Arch Linux

farmerdave

Member

Registered: 2011-11-23

Posts: 114

[SOLVED] lirc update is causing trouble

I've got a HTPC that has been running smoothly for years on Arch. I use an MCEUSB remote, and run MythTV and Kodi. I updated lirc as part of a system update a few days ago, and was left with a non-functioning remote, seemingly very similar to this post. Using all the same config as I always had, irw was producing zero output even though lircd.service was running fine.

My first move was to remove the lirc package, clean out my old config files and reinstall according to the current Arch wiki pages. I used my old mceusb.conf in /etc/lirc/lircd.conf.d/ and set it to "driver = default" in /etc/lirc/lirc_options.conf. I moved the devinput.lircd.conf file to devinput.lircd.dist as suggested in its comments section, I use the default lircd.service file which runs the service as root, and irw works great. I can now use the remote in Kodi no problems.

My trouble is that my configuration has ~/.lircrc which has "include" statements to ~/.lirc/mythtv and ~/.lirc/irexec which are not working now. So I have no remote control in MythTV and cannot run a custom script to launch other programmes using irexec. Even more baffling to me is that downgrading lirc to the older version gives me the same problem now (Kodi works, but nothing out of ~/.lircrc). I also looked at lirc's dependencies and tried downgrading the ones that were updated as part of my system upgrade, but nothing has so far solved this problem. I've seen that the documentation on LIRC webpage makes reference to ~/.config/lircrc and I've tried that, but no luck.

Can anyone help me solve this please to get my remote working as before?

Last edited by farmerdave (2016-08-22 03:55:15)

graysky

Wiki Maintainer

From: :wq

Registered: 2008-12-01

Posts: 10,597

Website

Re: [SOLVED] lirc update is causing trouble

Does this remote work natively with the kernel?  Stop lirc (and verify it is not running with `ps aux | grep lirc`), open a shell and hit some keys... does the shell respond as-if the remote were a keyboard?

Last edited by graysky (2016-08-20 11:10:59)

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CPU-optimized Linux-ck packages @ Repo-ck  • AUR packages • Zsh and other configs

farmerdave

Member

Registered: 2011-11-23

Posts: 114

Re: [SOLVED] lirc update is causing trouble

No, no response in a terminal if lirc is stopped.

graysky

Wiki Maintainer

From: :wq

Registered: 2008-12-01

Posts: 10,597

Website

Re: [SOLVED] lirc update is causing trouble

No, no response in a terminal if lirc is stopped.

If your old conf file is no longer valid as was the case for my streamzap in the thread you linked, the next step is for you to see which driver is best and generate a new conf file.  My github linked that that thread has the steps for the streamzap or you can consult the lirc wiki page.

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CPU-optimized Linux-ck packages @ Repo-ck  • AUR packages • Zsh and other configs

farmerdave

Member

Registered: 2011-11-23

Posts: 114

Re: [SOLVED] lirc update is causing trouble

So even with my remote working fine for Kodi, I still might have an invalid conf file?

farmerdave

Member

Registered: 2011-11-23

Posts: 114

Re: [SOLVED] lirc update is causing trouble

This is now solved, I did another system update today and the problem is corrected without making any config file changes. Strangely, I then tried to find which package was the culprit by downgrading each of today's updated packages individually. I restarted lircd in between each and tested irexec functions and mythtv control, and it worked for each package downgrade. I didn't do full reboots in between each package change, if I get time I might try.  For what its worth, the list of packages updated today are

[2016-08-22 09:55] [ALPM] upgraded cantarell-fonts (1:0.0.24-1 -> 1:0.0.25-2)
[2016-08-22 09:55] [ALPM] upgraded libgcrypt (1.7.2-1 -> 1.7.3-1)
[2016-08-22 09:55] [ALPM] upgraded gnupg (2.1.14-1 -> 2.1.15-1)
[2016-08-22 09:55] [ALPM] upgraded gstreamer (1.8.2-1 -> 1.8.3-1)
[2016-08-22 09:55] [ALPM] upgraded gst-plugins-base-libs (1.8.2-1 -> 1.8.3-1)
[2016-08-22 09:55] [ALPM] upgraded gst-plugins-base (1.8.2-1 -> 1.8.3-1)
[2016-08-22 09:55] [ALPM] upgraded libwacom (0.21-1 -> 0.22-1)
[2016-08-22 09:55] [ALPM] upgraded lightdm (1:1.18.2-2 -> 1:1.18.3-1)
[2016-08-22 09:55] [ALPM] upgraded linux (4.7-1 -> 4.7.1-1)
[2016-08-22 09:56] [ALPM] upgraded linux-headers (4.7-1 -> 4.7.1-1)
[2016-08-22 09:56] [ALPM] upgraded linux-lts (4.4.16-1 -> 4.4.19-1)
[2016-08-22 09:56] [ALPM] upgraded linux-lts-headers (4.4.16-1 -> 4.4.19-1)
[2016-08-22 09:56] [ALPM] upgraded pangomm (2.40.0-1 -> 2.40.1-1)
[2016-08-22 09:56] [ALPM] upgraded php (7.0.9-1 -> 7.0.10-1)
[2016-08-22 09:56] [ALPM] upgraded php-apache (7.0.9-1 -> 7.0.10-1)
[2016-08-22 09:56] [ALPM] upgraded python-setuptools (1:25.2.0-1 -> 1:26.0.0-1)
[2016-08-22 09:56] [ALPM] upgraded python2-setuptools (1:25.2.0-1 -> 1:26.0.0-1)
[2016-08-22 09:56] [ALPM] upgraded s-nail (14.8.9-1 -> 14.8.10-1)
[2016-08-22 09:56] [ALPM] upgraded xfsprogs (4.5.0-1 -> 4.7.0-1)

Edit: Pretty sure I can rule out the kernel upgrade as I also have a custom compiled kernel that didn't change and all is working fine with that kernel too.

Last edited by farmerdave (2016-08-22 04:18:25)