I have made the call to give up Microsoft. I have figured out hundreds of issues on my own but this one is KILLING me. I am on SuSE 10 and I have the lirc package installed. Works great. I can IRW and get good results and I can use my remote to control mplayer. My issue is this... I use this as my DVD player and the only source of input I have is my remote. For some ungodly reason the /dev/lircm node was not created so X11 will not pick up my remote as a mouse. I see it try and I see it fail because there is no such file "/dev/lircm". I can mknod and chmod it... but I have no clue what to do after that to get X11 to be able to recognize it as a valid device to see my remote. please.... after this I can seal up this box and relax... I have been at this WAY too many hours (going on days) now.

It's possible that /dev/lirc wasn't created because that's not where the lirc unit is connected. Is it a serial controller? If so, it's probably connected to one of the com ports.
Windows Linux
COM1 /dev/ttyS0
COM2 /dev/ttyS1
COM3 /dev/ttyS2
COM4 /dev/ttyS3

If you have an internal modem, it's connected to one of those com ports; a serial lirc is connected to another.

To find out which, from a console window, run the hwinfo command. There'll be a lot of output, so pipe it to a text file to read, then delete when done with it. Like this: hwinfo | tee hwindo.txt. Read through the file; if the lirc is detected on a com port, this will tell you which one.

Let's say it's detected on COM2 (/dev/ttyS1). To get /dev/lirc to work, make a symlink to /dev/ttyS1, like this. ln -s /dev/ttyS1 /dev/lirc.

Beyond that, in /var/log, there are several log files you can look through in the hope of finding more information about the problem. Boot.msg may give information about detecting the lirc. Messages and localmessages may also help. There are some mail files containing mail for the system admin about problems with the system. Some of those logs you can read as user (cat <filename>, and some you will have to su to root to cat the file.

PS. you will get better response if you give more descriptive subject lines on your posts. 'please help' don't cut it.

you were right... that's long. I cut out the parts that did not look relevent and I am left with the stuff below. I DO have a /dev/lirc/. I CAN irw /dev/lircd and get it to show the codes I programmed. I cannot get anything to show up at /dev/lircm to be used as a mouse. Thanks for your response.




============ start debug info ============
libhd version 11.25 (ia32)
kernel version is 2.6

25: udi = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/usb_device_bc7_5_noserial'
info.udi = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/usb_device_bc7_5_noserial'
linux.subsystem = 'usb'
linux.hotplug_type = 1 (0x1)
usb_device.bus_number = 2 (0x2)
usb_device.can_wake_up = false
usb_device.is_self_powered = false
usb_device.version_bcd = 272 (0x110)
usb_device.speed_bcd = 336 (0x150)
usb_device.linux.device_number = 2 (0x2)
usb_device.num_ports = 0 (0x0)
usb_device.max_power = 2 (0x2)
usb_device.device_revision_bcd = 256 (0x100)
info.product = 'USB Receiver'
usb_device.product = 'USB Receiver'
info.vendor = 'X10 Wireless Technology, Inc.'
usb_device.vendor = 'X10 Wireless Technology, Inc.'
usb_device.product_id = 5 (0x5)
usb_device.vendor_id = 3015 (0xbc7)
usb_device.device_protocol = 0 (0x0)
usb_device.device_subclass = 0 (0x0)
usb_device.device_class = 0 (0x0)
usb_device.num_interfaces = 1 (0x1)
usb_device.num_configurations = 1 (0x1)
usb_device.configuration_value = 1 (0x1)
usb_device.linux.sysfs_path = '/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:03.1/usb2/2-2'
info.linux.driver = 'usb'
info.bus = 'usb_device'
info.parent = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/usb_device_0_0_0000_00_03_1'
linux.sysfs_path_device = '/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:03.1/usb2/2-2'
linux.sysfs_path = '/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:03.1/usb2/2-2'


<4>lirc_dev: module not supported by Novell, setting U taint flag.
<4>lirc_dev: IR Remote Control driver registered, at major 60
<4>lirc_atiusb: module not supported by Novell, setting U taint flag.
<4>
<4>lirc_atiusb: USB remote driver for LIRC v0.4
<4>lirc_atiusb: Paul Miller <pmiller9@users.sourceforge.net>
<4>lirc_dev: lirc_register_plugin: sample_rate: 0
<4>lirc_atiusb[2]: X10 Wireless Technology Inc USB Receiver on usb2:2
<4>lirc_serial: module not supported by Novell, setting U taint flag.
<3>lirc_serial: port 03f8 already in use
<4>lirc_serial: use 'setserial /dev/ttySX uart none'
<4>lirc_serial: or compile the serial port driver as module and
<4>lirc_serial: make sure this module is loaded first
<4>lirc_atiusb[2]: open result = -EIO error submitting urb
-- <4> BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009fc00 (usable)
-- <4> BIOS-e820: 000000000009fc00 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)
-- <4> BIOS-e820: 00000000000e8000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
-- <4> BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 000000001fff0000 (usable)
-- <4> BIOS-e820: 000000001fff0000 - 000000001fff8000 (ACPI data)
-- <4> BIOS-e820: 000000001fff8000 - 0000000020000000 (ACPI NVS)
-- <4> BIOS-e820: 00000000fec00000 - 00000000fec01000 (reserved)
-- <4> BIOS-e820: 00000000fee00000 - 00000000fee01000 (reserved)
-- <4> BIOS-e820: 00000000ffee0000 - 00000000fff00000 (reserved)
-- <4> BIOS-e820: 00000000fffc0000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved)
-- <5>0MB HIGHMEM available.
lirc_atiusb: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:03.1/usb2/2-2/2-2:1.0
lirc_atiusb: /module/lirc_atiusb

usb device: name = 2-2:1.0, bus_id = 2-2:1.0, bus = usb
path = /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:03.1/usb2/2-2/2-2:1.0
modalias = "usb:v0BC7p0005d0100dc00dsc00dp00icFFisc00ip00"
bInterfaceNumber = 0
bInterfaceClass = 255
bInterfaceSubClass = 0
bInterfaceProtocol = 0
if: 2-2:1.0 @ /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:03.1/usb2/2-2
bDeviceClass = 0
bDeviceSubClass = 0
bDeviceProtocol = 0
idVendor = 0x0bc7
idProduct = 0x0005
manufacturer = "X10 Wireless Technology Inc"
product = "USB Receiver"
bcdDevice = 0100
speed = "1.5"

----- serial modems -----
/dev/ttyS0
not a modem
----- serial modems end -----
****** stopped child process 8835 (120s) ******
----- serial modems -----
/dev/ttyS0
not a modem
----- serial modems end -----
>> mouse.2: serial
****** started child process 8836 (20s/20s) ******
----- serial mice -----
/dev/ttyS0
----- serial mice end -----
****** stopped child process 8836 (20s) ******
----- serial mice -----
/dev/ttyS0
----- serial mice end -----
>> input.1: joydev mod
>> input.1.1: evdev mod
----- exec: "/sbin/modprobe evdev " -----
FATAL: Module evdev not found.

I: Bus=0003 Vendor=046d Product=c50e Version=2500
N: Name="Logitech USB Receiver"
P: Phys=usb-0000:00:03.0-1/input0
H: Handlers=mouse0 event2
B: EV=7
B: KEY=ffff0000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
B: REL=143

/class/lirc/lirc0
name: lirc0
links: lirc

31: USB 00.0: 0000 Unclassified device
[Created at usb.122]
UDI: /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/usb_device_bc7_5_noserial_if0
Unique ID: hSuP.LpazX7xa5rE
Parent ID: pBe4.iV1lVuuvvK1
SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:03.1/usb2/2-2/2-2:1.0
SysFS BusID: 2-2:1.0
Hardware Class: unknown
Model: "X10 Wireless USB Receiver"
Hotplug: USB
Vendor: usb 0x0bc7 "X10 Wireless Technology Inc"
Device: usb 0x0005 "USB Receiver"
Revision: "1.00"
Driver: "lirc_atiusb"
Speed: 1.5 Mbps
Module Alias: "usb:v0BC7p0005d0100dc00dsc00dp00icFFisc00ip00"
Driver Info #0:
Driver Status: lirc_atiusb is active
Driver Activation Cmd: "modprobe lirc_atiusb"
Config Status: cfg=no, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
Attached to: #30 (Hub)

Had I but known it was usb! That open up a whole different can of worms.

To get usb devices working involves udev, usb, pci, and scsi emulation. You will probably have to write a custom rule (in suse, it would go in /etc/udev/rules.d, in a file called 10-local.rules. That would only insure that the device is always called by the same name from one boot to the next.

In suse, we have the udev info command to tell us information about block and char devices (udevinfo /sys/block/sdx for some scsi drive; udevinfo /sys/char/xxx for some character device) which outputs information to write the custom rule named above.

Then there's the matter of discovering which kernel modules need to be loaded for the device, and edit /etc/modprobe.conf.local to add them there if they're not in /etc/modprobe.conf.

There is a lot of research involved. www.google.com/linux will help. Start with lirc and how to configure. Then research udev, usb, scsi, etc. Save your findings to a folder in you home directory.

It's just too involved to cover in detail here.

good news =)

after reviewing all logs I found that my onboard serial port was what was interfering with lirc_serial. I disabled that and lirc_serial now correctly maps to /dev/ttyS0. I also now have a lirc1 as well as my old lirc0. Do you know how I get from knowing that to having a /dev/lircm?

I found my answer. All I needed to do was

ln -s /var/run/lirc/lircm /dev/lircm

BOOM it works great. The driver for it was already working under atiusb, I just didn't have the /dev/lircm link set up for some reason. Now I am off to try and find a sound card that will let me pass through DTS from mplayer =)