LIRC module disable by update

Good evening everyone,

The other day I ran my system updates and one of the packages that got updated was a package called "lirc-modules-source".

Unfortunately, as a result of this update, my remote control and IR blaster was disabled.

Apparently, the kernel module I used for my infrared equipment, lirc_zilog, was removed in the update. The source file for the module was still available, but all traces of the *.ko weren't to be found.

In addition, I could no longer build the kernel module due to some changes in the newest Ubuntu version. I still intend to do some more research on *why* the update removed the module, but fortunately due to a very helpful blogger I found a very simple set of instructions to repair it:

* sudo bash
* apt-get remove lirc-modules-source
* rm -rf /usr/src/lirc-0.8.6/
* apt-get install lirc-modules-source
* cd /usr/src/lirc-0.8.6
* wget http://bobkmertz.com/blog-files/zilog-for-lucid.diff
* patch -p0 < zilog-for-lucid.diff
* dpkg-reconfigure lirc-modules-source

The last step will build the source and install the *.ko files. The original blog post can be found here with some more information, or if you are still having trouble: http://notepad.bobkmertz.com/2010/06/pvr-150-ir-blaster-on-mythbuntu-1004.html

I did this successfully on my HVR-1600 running regular Ubuntu 10.04. Full LIRC support returned after I modprobe'd the driver.

Otherwise, my MythTV-based DVR continues to work wonderfully. I'm making great progress on my complementary auto startup and shutdown problems I'm developing and will hopefully post them on line when they are complete. In the meantime, just wanted to pass along this info in case someone runs into similar issues! And also, it's a good idea to do a quick review of the system updates before you install them.

Protip: If you do see wonky behavior from any of your software after an update, you can review what packagers were recently updated with Synaptic. Just launch Synaptic and go to File->History and check the logs. This is how I ultimately deduced the culprit to the missing LIRC behavior.

All the best!