[Wylug-help] Tearing my hair out re LIRC on Debian/Ubuntu

[Dave Fisher]

Hi all,

I've probably expended weeks of total time on this problem over the last
year, and it's time I admitted that I'm getting nowhere.

I've got a half-working installation of MythTV running on an Ubuntu box
at home (which is 50 more percentage points of functionality than I had
on stock Debian) and I want to use a remote control with it.

I've been going round in so many circles across so many disparate bits
of documentation that I'm no longer certain about exactly what I need to
do or where I'm failing.

My current perception (possibly quite wrong) is that all I should have
to do is build or acquire the relevant lirc_ kernel modules and load
them.  

I believe that having done this, the relevant Debian/Ubuntu packages provide
the necessary daemon and clients to remotely control X applications like xmms
and mythtv. Am I even vaguely on the right track with this notion?

I can't test the hypothesis, because whatever I try, I can't build the ***ing
modules.  For example: 

    $ make-kpkg --revision 2.6.10 modules_image

barfs with the following 'helpful' messages:

    ##########################
    ## CONFIGURATION ERROR: ##
    ##########################
    
    You should reconfigure lirc-modules-source and make
    sure you don't leave blank any one of IRQ, IO Port or
    Timer (parallel only)
    
    Hint1: use "dpkg-reconfigure lirc-modules-source"
    Hint2: If you selected "automagical" configuration of
            kernel modules you should probably reconfigure lirc
            instead.
    Hint3: you may instead edit /etc/lirc/lirc-modules-source.conf
    make[2]: *** [sanity-check] Error 1
    make[2]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/modules/lirc'
    make[1]: *** [build-stamp] Error 2
    make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/modules/lirc'
    Module /usr/src/modules/lirc failed.

So, following Hint1, I try:

    $ dpkg-reconfigure lirc-modules-source

Which barfs out:

    "/usr/src/linux/ is not a valid kernel source tree"

This confuses me somewhat, but then I vaguely remember that there have been a
series of long-standing problems with lirc and 2.6 kernels, especially on
Debian.  Could it be that the Debian/Ubuntu lirc-modules-source package
configuration assumes a 2.4 kernel source tree?  

Recent releases of the upstream lirc.org distribution have apparently resolved
the outstanding problems with 2.6. kernels, but unfortunately (for me) they
bundle a whole load of stuff together which doesn't fit comfortably with
Debian's way of handling kernels {sigh}.  If the Debian/Ubuntu
lirc-modules-source package is the problem, does anyone have an idea how I can
get the lirc.org sources to play nice? 

I can't find definite confirmation either way on the 2.4/2.6 status of the
Debian/Ubuntu lirc sources, so I look at Hint2.  It confuses the hell out me.
I'm not even sure what  "automagical" configuration of kernel modules is, still
less where I might have selected it from.  Could it be referring to this prompt
when I run dpkg-reconfigure lirc-modules-source?  

    "Should I try to automatically build the modules?"

Or could it be referring to something generic to the configuration of all
kernel modules?

The one thing I'm certain of, is that whichever way I answer the
dpkg-reconfigure prompt, I end up with the same message, i.e. "not a valid
kernel source tree". 

So on to Hint3.  Exploration of /etc/lirc/lirc-modules-source.conf reveals the
apparent fact that almost none of its properties have values set:

    # lirc-modules-source config file used by Debian GNU/Linux

    # Coma separated list of lirc kernel drivers to build
    LIRC_MODULES="serial"
    
    # Serial module configuration
    LIRC_SERIAL_PORT=""
    LIRC_SERIAL_IRQ=""
    LIRC_SERIAL_CFLAGS=" -DLIRC_SERIAL_SOFTCARRIER"
    
    # Sir module configuration
    LIRC_SIR_PORT="UNCONFIGURED"
    LIRC_SIR_IRQ="UNCONFIGURED"
    LIRC_SIR_CFLAGS="UNCONFIGURED"
    
    # Parallel module configuration
    LIRC_PARALLEL_PORT="UNCONFIGURED"
    LIRC_PARALLEL_IRQ="UNCONFIGURED"
    LIRC_PARALLEL_TIMER="UNCONFIGURED"

This looks promising, given the previous warning:

    "don't leave blank any one of IRQ, IO Port or Timer (parallel only)"

Now, if only I knew what to put in place of the blanks and "UNCONFIGURED"s ...

/usr/share/doc/lirc-modules-source/README.Debian  seems like the sensible place
to look. Until I read it, and see nothing but an explanation of how to extract
files from a tarball (!) and a reference back to the
/usr/src/modules/lirc/README which I started from (see make-kpkg above).

Googling for lirc-modules-source.conf (plus Debian, Ubuntu, etc) in the hope of
finding a worked example was fruitless. 

I can make a few guesses (e.g. that LIRC_SERIAL_PORT="" wants a device file
name and path between the inverted commas), but that is all they would be.

So I'd appreciate any input from anyone who has much of a clue about this
stuff.

Dave