GNU/Linux RedHat 8.0
and
IR Control of Linux (LIRC)

Some time ago I got a TV tuner card for my machine, and — not owning a conventional TV — I could watch movies again. But what's a TV without a remote control? The LIRC Project allows applications etc. to be controlled by an infrared remote control. This page chronicles my efforts (on x86 RedHat 8.0) and tells you how to replicate my results.

The IR Receiver

Most machines don't come with IR receivers, so you have to buy or make one. The LIRC page has links and designs. You can buy one pre-assembled from Alessio Sangalli if you don't want to solder. (He will send you one for €10 with €3.20 shipping; about US $13.) I chose to get the ready-made homebrew serial receiver from Thomas Schmid-Lindner at zapway.de (which I hope is two guys in a garage). For €17.80 and €7.40 shipping (about US $27) the simple serial IR receiver arrived in about a week. Plugged it in, installed LIRC and... no, there was no instant gratification.

Here's a summary of what we're going to do. We're going to install the updated Linux kernel (2.4.18-27) with the source, compile and install the kernel; then compile and install lirc, then configure it. (If you didn't install the compilers and other development tools, you'll have a tough time here. If you send me email I may be able to send you executables.)

The Kernel

The kernel packages are available at rpmfind.net: you need kernel-2.4.18-27 and kernel-source-2.4.18. Get it and install them. Reboot so you're running the new kernel. (If you run uname -r it should print something like 2.4.18-27.) Here's my kernel config file. Save it to /usr/src/linux-2.4.18-27.8.0/.config and look it over. (In other words, go to that directory and type make xconfig and make sure any special drivers etc. you need are enabled.)

Now you can compile and install the new kernel.

      $ make dep
      $ make bzImage modules

If everything went well and there were no errors, you can install the new kernel. You need to do this as root.

      # make install modules_install

Occasionally something goes wrong with initrd (the ramdisk that serves as the root disk before the real disks have been mounted). Check the size of the initrd that got installed:

      $ ls -la /boot/initrd-2.4.18-27.8.0custom.img
      -rw-r--r--    1 root     root       127601 Apr 26 17:28 /boot/initrd-2.4.18-27.8.0custom.img

If your file is considerably smaller, some drivers didn't get built into the initrd; if so,

      make clean; make bzImage

Then as root, make install. This should build a new initrd and install it.

Reboot the machine and select linux-2.4.18-27.8.0custom at the grub (or lilo) prompt. If all went well, uname -r will report 2.4.18-27.8.0custom. Give your machine a quick drive around the block and make sure everything that worked before the upgrade still does.

Ordinarily, to compile a kernel module you only need the headers of the kernel you're running. I don't know what the problem with RedHat is (or why they think they're too cool to ship a stock kernel) but that doesn't work. The supplied 2.4.18-14 configs in /boot are broken; the only way I found to get lirc_serial.o compiled correctly was to actually be running the kernel that you're compiling for. Even this only worked after I installed the -27 kernel. The -14 kernel that 8.0 installed wouldn't even compile a kernel that would boot. Life is too short to spend any time figuring this RedHat shit out. (However I have to say that Mozilla/firebird — used to be called Phoenix — with Xft and the Bitstream Vera fonts is spectacular. RedHat did the right thing by making Xft the default.)

Installing LIRC

At the time of writing, LIRC was at version 0.6.6. Read the LIRC documentation. Get the source and unpack it somewhere, then cd to that directory. Run ./setup.sh and configure it to match your IR receiver. (For the Schmid-Lindner ready-made homebrew serial receiver, use COM1 i.e. port 0x03f8, irq 4.) Save the configuration and exit. Now you can simply make and (as root) make install — this will install the lirc_serial kernel module as well as all the helper applications.

Now check that the installation did the right thing. There should be a character special file that represents the device driver:

      $ ls -la /dev/lirc
      crw-r--r--    1 root     root      61,   4 Apr 27 22:57 /dev/lirc

Installing lirc should have set all this up correctly. If you see a link to ttyS0 or something, that's bogus. You can make the correct special file:

      # rm /dev/lirc
      # mknod /dev/lirc c 61 4

Now we need to tell the kernel module loader that the LIRC module should be loaded to handle /dev/lirc. We do this by adding a line to /etc/modules.conf:

      alias char-major-61 lirc_serial

(If it already exists you don't need to do anything.)

If all went well, you should be able to test your remote using mode2 or xmode2: see Testing your hardware & configuration at the LIRC site. If you don't see anything and you're sure the IR receiver is fine, I'm afraid I can't help you; compile LIRC in debug mode and insert fprintf/kprintf statements in lircd and the kernel module.

Configuration

Once you have your receiver talking to the kernel, the rest is relatively easy. Look for your remote in the LIRC supported remotes page. If you don't find it, follow the instructions in the irrecord documentation. The config file representing your remote should be copied into /etc/lircd.conf. My remote was not in the list so I had to create one; here's my config for the Sony RMT-V202 remote. You probably want lircd started at boot time; here's an init file to save in /etc/init.d/lircd so you can create links for each init state.

Once you have the lircd.conf file in place, you can try starting lircd. There is a Unix-domain socket that lircd listens on:

      $ ls -l /dev/lircd
      srw-rw-rw-    1 root     root            0 Apr 28 20:35 /dev/lircd

The various client programs in the package (irexec, irxevent etc.) connect to the lircd daemon through this socket; as infra-red signals arrive, lirc_serial gives them to lircd through /dev/lirc, which parses them according to the lircd.conf file mapping raw signals to events. A client reads these events from /dev/lircd and performs the configured action.

My aim was to control the TV functions with the TV remote. The program irexec is the program that runs commands when lircd detects an IR signal; it too is a daemon that runs constantly in the background. I used to run xawtv but I've since switched to tvtime. Here's my config file ~/.lircrc (here's the xawtv version) that controls tvtime/xawtv for TV functions and aumix for volume (since the volume control in xawtv is broken). Simply start it in the background and voilà! a working TV. (I use the up/down on the joystick-like control on the remote for system volume, since the "volume up/down" buttons control the "line input" volume.)

      $ irexec &

Handling DPMS etc.

Note that my lircrc file has references to other programs tv and vol — these are simple shell-scripts I wrote. The "vol" script prints the current volume; any time the volume is changed, the current volume is printed on the TV image.

The "tv" script launches tvtime/xawtv and saves/restores any screensavers, energy conservation etc. that may be going on. Using the "Power" button on the remote launches and shuts down tvtime/xawtv. I never turn my monitor on or off manually, but let the X-server's DPMS turn it off for me. The screensaver and DPMS are both disabled while tvtime/xawtv is running: you don't want the monitor to turn off just because you haven't moved the mouse or typed anything in the last five minutes! If the monitor is off and you press the "Power" button, the monitor turns on automatically and tvtime/xawtv is launched; hitting the "Power" button again shuts down tvtime/xawtv and restores the DPMS state i.e. the monitor is turned off. If the monitor had already been on when tvtime/xawtv was launched, it is left on upon exit.

For completeness, here's my stationlist.xml file and here's .xawtv — which will probably only be useful if you live in the San Francisco.

GNU/Linux RedHat 8.0andIR Control of Linux (LIRC)