[tlinux-users:07465] Infrarred and remote control

Hi,

I was just wondering. Is it possible to use the infra-red port of a 
Toshiba Satellite Pro (M10) to receive the signal of a television remote 
control. Do I need a special remote control? Do I need a special 
infra-red receiver?  Wouldn't be cool to control music/video with the 
remote control?

So far, I obtained the info for the IR port of the laptop[1]. I also 
have the information for the remote control[2]. First I tried lirc_sir[4].

$ modprobe lirc_sir irq=3 io=0x2f8
lirc_dev: IR Remote Control driver registered, at major 61
lirc_dev: lirc_register_plugin: sample_rate: 0
lirc_sir: I/O port 0x02f8, IRQ 3.
lirc_sir: Installed.


It creates a new device /dev/lirc/0. However, I don't get anything from 
"mode2 -d /dev/lirc/0" when I press buttons on the remote control. So 
maybe I needed to initialise the chip using smcinit[1].

[root@localhost ~]# smcinit -v
smcinit 0.4

Default-Values for Satellite Pro M10:
SIR ioport: 0x2f8
FIR ioport: 0x130
FIR interupt: 3
FIR DMA: 1

Detected IO hub vendor id: 0x8086
Detected IO hub device id: 0x24cc
Detected Chip id: 0x5a

SIR ioport register      write: 0xbe     read: 0xbe
FIR interrupt register   write: 0x3      read: 0x3
FIR ioport register      write: 0x26     read: 0x26
FIR dma register         write: 0x1      read: 0x1

Initialisation of the SMC 47Nxxx succeded



That looks fine. However, when I load lirc_sir still I can't get 
anything from /dev/lirc/0.

Then, I tried with:

$ modprobe smsc-ircc2 ircc_cfg=0x5a ircc_dma=1 ircc_fir=0x130 ircc_irq=3 
ircc_sir=0x2f8

in /var/log/messages I get:

Nov 20 01:53:05 localhost kernel:  Overriding FIR address 0x0130
Nov 20 01:53:05 localhost kernel:  Overriding SIR address 0x02f8
Nov 20 01:53:05 localhost kernel: SMsC IrDA Controller found
Nov 20 01:53:05 localhost kernel:  IrCC version 2.0, firport 0x130, 
sirport 0x2f8 dma=1, irq=3
Nov 20 01:53:05 localhost kernel: No transceiver found. Defaulting to 
Fast pin select
Nov 20 01:53:05 localhost kernel: IrDA: Registered device irda0
Nov 20 01:53:06 localhost hal.dev[10944]: DEVNAME is not set



(The hal.dev error is strange).

I was not able to find any additional device to look. Also, I cannot 
load both lirc_sir and smsc-ircc2:

FATAL: Error inserting lirc_sir 
(/lib/modules/2.6.12-12mdk-i686-up-4GB/kernel/3rdparty/lirc/drivers/lirc_sir/lirc_sir.ko.gz): 
Device or resource busy
FATAL: Error running install command for lirc_sir
[root@localhost]# dmesg | tail
  IrCC version 2.0, firport 0x130, sirport 0x2f8 dma=1, irq=3
No transceiver found. Defaulting to Fast pin select
IrDA: Registered device irda0
lirc_dev: lirc_register_plugin: sample_rate: 0
lirc_sir: i/o port 0x02f8 already in use.


So this is all I have been able to get so far. This subject seems to be 
quite complex in Linux, what is a shame because it seems to have a lot 
of potential benefits. In general, I am confused between IrDA and LIRC 
and the Linux-InfraRed-HOWTO[3] just adds more confusion to the subject.

There are some people that seem to have more luck than me [3][5][6]. 
Although they don't talk about using a normal television remote control. 
I don't even know if this is possible at all. Maybe I am just trying 
something that doesn't make sense.

Any comments/suggestions/feedback?

The Toshiba people are also allowed to provide help and information; 
after all I will have to buy a new laptop soon and I have heard that
Dell[7] and HP[8] laptops are very compatible with Linux...

Thanks in advance,

	Manuel.


[1] http://irda.sourceforge.net/smcinit/
[2] http://lirc.sourceforge.net/remotes/
[3] http://tuxmobil.org/howto_linux_infrared.html
[4] http://gauss.dartmouth.edu/~genovese/satellite_1410-801.html#LIRC
[5] http://valis.rpg.pl/~young/projekciki/toshiba-2450.shtml#irda
[6] http://www.mandrake.tips.4.free.fr/lirc.html

[7] http://linux.slashdot.org/linux/05/09/17/1539212.shtml?tid=147&tid=184
[8] http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/58780

		
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