Need howto info for IR remote controller setup

I’m hoping to use the IR remote controller that came with this PC to control xbmc media player. I’ve just spent most of the day surfing and searching for howto info, and I now feel like I know no more than I did when I started.

I won’t bother to record all I have and haven’t tried so far except to say that I’ve installed lirc (& deps) w/ Yast, and I’ve enabled irda in Yast as well, and from that point on I’ve been hampered by my own inability to understand much (if any) of the howto info available. Unfortunately most of what I’ve found and read on many, many forums is terribly out of date and/or written by and for apparently knowledgable geeks already familiar with the terminology they’re using to communicate with each other. It’s not their fault that I can’t follow their jargon, but I still need some howto guidance written in very basic terms.

Can anyone help out by pointing me to a very basic howto or by walking me through this process?

System:

Toshiba laptop # x205-s9359
Linux 2.6.27.21-0.1-default x86_64
openSUSE 11.1 (x86_64)
4.2.2 (KDE 4.2.2) “release 112”

IR controller:

Toshiba part # G83C0008A210

First of all, see if your computer is receiving signals from the remote control:
Type the following in a terminal:

su
mode2 -d /dev/lirc0

Now, press buttons of the remote control (pointing to the computer’s IR port) and see if you can see any messsages on the screen.

mode2 -d /dev/lirc0

mode2: could not get file information for /dev/lirc0
mode2: default_init(): No such file or directory

If you have already installed lirc packages, see if the modules are loaded or not:

su
modprobe lirc_serial
modproble lirc_dev

Make sure that your /etc/sysconfig/lirc file contains correct entries for the infrared port (most probably /dev/ttyS1).
See if you have the device /dev/lirc0
(If this device is not there, the installation was not complete).

clearly “the installation is not complete”. I will remove and reinstall lirc, etc. and post new results shortly.

(I’m very grateful for one step at a time directions, thanx)

Ouch, I didn’t dare remove and reinstall, as Yast gave me such an Awesome # of dependency warnings that I simply chickened out and opted to simply “update” instead. No change, same results when I reran the commands above.

suggestion?

here’s the /etc/sysconfig/lirc file:

link

Did you get any errors when the modules are loaded?

su
modprobe lirc_serial
modproble lirc_dev

modprobe lirc_serial

FATAL: Module lirc_serial not found.
l

modprobe lirc_dev

FATAL: Module lirc_dev not found.

Since you have a built-in IR port, you may have to load lirc_sir module (it should automatically get loaded by the lirc_dev module). But, I don’t see that is included in the lirc package of openSUSE when installed through Yast.

Last time, I played with lirc was when I assembled an IR circuit for my old machine. That time, I had to compile the kernel to build support (as per the HOW-TOs at the lirc web site) for lirc.

I don’t recommend to re-compile your kernel if you don’t have that experience.

Let us wait for inputs from someone who used lirc with IR port.