Basically, the title says it all... MythTV is up and working just fine except most of the time the remote doesn't work at all. I just keep rebooting until it begins to work again... any ideas? I know the setup works because sometimes it works in Linux and I already tried in Windows and it works fine.

I am using the standard remote that comes with the PVR-150 with the IR Receiver and Blaster (but I'm not using the blaster).

I have tried some debugging but I can't get irw to work. When I type the irw command I get:

root@mythtv:~# irw
connect: Connection refused

or

root@mythtv:~# mode2
mode2: error opening /dev/lirc
mode2: No such device

but my /dev/lirc looks fine, I guess ....

root@mythtv:~# ls -l /dev/lirc*
crw-r--r-- 1 root root 61, 0 Jun 22 00:25 /dev/lirc
crw-r--r-- 1 root root 61, 1 Oct 1 2005 /dev/lirc1
srw-rw-rw- 1 root root 0 Dec 9 15:02 /dev/lircd
prw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Jul 30 2004 /dev/lircm

Sometimes after I run the lirc-reconfig.sh (option 16, then option d) I can type irw one time, but then there is no output when I press buttons on the remote. After I try to run it again the "Connection refused" error comes back again.

Are there any logs that would help to diagnose this problem.

After browsing around some people are suggesting adding the following lines to the bootmisc.sh file

setserial /dev/ttyS0 uart none
modprobe lirc_serial
/usr/sbin/lircd

That's all well and good for serial IR receivers, but what should I use for my serial IR receiver built in to the PVR-150?

When I run lircd manually it crashes when running irw.... !?!?!?!

root@mythtv:~# lircd -n&
[1] 7087
root@mythtv:~# lircd-0.8.1-CVS-pvr150[7087]: lircd(all) ready

root@mythtv:~# irw
lircd-0.8.1-CVS-pvr150[7087]: accepted new client on /dev/lircd
lircd-0.8.1-CVS-pvr150[7087]: could not open /dev/lirc
lircd-0.8.1-CVS-pvr150[7087]: default_init(): No such device
lircd-0.8.1-CVS-pvr150[7087]: caught signal
[1]+ Terminated lircd -n
root@mythtv:~#

I also get a lot of these errors in my dmesg file:
APIC error on CPU0: 01(01)

Also looking at:
http://mythic-beasts.com/~mark/random/mythtv/



My dmesg has no such log statement, is that a problem?

And here is the ever popular ivtv debug

ivtv: ==================== START INIT IVTV ====================
ivtv: version 0.7.0 (tagged release) loading
ivtv: Linux version: 2.6.17-chw-8 SMP preempt mod_unload 586 gcc-3.4
ivtv: In case of problems please include the debug info between
ivtv: the START INIT IVTV and END INIT IVTV lines, along with
ivtv: any module options, when mailing the ivtv-users mailinglist.
ivtv0: Autodetected Hauppauge WinTV PVR-150 card (cx23416 based)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKB] enabled at IRQ 5
PCI: setting IRQ 5 as level-triggered
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:0f.0[A] -> Link [LNKB] -> GSI 5 (level, low) -> IRQ 5
ivtv0: Unreasonably low latency timer, setting to 64 (was 32)
APIC error on CPU0: 01(01)
tuner 0-0061: chip found @ 0xc2 (ivtv i2c driver #0)
cx25840 0-0044: cx25843-23 found @ 0x88 (ivtv i2c driver #0)
APIC error on CPU0: 01(01)
cx25840 0-0044: loaded v4l-cx25840.fw firmware (16382 bytes)
wm8775 0-001b: chip found @ 0x36 (ivtv i2c driver #0)
tveeprom 0-0050: Hauppauge model 26152, rev E5B2, serial# 9732160
tveeprom 0-0050: tuner model is TCL M2523_5N_E (idx 112, type 4)
tveeprom 0-0050: TV standards NTSC(M) (eeprom 0x08)
tveeprom 0-0050: audio processor is CX25843 (idx 37)
tveeprom 0-0050: decoder processor is CX25843 (idx 30)
tveeprom 0-0050: has no radio, has IR remote
ivtv0: loaded v4l-cx2341x-enc.fw firmware (262144 bytes)
APIC error on CPU0: 01(01)
ivtv0: Encoder revision: 0x02050032
ivtv0: Allocate DMA encoder MPEG stream: 128 x 32768 buffers (4096KB total)
ivtv0: Allocate DMA encoder YUV stream: 194 x 10800 buffers (2048KB total)
ivtv0: Allocate DMA encoder VBI stream: 120 x 17472 buffers (2048KB total)
ivtv0: Allocate DMA encoder PCM audio stream: 455 x 4608 buffers (2048KB total)
tuner 0-0061: type set to 50 (TCL 2002N)
ivtv0: Initialized Hauppauge WinTV PVR-150, card #0
ivtv: ==================== END INIT IVTV ====================


Also, the /proc/bus/input/devices doesn't list the PVR-150 card I have installed, it only lists a keyboard!

I don't like the look of those APIC errors. Have you tried disabling it at boot?

I will try that, won't it slow the machine down? APIC was already disabled in the BIOS. I tried enabling it but the error was the same. It seems like a hardware issue because nothing else I have tried works, except when I boot into windows it works fine! Very strange.

Any other suggestions?

I tried a completely different system, the remote works the first time after setup but then after that nothing, same symptoms same everything.

No APIC errors, on this system, so that was probably irrelevant to the problem at hand. I just bought this PVR-150 this weekend at Circuit City, is it possible I have some new unsupported chip for the remote?

Less likely than a cable that's loose or that has a broken conductor. Have you tried the ivtv 0.7.2 driver? The upgrade only takes about 5 minutes following the directions on the wiki.

I have upgraded ivtv to 0.7.2 and there is no change in the problem

http://knoppmythwiki.org/index.php?page=CompileIvtv

I have also done some searching on my specific remote model (A415-HPG) and came up with this article on the wiki

http://knoppmythwiki.org/index.php?page ... e250Remote

I also followed all of those instructions and the remote still doesn't work. The only one I couldn't do was the install-i686-l option at the top (what is that?)

Thanks for the suggestions, please keep them coming, I'm about to pull my hair out! This is so frustrating.

More debugging, this almost looks ok until the end

lirc_dev: IR Remote Control driver registered, at major 61
ivtv: ==================== START INIT IVTV ====================
ivtv: version 0.7.2 (tagged release) loading
ivtv: Linux version: 2.6.17-chw-8 SMP preempt mod_unload 586 gcc-3.4
ivtv: In case of problems please include the debug info between
ivtv: the START INIT IVTV and END INIT IVTV lines, along with
ivtv: any module options, when mailing the ivtv-users mailinglist.
ivtv0: Autodetected Hauppauge WinTV PVR-150 card (cx23416 based)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKB] enabled at IRQ 5
PCI: setting IRQ 5 as level-triggered
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:0d.0[A] -> Link [LNKB] -> GSI 5 (level, low) -> IRQ 5
ivtv0: Unreasonably low latency timer, setting to 64 (was 32)
tuner 0-0061: chip found @ 0xc2 (ivtv i2c driver #0)
APIC error on CPU0: 01(01)
cx25840 0-0044: cx25843-23 found @ 0x88 (ivtv i2c driver #0)
APIC error on CPU0: 01(01)
cx25840 0-0044: loaded v4l-cx25840.fw firmware (16382 bytes)
wm8775 0-001b: chip found @ 0x36 (ivtv i2c driver #0)
tveeprom 0-0050: Hauppauge model 26152, rev E5B2, serial# 9732160
tveeprom 0-0050: tuner model is TCL M2523_5N_E (idx 112, type 4)
tveeprom 0-0050: TV standards NTSC(M) (eeprom 0x08)
tveeprom 0-0050: audio processor is CX25843 (idx 37)
tveeprom 0-0050: decoder processor is CX25843 (idx 30)
tveeprom 0-0050: has no radio, has IR remote
APIC error on CPU0: 01(01)
ivtv0: loaded v4l-cx2341x-enc.fw firmware (262144 bytes)
eth0: no IPv6 routers present
ivtv0: Encoder revision: 0x02050032
ivtv0: Allocate DMA encoder MPEG stream: 128 x 32768 buffers (4096KB total)
ivtv0: Allocate DMA encoder YUV stream: 194 x 10800 buffers (2048KB total)
ivtv0: Allocate DMA encoder VBI stream: 120 x 17472 buffers (2048KB total)
ivtv0: Allocate DMA encoder PCM audio stream: 455 x 4608 buffers (2048KB total)
tuner 0-0061: type set to 50 (TCL 2002N)
ivtv0: Initialized Hauppauge WinTV PVR-150, card #0
ivtv: ==================== END INIT IVTV ====================
lirc_pvr150: ivtv i2c driver #0: no devices found

What! no devices found?

At this point I'm guessing that you have a bad CD or a bad card.

Reboot from the CD with "tv testcd" to verify that you have a good image and quit when it gets to the main menu. Also try the md5sum step from the CompileIvtv page and make sure that your firmware is good.

Well I did the tv testcd and everything was fine.... then once I rebooted out of setup from the tv testcd option the remote works! Once more, I rebooted and the remote worked again! This is very strange and somewhat unsettling since I didn't actually do anything. Here is the output from dmesg, I guess I will now try to power down the box and check it again.

lirc_dev: IR Remote Control driver registered, at major 61
ivtv: ==================== START INIT IVTV ====================
ivtv: version 0.7.2 (tagged release) loading
ivtv: Linux version: 2.6.17-chw-8 SMP preempt mod_unload 586 gcc-3.4
ivtv: In case of problems please include the debug info between
ivtv: the START INIT IVTV and END INIT IVTV lines, along with
ivtv: any module options, when mailing the ivtv-users mailinglist.
ivtv0: Autodetected Hauppauge WinTV PVR-150 card (cx23416 based)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKB] enabled at IRQ 5
PCI: setting IRQ 5 as level-triggered
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:0d.0[A] -> Link [LNKB] -> GSI 5 (level, low) -> IRQ 5
ivtv0: Unreasonably low latency timer, setting to 64 (was 32)
tuner 0-0061: chip found @ 0xc2 (ivtv i2c driver #0)
APIC error on CPU0: 01(01)
cx25840 0-0044: cx25843-23 found @ 0x88 (ivtv i2c driver #0)
APIC error on CPU0: 01(01)
APIC error on CPU0: 01(01)
APIC error on CPU0: 01(01)
cx25840 0-0044: loaded v4l-cx25840.fw firmware (16382 bytes)
wm8775 0-001b: chip found @ 0x36 (ivtv i2c driver #0)
tveeprom 0-0050: Hauppauge model 26152, rev E5B2, serial# 9732160
tveeprom 0-0050: tuner model is TCL M2523_5N_E (idx 112, type 4)
tveeprom 0-0050: TV standards NTSC(M) (eeprom 0x08)
tveeprom 0-0050: audio processor is CX25843 (idx 37)
tveeprom 0-0050: decoder processor is CX25843 (idx 30)
tveeprom 0-0050: has no radio, has IR remote
ivtv0: loaded v4l-cx2341x-enc.fw firmware (262144 bytes)
ivtv0: Encoder revision: 0x02050032
ivtv0: Allocate DMA encoder MPEG stream: 128 x 32768 buffers (4096KB total)
ivtv0: Allocate DMA encoder YUV stream: 194 x 10800 buffers (2048KB total)
ivtv0: Allocate DMA encoder VBI stream: 120 x 17472 buffers (2048KB total)
ivtv0: Allocate DMA encoder PCM audio stream: 455 x 4608 buffers (2048KB total)
tuner 0-0061: type set to 50 (TCL 2002N)
ivtv0: Initialized Hauppauge WinTV PVR-150, card #0
ivtv: ==================== END INIT IVTV ====================
APIC error on CPU0: 01(01)
lirc_pvr150: chip found with RX and TX
lirc_dev: lirc_register_plugin: sample_rate: 0
lirc_pvr150: firmware of size 209327 loaded
lirc_pvr150: 575 codesets loaded
lirc_pvr150: Hauppauge PVR-150 IR blaster: firmware version 1.3.0

Let me guess, you had the box physically turned off for long enough for the PVR card to clear it's firmware and require a reload... A minute or so is usually long enough if your boxes "off" is really OFF rather than standby... Other people have reported a need to unplug the power an walk away for 10-15 minutes before updated firmware will take effect.

Yes, its true that I had the box powered off for a while, but what does that mean? Do I have to turn the box off every night to make sure the remote is working for the next day.... ?

No, it should be fine now that it's got a good copy of the firmware. If it goes flaky again say in a couple weeks or a month (assuming some random memory glitch) try shutting it down cold for a couple minutes before rebooting and see if that solves the problem.

Well, its not working again..... it worked through a couple of reboots but now it is dead again, so I'm unplugging it for a while to see if it will clear out and then reload correctly again, I guess the trick might be that you have to leave it off for a while when you power it off.

So, I left the box unplugged for a couple of hours today and turned it back on and then nothing, still no remote, so I guess its not a power off that allows the card to reload the firmware, but I did notice that there is a lot more output from dmesg when its working like....

irc_pvr150: chip found with RX and TX
lirc_dev: lirc_register_plugin: sample_rate: 0
lirc_pvr150: firmware of size 209327 loaded
lirc_pvr150: 575 codesets loaded
lirc_pvr150: Hauppauge PVR-150 IR blaster: firmware version 1.3.0