I'm using Ubuntu 11.10 (amd64) and I'm trying to get my infrared remote control working.

The IR device is a part of a DVB-T USB stick (Based on a RTL2832u chip). I'm using these drivers - it's the only way of getting this device to work under 11.10 that I found. It's a big impromevent from previous Ubuntu version, where I had to edit the driver's code.

The device works quite great - and the IR part of it works, too. The driver's page says that the code it's in alpha stage, but I'm pretty sure that my issue has nothing to do with that.

If, and only if driver's module is loaded with parameter rtl2832u_rc_mode=2 (which means "use NEC protocol for IR") the remote kind of works, I can see this by running cat /dev/.. ../input6 - when I press a button, random letters appear. The remote works just like a keyboard, but keys are totally messed up - when I press '5' the volume goes down, etc.

I would like to use Lirc to fix that, but Lirc can't detect my device (i.e. irw shows nothing). I suspect, it's because something gets into control of the device and sets it up as a keyboard. Lirc seems to be working, it's KDE settings module works too, but it just doesn't detect the device.

The Lirc page describes this issue, but since 2009 - the last year when that page was updated, Ubuntu moved from HAL (described there) to DeviceKit, rendering provided instruction useless.

I had a similar issue with my previous remote, but the keys were not messed up so much - the remote was usable, so I gave up trying to get Lirc working. I tried the answer provided here, but it changed nothing.

I also tried forcing lircd to use my device, but this didn't work too:

for i in /sys/class/input/input* ; do echo -n "$(basename "$i"): "; cat "$i/name"; done

shows

input0: Power Button

input1: Power Button

input2: Logitech Logitech USB Keyboard

input3: A4Tech PS/2+USB Mouse

input6: IR-receiver inside an USB DVB receiver

But when I run:

lircd -n --device=name='IR*' as root (also tried with the full name) I always see:

lircd-0.9.0[3983]: lircd(default) ready, using /var/run/lirc/lircd

lircd-0.9.0[3983]: accepted new client on /var/run/lirc/lircd

lircd-0.9.0[3983]: could not get file information for name=IR*

lircd-0.9.0[3983]: default_init(): No such file or directory

lircd-0.9.0[3983]: Failed to initialize hardware

So, how to set up Lirc with devinput driver in such case?