IrDA dongle ceased to work when I upgraded to Debian Lenny

[Omer Zak]

I tried dpkg-reconfigure irda-utils
Choosing serial device, it offers the default 'irda0' as serial device
file for IrDA.
For dongle type I tried both 'none', 'actisys', 'actisys+' (I read
somewhere that my dongle is 'actisys').

The command produces the following output:
=====>
# dpkg-reconfigure irda-utils
Stopping IrDA service: irattach.
.udevdb or .udev presence implies active udev.  Aborting MAKEDEV
invocation.
.udevdb or .udev presence implies active udev.  Aborting MAKEDEV
invocation.

************************************************************************
*
* The update-modules command is deprecated and should not be used!
*
************************************************************************

Starting IrDA service: irattach.
=====>

In the /var/log/everything/current, I see the following messages:
=====>
Apr 14 00:30:32 [irattach] executing: '/sbin/modprobe irda0'
Apr 14 00:30:32 [irattach] + FATAL: Module irda0 not found.
Apr 14 00:30:32 [irattach] Trying to load module irda0 exited with
status 1
Apr 14 00:30:32 [irattach] executing: 'echo c2
> /proc/sys/net/irda/devname'
Apr 14 00:30:32 [irattach] executing: 'echo 1
> /proc/sys/net/irda/discovery'
Apr 14 00:30:32 [irattach] Starting device irda0
Apr 14 00:30:32 [irattach] ioctl(SIOCGIFFLAGS): No such device
Apr 14 00:30:32 [irattach] Stopping device irda0
Apr 14 00:30:32 [irattach] ioctl(SIOCGIFFLAGS): No such device
Apr 14 00:30:32 [irattach] exiting ..._
=====>

The kernel does have the module 'irda' as the
file /lib/modules/2.6.26-1-686/kernel/net/irda/irda.ko

The /etc/modules.conf file has (among lots of other stuff) the following
lines, and I don't know if and what to do with them:
=====>
options ali-ircc
alias irda0 ali-ircc
=====>

In /etc/udev/rules.d I had an IrDA rule when I used Debian Sarge, but
the rule was removed for Debian Etch because IrDA worked out of the box
for me there.  When reinstating the rule for Debian Lenny, the IrDA
dongle did not work for me.  The rule which I tried was (or something
similar):
BUS=="usb", SYSFS{product}=="IRExpress USB IrDA Controller",
NAME=="usb/%k", SYMLINK+="usb/irda-usb"

Of course, Google did not find for me anything relevant.

--- Omer


On Tue, 2009-04-14 at 00:06 +0300, Hetz Ben Hamo wrote:
> Hi Omer,
> 
> This could be from the "hotplug" script not knowing what to do with your dongle.
> 
> My suggestion would be:
> 
> 1. see whats your system writes to /var/log/messages
> 2. rmmod the module and modprobe it while the device is connected. By
> doing modprobe, it should do all the stuff needed (create device, show
> the device name in /var/log/messages) and show some status about it.
> 
> Hope this helps,
> Hetz
> 
> On Mon, Apr 13, 2009 at 11:55 PM, Omer Zak <w1 at zak.co.il> wrote:
> > Using lsusb, the dongle in question identifies itself as:
> > ID 050f:0180 KC Technology, Inc. KC-180 IrDA Dongle
> >
> > When I used Debian Etch, the device /dev/irda0 was automatically created
> > and all worked out of the box.
> >
> > After upgrade to Debian Lenny, the udev-created device changed, due to
> > some mysterious reason, to /dev/ttyUSB0 and now the dongle does not work
> > out of the box (does not connect to my cellphone using 'ircp -r' unlike
> > in the Etch era).
> >
> > Does anyone know what changed and what&how to change so that it'll work
> > again?

-- 
Delay is the deadliest form of denial.    C. Northcote Parkinson
My own blog is at http://www.zak.co.il/tddpirate/

My opinions, as expressed in this E-mail message, are mine alone.
They do not represent the official policy of any organization with which
I may be affiliated in any way.
WARNING TO SPAMMERS:  at http://www.zak.co.il/spamwarning.html