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<!-- Text ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ -->
<!-- Dependencies +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ -->
<A NAME="dependencies"></A><HR>
<H1 ALIGN="CENTER">Dependencies</H1>
<HR WIDTH="70%">
<P>
To use LIRC's <em>setup.sh</em> 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.
</P>
<P>
If you want to compile and use all tools, you also need an
installed <em>svgalib</em> (used by <em>smode2</em>) and the X
Windows header files (needed by <em>irxevent</em> and
<em>xmode2</em>). You can get svgalib from <A
HREF="ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/libs/graphics/">
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/libs/graphics/</A>. The
configure script will notify you if some necessary files are
missing and the according tools won't be compiled.
</P>
<P>
<B>Irman (=UIR) :</B> To use your Irman with LIRC you need the
latest <A HREF="http://www.lirc.org/software/snapshots/">
<em>libirman</em></A> library. At the time this has been written
the current libirman version was 0.4.2. Former versions won't
work. Please also read <A HREF="#updating">Updating from
lirc-0.5.4</A>.
</P>
<A NAME="kernel"></A>
<P>
<B>Kernel modules:</B> 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 will have to build
your own kernel which is a good idea anyway. Make sure you use
the standard kernel which you can download at <A
HREF="http://www.kernel.org">www.kernel.org</A>. 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
<em>README</em> 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 <A
HREF="http://sunsite.unc.edu/LDP/">Linux Documentation
Project</A>.
</P>
<P>
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 <em>M</em> is
<em>Standard/generic (dumb) serial support</em>
(resp. <em>Standard/generic (8250/16550 and compatible UARTs)
serial support</em> for 2.4 kernels) in the <em>Character
devices</em> 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.
</P>
<P>
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
<em>setserial /dev/ttySx uart none</em> 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 <em>/etc/serial.conf</em>.
</P>
<P>
<B>TV cards:</B> To use any TV card remote controls you will
need either at least kernel version 2.4.0 or you use Gerd
Knorr's current <A
HREF="http://www.strusel007.de/linux/bttv/index.html">bttv</A>
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. <A HREF="http://www2.lm-sensors.nu/~lm78/">Patches</A>
for 2.2.x kernels are also available.
</P>
<P>
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.
</P>
<P>
<B>Technisat MediaFocus I:</B> You will have to install the <A
HREF="http://www.uni-giessen.de/~gej2/">driver</A> for this
card.
</P>
<!-- Supported Hardware ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ -->
<A NAME="hardware"></A><HR>
<H1 ALIGN="CENTER">Supported Hardware</H1>
<HR WIDTH="70%">
<P>
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.
</P>
<UL>
<LI><A HREF="http://www.lirc.org/receivers.html">
Building a serial port receiver</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="http://www.lirc.org/transmitters.html">
Building a serial port transmitter</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="http://www.lirc.org/parallel.html">
Building a parallel port transceiver</A></LI>
</UL>
<P>
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.
</P>
<!-- Compiling +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ -->
<A NAME="compiling"></A><HR>
<H1 ALIGN="CENTER">Compiling</H1>
<HR WIDTH="70%">
<P>
Before compiling the binaries you have to choose which driver to
use. This can easily be done with the <em>setup.sh</em>
script. Just type <em>./setup.sh</em> from the shell
prompt. After selecting your driver you can exit the setup with
"Save configuration & run configure".
</P>
<P>
If you don't have <em>dialog</em> installed you will have to do
it the hard way and give the correct parameters to the configure
script manually. See <em>./configure --help</em> for a detailed
description of the possible parameters. You will have to at
least choose a driver with the <em>--with-driver=X</em>
option.
</P>
<P>There are two special drivers:</P>
<DL>
<DT>none</DT>
<DD>
will only let lircd talk to other lircd's though the network and
not to any local hardware.
</DD>
<DT>any</DT>
<DD>
will build multiple drivers into lircd and runtime selection
will be possible.
However, not all drivers are included, so in some cases you
will have to select the appropriate driver and not <em>any</em>.
</DD>
</DL>
<P>
After having configured the package just type <em>make</em> and
lean back.
</P>
<P>
<B>Note:</B> You won't find a configure script in the CVS
version of LIRC. You will have to generate it first by executing
<em>./autogen.sh</em>. You need at least libtool-1.3.3,
automake-1.4 and autoconf-2.13 to do this properly.
</P>
<!-- Install LIRC ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ -->
<A NAME="installing"></A><HR>
<H1 ALIGN="CENTER">Installation</H1>
<HR WIDTH="70%">
<P>
Installing the compiled programs is really easy, just type
<em>make install</em>. All binaries and modules should be
installed at the usual places. The necessary devices should be
generated in the <em>/dev/</em> 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.
</P>
<P>
The core program of LIRC is <em>lircd</em>, the LIRC system
daemon that does all of the decoding of infrared signals. LIRC
comes with a second daemon program: <em>lircmd</em>. 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 <em>contrib/</em> directory of the LIRC
package.
</P>
<P>
<B>Warning:</B> Never compile daemons with "Disable
daemonize" turned on and place them in some init script
unless you have a rescue disc nearby...
</P>
<P>
Now you should adjust the file permissions of
<em>/dev/lircd</em> (this is the Unix domain socket that clients
use to connect to lircd) so others than <em>root</em> can
connect to lircd.</P>
<PRE>
chmod 666 /dev/lircd</PRE>
<P>
should do. You can also create a special group for this purpose.
</P>
<P>
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 <em>/dev/lirc</em>. This can be done by inserting the
following line to your <em>/etc/conf.modules</em>
(<em>/etc/modules.conf</em> for current kernel versions):
</P>
<PRE>
alias char-major-61 lirc_driver</PRE>
<P>
Note that here <em>driver</em> is a placeholder for the actual
driver you are using (serial, parallel, etc.).
</P>
<P>
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 <em>/etc/conf.modules</em>:</P>
<PRE>
options lirc_serial irq=4 io=0x3e8</PRE>
<P>
This will override the default values you have selected during setup.
The configure script will tell you which kernel module you need.
</P>
<P>
Finally you might want to add <em>/usr/local/lib</em> to
<em>/etc/ld.so.conf</em> so the <em>lirc_client</em> library is
found by the run-time linker. Don't forget to call
<em>ldconfig</em> afterwards for the change to take effect.
</P>
<!-- Testing +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ -->
<A NAME="testing"></A><HR>
<H1 ALIGN="CENTER">Testing your hardware & configuration</H1>
<HR WIDTH="70%">
<P>
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.
</P>
<P>
Type <em>su</em> to get root privileges and start <em>mode2</em>
(<B>Warning:</B> 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):
</P>
<PRE>
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</PRE>
<P>
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.
</P>
<P>
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:</P>
<P>
<em>insmod lirc_serial sense=0</em> if your receiver circuit is active
high or<BR>
<em>insmod lirc_serial sense=1</em> if your receiver circuit is active
low.
</P>
<P>
Well, the driver seems to work, now let's test if lircd also
does its job. This only works, if lircd uses a <A
HREF="configure.html#lircd.conf">config file</A> which fits to
your remote control. Use <A
HREF="irrecord.html"><em>irrecord</em></A> 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: <A
HREF="help.html#new_remote">Adding new remote controls</A>.
</P>
<P>
Then start the decoder daemon with (make sure it is in your
path): <em>lircd</em> [config file]
</P>
<P>
The following program dumps the decoded key codes from lircd to
stdout: <em>irw</em>
</P>
<P>
This looks like this (depending on your remote):
</P>
<PRE>
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</PRE>
<P>
If the driver test did work, but you now see nothing, then check
<em>/var/log/lircd</em>. 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.
</P>
<A NAME="sending"></A><HR>
<H1 ALIGN="CENTER">Sending infrared signals</H1>
<HR WIDTH="70%">
<P>
The LIRC package contains the <A HREF="rc.html">rc</A> 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 <A
HREF="help.html#new_remote">hints</A> at the end of this
manual. You can find exact timing specifications for most common
inside the remotes/generic/ directory of the LIRC package.
</P>
<P>
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 rc. It has the full
functionality you need.
</P>
<!-- Uninstall LIRC ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ -->
<A NAME="uninstall"></A><HR>
<H1 ALIGN="CENTER">Uninstall</H1>
<HR WIDTH="70%">
<UL>
<LI>Remove the installed binaries, and device nodes:<BR>
<BR>
<em>make uninstall</em><BR>
<BR>
</LI>
<LI>Remove the config files, if you don't need them anymore:<BR>
<BR>
<em>rm /etc/lircd.conf /etc/lircmd.conf ~/.lircrc</em><BR>
<BR>
</LI>
</UL>
<!-- Module specific information +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ -->
<A NAME="specific"></A><HR>
<H1 ALIGN="CENTER">Module specific information</H1>
<HR WIDTH="70%">
<H3>lirc_gpio</H3>
<P>
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 <em>lirc_dev</em> module. It loads <em>bttv</em> and
<em>lirc_dev</em> modules if they are not loaded yet.<BR>
</P>
<P>
Parameters are:
</P>
<UL>
<LI><B>debug</B> (0) - value other than 0 (zero) enables
printing more log messages</LI>
<LI><B>card</B> (0) - number of TV card from which receive scan
codes</LI> <LI><B>minor</B> (-1) - minor device number for
/dev/lirc device</LI>
<LI><B>gpio_mask</B> (0) - bit mask used for extracting usable
bits from GPIO value<BR> If this parameter is equal to 0 then
the module tries to autodetect the TV card and the remaining
parameters are ignored.</LI>
<LI><B>gpio_lock_mask</B> (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)</LI>
<LI><B>gpio_xor_mask</B> (0) - bitmask applied (by xor
operation) to GPIO value before lock_mask is checked</LI>
<LI><B>soft_gap</B> (0) - minimal gap (in milliseconds) between
two scan codes (value of 0 disables checking)</LI>
<LI><B>sample_rate</B> (10) - how often (times per second) GPIO
will be polled, set to 0 for interrupt driven input</LI>
</UL>
<P>
Supported hardware:
</P>
<UL>
<LI><B>Prolink - PixelView PlayTV pro</B> - parameters:
gpio_mask=0x1f00, gpio_lock_mask=0x8000, gpio_xor_mask=0,
soft_gap=400, sample_rate=12</LI>
<LI><B>AVerMedia - TVCapture98 and TVPhone98 (pre 98 also)</B> -
parameters: gpio_mask=0xf88000, gpio_lock_mask=0x10000,
gpio_xor_mask=0x10000, soft_gap=0, sample_rate=10</LI>
<LI>many more...</LI>
</UL>
<P>
Autodetection is performed using the API from the <em>bttv</em>
module - this means that if <em>bttv</em> doesn't properly
recognize the card type the remote control won't work.
</P>
<!-- Updating from lirc-0.5.4 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ -->
<A NAME="updating054"></A><HR>
<H1 ALIGN="CENTER">Updating from lirc-0.5.4</H1>
<HR WIDTH="70%">
<P>
This section only describes changes that break compatibility
with older versions. Please read the <EM>NEWS</EM> file to learn
about all new features of this release.
</P>
<P>
The config files of <em>lircd</em> and <em>lircmd</em> are now
located in <em>/usr/local/etc/</em> instead of <em>/etc/</em>
per default. Most people prefer to make <em>/usr/local/etc/</em>
a link to <em>/etc/</em>.
</P>
<P>
The modules no longer are uniformly installed as <em>lirc.o</em>
but are called lirc_<em>driver</em>.o depending on the driver
you are using. Therefore you might have to edit your
<em>/etc/conf.modules</em> and change the line
</P>
<PRE>
alias char-major-61 lirc</PRE>
<P>
to whatever you need.
</P>
<P>
LIRC now supports the Irman directly. <em>lirmand</em> is no
longer necessary. Before installing this version you should call
<NOBR><EM>rm /dev/lirc</EM></NOBR> to remove the FIFO that was
used in lirc-0.5.4. <em>/dev/lirc</em> now should be a link to
the device the Irman is connected to (e.g. <em>/dev/ttyS1</em>).
</P>
<A NAME="updating062"></A><HR>
<H1 ALIGN="CENTER">Updating from lirc-0.6.2</H1>
<HR WIDTH="70%">
<P>
The lirc_gpio_p has been renamed to lirc_gpio. I 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.
</P>
<P>
The <em>lirc_haup</em> module has been renamed to <em>lirc_i2c</em>.
</P>
<P>
The transmit code in <em>lirc_serial</em> has been modified
slightly. If you have problems transmitting decrease the
frequency value in the lircd config file by approximately 2000.
</P>
<P>
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.
</P>
<P>
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 <em>remotes/avermedia/lircd.conf.avermedia</em>.
</P>
<A NAME="updating063"></A><HR>
<H1 ALIGN="CENTER">Updating from lirc-0.6.3</H1>
<HR WIDTH="70%">
<P>lircd.conf and lircmd.conf are in /etc again.</P>
<P>
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.
</P>
<A NAME="updating064"></A><HR>
<H1 ALIGN="CENTER">Updating from lirc-0.6.4</H1>
<HR WIDTH="70%">
<P>
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.
</P>
<P>
The I/O base address for some modules now is set with the
<em>io</em> parameter. (formerly: lirc_sir = iobase, lirc_serial
and lirc_parallel = port).
</P>
<A NAME="updating065"></A><HR>
<H1 ALIGN="CENTER">Updating from lirc-0.6.5</H1>
<HR WIDTH="70%">
<P>
The config file for the Pixelview PlayTV pro and compatible TV
cards has changed. Please use the config file in
<em>remotes/pixelview/lircd.conf.playtv_pro</em>.
</P>
<P>
The config file for the Winfast TV2000 and compatible TV cards
has changed. Please use the config file in
<em>remotes/winfast/lircd.conf.tv2000</em>.
</P>
<!-- +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ -->
<BR><BR>
<CENTER>[<A HREF="http://www.lirc.org/">LIRC homepage</A>]<BR>
<I>The LIRC Manual, last update: 12-Sep-2002</I></CENTER>
<BR><BR>
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