lirc/SOURCES

## Fedora README

0.9.2

This a major upstream update. Don't expect things to be the same, read
the NEWS file in the documentation (/usr/share/doc/lirc/NEWS).

Packaging-wise, the package has been split into smaller packages. Installing
the 'lirc' package will bring all of them. You might be interested in
not installing or removing e. g., unused drivers, the gui and/or the
config package.

The lircd daemon now runs as user lirc. This is using the new
--effective-user option, so it's still started as root and runs as root
until all devices and files are opened. Should this become a problem, just
change the effective-user option in lirc_options.conf.



0.9.1

#### Systemd

The fedora lirc package supports two systemd services lircd.socket
and lircmd.service. See below for enabling and starting these
services.

Since systemd quite aggressively runs things in parallel during startup,
clients like irexec sometimes runs into troubles because the socket
they want to connect to isn't available. This can cause hard to debug
problems. From this version, lircd supports a --wait-for-socket option.
Using this, the calling party is blocked until the socket is available.

#### New configuration file(s)

From this version lirc supports a new configuration file
/etc/lirc/lirc_options.conf. This holds default values for all
command line options, and does in fact replace those in most
installations. When updating, you need to use your old
/etc/sysconfig/lirc config file to update lirc_options.conf.

The old file /etc/sysconfig/lirc is no longer used.

The need to define a device that should be reserved (the old
LIRC_IR_DEVICE option) is no longer needed - lircd is clever enough
to do this by itself.

#### Enable lirc protocol (obsolete)

In previous version the lirc protocol had to be  be enabled
for the actual device used.  This was done using either by installing the
lirc-disable-kernel-rc subpackage or by setting the LIRCD_IR_DEVICE in
/etc/sysconfig/lirc. This is no longer needed, lircd does this
automatically. The lirc-disable-kernel-rc subpackage is still available
"just in case" but should normally not be needed.

#### Socket activation

As of 0.9.4-15+, the Fedora lirc package sports systemd socket
activation. This should fix the problems at startup when clients can't
connect to /var/run/lircd because the lircd service is yet not started.

To start the lircd service using socket activation:
```
    # systemctl enable lircd.socket
    # systemctl start lircd.socket
```
The lircmd is started the usual way:
```
    # systemctl enable lircmd.service
    # systemctl start lircmd.service
```
#### Running another instance.

Sometimes another lircd instance is required to handle some other input
device. This could be done by creating a new service definition in
/etc/systemd/system.

In my case I have an extra instance handling ir output to the transciever.
This is accomplished with  a file /etc/systemd/system/lirc-tx:
----------------
[Unit]
Description=LIRC Infrared Signal Decoder
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/sbin/lircd --driver=iguanaIR \
                          --device=/var/run/iguanaIR/0 \
                          --output=/var/run/lirc/lircd-tx \
                          --pidfile=/run/lirc/dont-use-lircd-tx.pid \
                          --nodaemon \
                          --allow-simulate

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

-----------------------

This defines a new service which can be started using
'systemctl start lirc-tx' etc. It's essential that each service has an
unique output socket. You should probably also think twice before running
two instances with the same input device.

## Troubleshooting

Getting lircd logs from last boot cycle:
```
    # journalctl -b /usr/sbin/lircd
```

If lircd fails to start or dies after restart, first check logs for errors:
```
    # journalctl -f &
    # systemctl restart lircd.service
```

You could also run lircd in foreground after stopping service:
```
    # systemctl stop lircd.service
    # bash
    # source /etc/systconfig/lirc
    # /usr/sbin/lircd $LIRCD_OPTIONS --driver $LIRC_DRIVER \
    > --device $LIRC_DEVICE  --nodaemon
```

Sometimes kernel complains about multiple clients trying to access the
same device. In this case you need to blacklist some kernel module
to make the kernel device available for lircd. One example is my RF
remote using the atilibusb driver. This needs to blacklist the built_in
ati_remote module. This is is done by creating the file
/etc/modprobe.conf.d/blacklist-ati-remote.conf as:
```
# Block built-in handling of ati-remote (use lircd instead).
blacklist ati_remote
```