lirc problem

I am having trouble with my snapstream firefly usb rf remote. I am using kde 11.1. LIRC starts successfully, but KDE LIRC says no remote is present. Whenever I try to run irw lirc stops (or crashes, I am not sure) silently, and irw does not return anything. If I run irw a second time, I get a “connect: Connection Refused” error. Here is what I get from /var/log/messages when I start lirc:

May 15 21:48:59 dali lircd-0.8.4[19645]: lircd(atilibusb) ready
May 15 21:48:59 dali lircd-0.8.4[19645]: accepted new client on /var/run/lirc/lircd
May 15 21:48:59 dali lircd-0.8.4[19645]: couldn't claim USB interface: Device or resource bu
sy
May 15 21:48:59 dali lircd-0.8.4[19645]: Failed to initialize hardware
May 15 21:48:59 dali lircd-0.8.4[19645]: select() failed
May 15 21:48:59 dali lircd-0.8.4[19645]: Bad file descriptor

When I run irw it adds this:

May 15 23:06:33 dali lircd-0.8.4[22940]: accepted new client on /var/run/lirc/lircd
May 15 23:06:33 dali lircd-0.8.4[22940]: reading in mode LIRC_MODE_LIRCCODE failed
May 15 23:06:33 dali lircd-0.8.4[22940]: caught signal

Here is my lircd.conf file (from the mythtv website):

# Please make this file available to others
# by sending it to <lirc@bartelmus.de>
#
# this config file was automatically generated
# using lirc-0.8.4a(atilibusb) on Mon Nov 24 14:58:45 2008
#
# contributed by 
#
# brand:                       lircd.conf
# model no. of remote control: 
# devices being controlled by this remote:
#

begin remote

  name  lircd.conf
  bits           16
  eps            30
  aeps          100

  one             0     0
  zero            0     0
  pre_data_bits   8
  pre_data       0x14
  post_data_bits  16
  post_data      0x0
  gap          147992
  min_repeat      5
  toggle_bit_mask 0x80800000

      begin codes
          MAXI                     0x812C
          MAXI                     0x01AC
          CLOSE                    0x5702
          CLOSE                    0xD782
          1                        0x620D
          1                        0xE28D
          2                        0x630E
          2                        0xE38E
          3                        0x640F
          3                        0xE48F
          4                        0x6510
          4                        0xE590
          5                        0x6611
          5                        0xE691
          6                        0x6712
          6                        0xE792
          7                        0x6813
          7                        0xE893
          8                        0x6914
          8                        0xE994
          9                        0x6A15
          9                        0xEA95
          0                        0x6C17
          0                        0xEC97
          BACK                     0x6B16
          BACK                     0xEB96
          ENT                      0x6D18
          ENT                      0xED98
          VOL+                     0x5E09
          VOL+                     0xDE89
          VOL-                     0x5D08
          VOL-                     0xDD88
          MUTE                     0x5F0A
          MUTE                     0xDF8A
          FIREFLY                  0x5500
          FIREFLY                  0xD580
          CH+                      0x600B
         CH+                      0xE08B
          CH-                      0x610C
          CH-                      0xE18C
          INFO                     0x832E
          INFO                     0x03AE
          OPTION                   0x842F
          OPTION                   0x04AF
          UP                       0x6F1A
          UP                       0xEF9A
          LEFT                     0x721D
          LEFT                     0xF29D
          DOWN                     0x7722
          DOWN                     0xF7A2
          RIGHT                    0x741F
          RIGHT                    0xF49F
          OK                       0x731E
          OK                       0xF39E
          MENU                     0x711C
          MENU                     0xF19C
          EXIT                     0x7520
          EXIT                     0xF5A0
          REC                      0x7C27
          REC                      0xFCA7
          PLAY                     0x7A25
          PLAY                     0xFAA5
          STOP                     0x7D28
          STOP                     0xFDA8
          REW                      0x7924
          REW                      0xF9A4
          FWD                      0x7B26
          FWD                      0xFBA6
          PREV                     0x802B
          PREV                     0x00AB
          PAUSE                    0x7E29
          PAUSE                    0xFEA9
          NEXT                     0x7F2A
          NEXT                     0xFFAA
          MUSIC                    0x5B06
          MUSIC                    0xDB86
          PHOTOS                   0x5A05
          PHOTOS                   0xDA85
          DVD                      0x5904
          DVD                      0xD984
          TV                       0x5803
          TV                       0xD883
          VIDEO                    0x5C07
          VIDEO                    0xDC87
          HELP                     0x5601
          HELP                     0xD681
          MOUSE                    0x822D
          MOUSE                    0x02AD
          A                        0x6E19
          A                        0xEE99
          B                        0x701B
          B                        0xF09B
          C                        0x7621
          C                        0xF6A1
          D                        0x7823
          D                        0xF8A3
      end codes

end remote

And my sysconfig/lirc file, generated by the yast /etc/sysconfig editor module. The only parts that are not at their default values are LIRCD_DEVICE and LIRCD_DRIVER:

## Path:           Hardware/Lirc
## Description:    lirc (infrared remote control) configuration
## Type:           string
## Default:        "660"
## ServiceRestart: lirc
#
# permissions for /dev/lircd
#
LIRCD_DEV_PERMISSIONS="660"

## Type:        string
## Default:     "root:video"
#
# owner and group for /dev/lircd
#
LIRCD_DEV_OWNER="root:video"

## Type:        string
## Default:     ""
#
# use given driver
#
LIRCD_DRIVER="atilibusb"

## Type:        string
## Default:     ""
#
# read from given device
#
LIRCD_DEVICE="/dev/lirc0"

## Type:        string(lirc_bt829,lirc_gpio,lirc_i2c,lirc_it87,lirc_parallel,lirc_sir,ir-kbd-i2c,ir-kbd-gpio)
## Default:     ""
#
# load given lirc driver module
#
LIRC_MODULE=""

## Type:        string
## Default:     ""
#
# listen for network connections on specified port.
# WARNING: don't use this on a machine with an internet
# connection as lircd is running as root!
# 
LIRCD_LISTENPORT=""

## Type:        string
## Default:     ""
#
# connect lircd to specified host
#
LIRCD_CONNECT=""

Does anyone have any idea where the problem might lie?