IrDA dongle ceased to work when I upgraded to Debian Lenny

[Hetz Ben Hamo]

I don't see in your /var/log/messages anything from inserting your dongle.
I don't see any specific module that loads the dongle. "irda" module
is *NOT* covering the USB dongles, for that there is ir-usb module,
and I don't see anything on your messages that shows this loads at
all..

I suggest you take a look here:
http://www.linux.com/base/ldp/howto/Infrared-HOWTO/infrared-howto-s-irda-usb.html

Thanks,
Hetz


On Tue, Apr 14, 2009 at 12:46 AM, Omer Zak <w1 at zak.co.il> wrote:
> 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
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