      
Kernel modules: All devices that require a kernel module
      will need the properly configured kernel sources being available
      somewhere in /usr/src/. During the build process of this package
      the kernel Makefile and the current kernel configuration will be
      used to work around some other problems that would arise if we
      used our own Makefile. That means that you might have to build
      your own kernel which is a good idea anyway. Make sure you use
      the standard kernel which you can download at 
http://www.kernel.orgwww.kernel.org .  Don't use any
      kernel sources that have been modified for your
      distribution. For example you won't be able to compile some
      modules for kernels that come with S.u.S.E. 7.0. Please refer to
      the documentation of your distribution or read the
      
README file in the kernel source directory to get more
      information on how to compile and set up an own kernel. More
      documentation is available at the 
http://sunsite.unc.edu/LDP/Linux Documentation
      Project
.
    
    
      If you are still running a stock kernel that came with your
      distribution and don't want to compile a new kernel you can try
      the following. Install the kernel sources package of the
      currently running kernel. Most distributions provide rpm/deb
      packages of their stock kernels. Double-check that you selected
      the correct kernel sources. Now make sure that there is a file
      called .config in the root directory of the kernel source
      tree. This file holds the configuration used to compile this
      kernel. If it is not available and you can't get it from a
      different source (/boot/config-
version (Debian),
      /proc/config.gz (SuSE) or
      /usr/src/linux-
version/configs/ (Red Hat) are good
      places to look into) you are out of luck and will have to
      configure and compile your own kernel. Otherwise call 
make
      oldconfig && make dep
 inside the root directory of
      the kernel source tree. After that you should be able to compile
      the LIRC modules without problems. Just make sure that the
      configure script for the LIRC package picked the correct kernel
      source directory. But be aware that there might still be some
      problems due to incompatible extensions of the distribution
      kernels as mentioned in the last paragraph. There are even more
      pitfalls. The modules should be compiled with the same compiler
      version. Otherwise you might see strange lockups and kernel
      oopses. Another problem might be that some distribution vendors
      also modify the kernel version variables inside the Makefile of
      the kernel and e.g. add something like 
custom to the
      EXTRAVERSION variable. This will result in the modules being
      installed in the wrong directory. In such cases it is common
      practice to remove the 
custom string before proceeding
      with kernel compilation. This has been only a list of known
      problems. If you run into such problems I won't be able to help
      you, so don't even ask.
    
    
      If you want to use a home-brew receiver, an Anir Multimedia
      Magic, a Packard Bell receiver, the IRdeo or if you want to use
      the SIR IrDA driver, I suggest that you compile the Linux kernel
      serial port driver as a module (however, you can choose not to
      do so if you use setserial properly, see below). The according
      kernel option that should be set to 
M is
      
Standard/generic (dumb) serial support      (resp. 
Standard/generic (8250/16550 and compatible UARTs)
      serial support
 for 2.4 kernels) in the Character
      devices
 section of the kernel configuration
      dialogue. Usually the serial port driver grabs all ports it
      auto-detects as soon as it is loaded and the LIRC modules won't
      be able to use any of them.
    
    
      There are two solutions for this problem. Either you load the
      LIRC module before the kernel serial port driver is loaded
      (that's why you have to compile it as a module) or you call
      
setserial /dev/ttySx uart none to release the according
      port. setserial usually is already called during boot-up in some
      init script whose location depends on the distribution you
      use. Be aware that setserial might also be the cause of
      trouble. The reason for this is a kernel bug (known to be true
      for 2.2.20, patches are on the way). If you tell setserial to
      configure a port that is already claimed by a LIRC module, the
      kernel serial driver will steal the port from the LIRC module
      and LIRC will stop working. So check your setserial
      configuration to only configure available ports. Debian users
      should adjust their 
/etc/serial.conf.
    
    
    
      
TV cards: To use any bttv based TV card remote controls
      you will need either at least kernel version 2.4.0 or you use
      Gerd Knorr's current 
http://www.strusel007.de/linux/bttv/index.htmlbttv       package together with a kernel version of 2.2.4 or higher. In
      any case bttv version 0.7.45 or higher is required. As LIRC
      during compilation uses the bttv header files you will have to
      copy the current bttv files into your kernel sources. The I2C
      driver also requires the new I2C stack that was introduced in
      2.3.x. 
http://www2.lm-sensors.nu/~lm78/Patches       for 2.2.x kernels are also available.
    
    
      For most TV cards we rely on bttv autodetection. That way you
      don't have to give any parameters to the module as they are
      selected internally depending on the information the bttv module
      gives us. This means that you should pay attention that your TV
      card is detected correctly by bttv.
    
    
      
Technisat MediaFocus I: You will have to install the http://people.freenet.de/mediafocus/driver  for this
      card.
    
    
    
    
    
Supported Hardware
    
    
      Generally speaking everything that can receive or send infrared
      signals can be supported by LIRC. The project began with support
      for home-brew receivers and transmitters for the serial port and
      later support for analogous hardware for the parallel port was
      added. At that time the focus of the project was to provide an
      infrared solution that is both very cheap and easy to
      assemble. The following links point to instructions how to build
      your own receiver/transmitter.
    
    
      
http://www.lirc.org/receivers.html	  Building a serial port receiver
      
http://www.lirc.org/transmitters.html	  Building a serial port transmitter
      
http://www.lirc.org/parallel.html	  Building a parallel port transceiver
    
    
    
      Current versions of LIRC now support many more commercially
      available solutions. Examples are the Irman, built-in IrDA ports
      or TV cards. Drivers for even more hardware are likely to appear
      in the future. If you are a programmer who wants to maintain
      such a driver you are welcome to join the project.
    
    
      You should locate your device in this 
table.htmllist
      of supported devices
 and see if there is additional
      information available regarding the setup of your device.
    
    
    
    
    
    
Compiling
    
    
    
      Before compiling the binaries you have to choose which driver to
      use. This can easily be done with the 
setup.sh      script. Just type 
./setup.sh from the shell
      prompt. After selecting your driver you can exit the setup with
      "Save configuration & run configure".
    
    
      If you don't have 
dialog installed you will have to do
      it the hard way and give the correct parameters to the configure
      script manually. See 
./configure --help for a detailed
      description of the possible parameters. You will have to at
      least choose a driver with the 
--with-driver=X      option.
    
    
There are three special drivers:
    
      
all      
	will build multiple drivers into lircd and runtime selection
	will be possible using the 
--driver option.  However,
	not all drivers are included, so in some cases you will have
	to select the appropriate driver and not 
all. This
	option will also compile all available kernel modules. Some
	kernel modules are only supported with recent kernel
	versions. That means that compilation of these drivers might
	fail with older kernel versions. If this happens for you, you
	should consider using the 
userspace driver described
	below and only compile the kernel modules that you need
	separately.
      
      
none      
	will only let lircd talk to other lircd's though the network and
	not to any local hardware.
      
      
userspace      
        behaves like the 
all driver option except that no
        kernel modules will be built.
      
    
    
    
      When running the configure script, please pay attention at its
      output. At the end of the configuration checks, it will tell you
      which kernel module (if any) will be required for your
      hardware. You can also look up this information in the 
table.htmldevice table . After having configured the
      package just type 
make and lean back.
    
    
    
      
Note: You won't find a configure script in the CVS
      version of LIRC. You will have to generate it first by executing
      
./autogen.sh. You need at least libtool-1.3.3,
      automake-1.4 and autoconf-2.13 to do this properly.
    
    
    
    
    
    
Installation
    
    
    
      Installing the compiled programs is really easy, just type
      
make install. All binaries and modules should be
      installed at the usual places. The necessary devices should be
      generated in the 
/dev/ directory and all configuration
      files should be copied to its proper destination if you happen
      to use some hardware where configuration files are already
      available.
    
    
      When you are using 
devfs or sysfs with your
      kernel, the /dev/lirc device node will disappear again once you
      reboot your machine. In that case the LIRC kernel module will
      generate the required entry every time it is loaded. But the
      device node won't be visible as /dev/lirc, but might be located
      in a different location like e.g. /dev/lirc/0. Please be aware
      of this fact when starting programs that access the device node
      like mode2 or lircd. You will have to use the --device command
      line option of these programs to point them to the correct
      location. When using sysfs together with the udev daemon you
      should copy the 
lirc.rules file located in the contrib
      directory of the source package to
      
/etc/udev/rules.d/. This will make sure that the device
      node will be created.
    
    
    
      The core program of LIRC is 
lircd, the LIRC system
      daemon that does all of the decoding of infrared signals. LIRC
      comes with a second daemon program: 
lircmd. lircmd
      depends on lircd and translates remote control activity to mouse
      movements. Just like all other daemons both lircd and lircmd
      should be started at system boot time and do their work in
      background. If you want to start them automatically at boot time
      you will have to add an init script for them to your
      system. Unfortunately the syntax and location of this init
      script is highly dependent on the distribution you use so you
      will have to figure it out yourself how this works on your
      system. Good news is that there already are some init scripts
      available in the 
contrib/ directory of the LIRC
      package.
    
    
    
      
Warning: Never compile daemons with "Disable
      daemonize" turned on and place them in some init script
      unless you have a rescue disc nearby...
    
    
    
      Now you should adjust the file permissions of
      
/dev/lircd (this is the Unix domain socket that clients
      use to connect to lircd) so others than 
root can
      connect to lircd.
    
        chmod 666 /dev/lircd
    
      should do. You can also create a special group for this purpose.
    
    
    
      If your hardware requires a kernel module you should make sure
      that the kernel will find the correct module if a program tries
      to access 
/dev/lirc. This can be done by inserting the
      following line to your 
/etc/conf.modules      (
/etc/modules.conf for current kernel versions):
    
    
	alias char-major-61  lirc_driver
    
      Note that here 
driver is a placeholder for the actual
      driver you are using (serial, parallel, etc.).
    
    
    
      If your driver requires some special parameters to work you can
      specify them at the same place. For example you can set the IRQ
      and I/O base the serial port drivers shall use by adding the
      following line to 
/etc/conf.modules:
    
	options lirc_serial irq=4 io=0x3e8
    
      This will override the default values you have selected during setup.
      The configure script will tell you which kernel module you need.
    
    
    
      Finally you might want to add 
/usr/local/lib to
      
/etc/ld.so.conf so the lirc_client library is
      found by the run-time linker. Don't forget to call
      
ldconfig afterwards for the change to take effect.
    
    
    
    
    
Testing your hardware & configuration
    
    
    
      If you have build the infrared hardware yourself you are
      probably eager to find out if it really works. If you have not
      build the hardware yourself you can skip the first test. For
      most receivers it even won't work because it makes no
      sense.
    
    
    
      Type 
su to get root privileges and start mode2      (
Warning: don't confuse mode2 with mode3: mode3 will set
      your video card to a vesa mode using the vesa bios
      calls...). This should load the kernel module into the kernel
      and display the infrared signals. Hold your remote control to
      your infrared receiver and press some buttons. You should see an
      output like this (the values of your remote will probably be
      different):
    
    
    
	pulse 93
	space 4965
	pulse 108
	space 4969
	pulse 93
	space 7496
	pulse 93
	space 7489
	pulse 93
	space 47915
	pulse 138
	space 7475
	pulse 93
	space 7494
	pulse 93
    
      If you don't see anything, try to find out: (a) if you selected
      the correct driver with the correct settings (I/O base address,
      IRQ), (b) if you use a remote which works and (c) if your
      hardware works. The voltage input of the infrared receiver
      should be 5V +/- 0.5V, the output pin of the receiver should be
      about 0.5V less than the input voltage.
    
    
    
      From time to time there should be long spaces (>30000). If you
      can see very long pulses this usually means that sense auto
      detection of your serial port IR receiver circuit has
      failed. You can override sense auto detection by loading the
      device driver with the following option:
    
    
      
insmod lirc_serial sense=0 if your receiver circuit is active
      high or
      
insmod lirc_serial sense=1 if your receiver circuit is active
      low.
    
    
      Well, the driver seems to work, now let's test if lircd also
      does its job. This only works, if lircd uses a 
configure.html#lircd.confconfig file  which fits to
      your remote control. Use 
irrecord.htmlirrecord  in the case the LIRC
      distribution doesn't provide a config file suitable for your
      remote and it still is not available at the LIRC homepage. A
      more detailed discussion of creating new config files is
      available in the section about, you guess it: 
help.html#new_remoteAdding new remote controls .
    
    
      Then start the decoder daemon with (make sure it is in your
      path): 
lircd [config file]
    
    
    
      The following program dumps the decoded key codes from lircd to
      stdout: 
irw    
    
    
      This looks like this (depending on your remote):
    
    
	0000000000f40bf0 00 1_DOWN ANIMAX
	0000000000f40bf0 01 1_DOWN ANIMAX
	0000000000f40bf0 02 1_DOWN ANIMAX
	0000000000f40bf0 03 1_DOWN ANIMAX
	0000000000f40bf0 04 1_DOWN ANIMAX
	0000000000f40bf0 05 1_DOWN ANIMAX
	0000000000748bf0 00 1_UP ANIMAX
	0000000000748bf0 01 1_UP ANIMAX
	0000000000748bf0 02 1_UP ANIMAX
	0000000000718ef0 00 RED_BUTTON_UP ANIMAX
    
      If the driver test did work, but you now see nothing, then check
      
/var/log/lircd. If you still see nothing suspicious
      compile lircd in DEBUG mode and look at the log file again. In
      debug mode lircd has an additional command line option that lets
      you choose the detail level of debug information.
    
    
    
    
Sending infrared signals
    
    
    
      The LIRC package contains the 
irsend.htmlirsend  tool for
      sending infrared signals to e.g. your TV or CD player. For
      reliable transmission a good config file is even more important
      than for receiving. A discussion of all the infrared protocols
      is way beyond the scope of this manual but when creating a
      config file at least read the 
help.html#new_remotehints  at the end of this
      manual. You can find exact timing specifications for most common
      inside the remotes/generic/ directory of the LIRC package.
    
    
      If you want a graphical interface for controlling your devices
      using LIRC, you should have a look at xrc. You can download the
      xrc package from the LIRC homepage. xrc is a Qt based
      program. Setting up xrc and Qt is a bit tricky so if you don't
      manage to compile it you can still use irsend. It has the full
      functionality you need.
    
    
    
    
    
Uninstall
    
    
    
      
Remove the installed binaries, and device nodes:	
	
make uninstall	
      
      
Remove the config files, if you don't need them anymore:	
	
rm /etc/lircd.conf /etc/lircmd.conf /etc/lircrc ~/.lircrc	
      
    
    
    
    
    
    
Module specific information
    
    
    
lirc_gpio
    
    
      This module receives scan codes from the GPIO register of bt8[47]8
      chips using polling or interrupts if the card supports this. It is a
      "plugin" for the 
lirc_dev module. It loads
      
bttv and lirc_dev modules if they are not
      loaded yet.
    
    
      The following gives a list of parameters for the module. If your
      TV card is already listed as supported than you don't need to
      care about parameters except 
debug and card      because all other are set to the correct values
      automatically. Setting the values manually only makes sense
      while adding support for a new TV card so that you don't have to
      recompile the module each time you try a different value.
    
    
      
debug (0) - value other than 0 (zero) enables
	printing more log messages
      
card (0) - number of TV card from which receive scan
	codes
      
minor (-1) - minor device number for
	/dev/lirc device
      
gpio_mask (0) - bit mask used for extracting usable
	bits from GPIO value
 If this parameter is equal to 0 then
	the module tries to autodetect the TV card and the remaining
	parameters are ignored.
      
gpio_lock_mask (0) - if this value "anded"
	with GPIO value is non zero than it indicates that scan code
	is not ready (value of 0 of this parameter disables
	checking)
      
gpio_xor_mask (0) - bitmask applied (by xor
	operation) to GPIO value before lock_mask is checked
      
soft_gap (0) - minimal gap (in milliseconds) between
	two scan codes (value of 0 disables checking)
      
sample_rate (10) - how often (times per second) GPIO
	will be polled, set to 0 for interrupt driven input
      
bttv_id (unknown) - force given bttv id, signals from
	some cards are translated to match original codes
    
    
      Usage example would be e.g:
    
    
modprobe lirc_gpio gpio_mask=0x1f00 gpio_lock_mask=0x8000 gpio_xor_mask=0 soft_gap=400 sample_rate=12    
      Autodetection is performed using the API from the 
bttv      module - this means that if 
bttv doesn't properly
      recognize the card type the remote control won't work.
    
    
    
    
    
    
Updating from lirc-0.5.4
    
    
    
      This section only describes changes that break compatibility
      with older versions. Please read the 
NEWS file to learn
      about all new features of this release.
    
    
      The config files of 
lircd and lircmd are now
      located in 
/usr/local/etc/ instead of /etc/      per default. Most people prefer to make 
/usr/local/etc/      a link to 
/etc/.
    
    
      The modules no longer are uniformly installed as 
lirc.o      but are called lirc_
driver.o depending on the driver
      you are using. Therefore you might have to edit your
      
/etc/conf.modules and change the line
    
    
    alias char-major-61 lirc
    
      to whatever you need.
    
    
      LIRC now supports the Irman directly. 
lirmand is no
      longer necessary. Before installing this version you should call
      
rm /dev/lirc to remove the FIFO that was
      used in lirc-0.5.4. 
/dev/lirc now should be a link to
      the device the Irman is connected to (e.g. 
/dev/ttyS1).
    
    
    
Updating from lirc-0.6.2
    
    
      The lirc_gpio_p has been renamed to lirc_gpio. It now also
      contains support for TV cards that are able to generate
      interrupts if infra-red commands are received. The lirc_gpio_i
      driver that implemented this has been removed. The lirc_fly98
      also has been removed as it is now supported by the lirc_gpio
      driver.
    
    
    
      The 
lirc_haup module has been renamed to lirc_i2c.
    
    
    
      The transmit code in 
lirc_serial has been modified
      slightly. If you have problems transmitting decrease the
      frequency value in the lircd config file by approximately 2000.
    
    
    
      There have been major changes to the SIR driver. If you used
      this driver before you may have to generate new config files for
      your remotes. Transmitting is now more likely to work.
    
    
    
      The config file for the old AVerMedia TVCapture and TVPhone
      cards (pre 98) has changed. Please use the new config file that
      you can find in 
remotes/avermedia/lircd.conf.avermedia.
    
    
    
    
Updating from lirc-0.6.3
    
    
    
lircd.conf and lircmd.conf are in /etc again.
    
    
      Two independend bugs were fixed in the IRdeo and home-brew
      transmitter code that affected correct pulse/space timings in
      some situations. This might break config files that did work
      with previous versions.
    
    
    
Updating from lirc-0.6.4
    
    
    
      AVerMedia TV cards with ID 0x00011461 and 0x00041461 should
      finally work with the provided config files. That means they
      will no longer work with the config files you have created
      yourself.
    
    
      The I/O base address for some modules now is set with the
      
io parameter. (formerly: lirc_sir = iobase, lirc_serial
      and lirc_parallel = port).
    
    
    
Updating from lirc-0.6.5
    
    
    
      The config file for the Pixelview PlayTV pro and compatible TV
      cards has changed. Please use the config file in
      
remotes/pixelview/lircd.conf.playtv_pro.
    
    
      The config file for the Winfast TV2000 and compatible TV cards
      has changed. Please use the config file in
      
remotes/winfast/lircd.conf.tv2000.
    
    
    
Updating from lirc-0.6.6
    
    
    
      The config files for all FlyVideo TV cards have changed. Please
      use the config file in
      
remotes/life-view/lircd.conf.flyvideo.
    
    
      The config file for the Winfast TV2000 TV card has
      changed. Please use the config file in
      
remotes/leadtek/lircd.conf.RM-0010.
    
    
      The lirc_sir now should generate better signals for some
      remotes. Due to the change some old config files generated with
      previous versions of the driver might stop working. In this case
      you should just create a new config file using the new
      driver. If you want to get the old behaviour of the driver
      (deprecated) you can insert the module using the
      
threshold=2 parameter. The default of
      
threshold is now set to 3. You might even want to try
      higher values.
    
    
      When you are using LIRC with the 
Linux input layer      driver, make sure that your config file contains the following
      line in its header:
    
    
	bits 32
    
    
      Otherwise lircd will not recoginise any events.
    
    
    
    
Updating from lirc-0.7.x
    
    
    
      There is a new program that you probably want to use: 
lircrcd.htmllircrcd  reads the .lircrc config file
      and synchronises the mode that the LIRC clients using this
      config file (irexec, irxevent, etc.) are in. Using lircrcd has
      to be explicitly enabled in the config file by adding the
      following line at the beginning of the file:
#! lircrcd
    
		
		
[ http://www.lirc.org/LIRC homepage ]		  
The LIRC Manual, last update: 17-Apr-2005		
	      
	      
 	    
	  
	
      
      
	
 	
      
    
  
