LIRC not working on Ubuntu 18.04

[Greg]

It appears that the LIRC 0.10.0-2 package for Ubuntu 18.04 (bionic) is not working correctly. The usual configuration menu to select your remote does not come up after installing the package.

Saw some other mentions of this issue as well on the forums: https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2396923

This handy blog post shows a workaround of installing an older version (0.9.0) from xenial to get it to work: https://twosortoftechguys.wordpress.com/2018/07/24/make-lirc-work-in-ubuntu-18-04/

[greg12866 (greg-nycap)]

Lirc configure script still dosen't work in 18.10 beta. It seems there hasn't been any attempt to fix this...

[Alec Leamas (leamas-alec)]

This is fixed in debian upstream. Until this trickles down, the walk-around is something like

    # libdir=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/python3.6/site-packages
    # cp /usr/share/lirc/python-pkg/config.py $libdir/lirc
    # ln -s $libdir/lirc /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/
    # ln -s $libdir/lirc-setup /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Stefan Pappalardo (sjuk)]

I can confirm the issue on Ubuntu 18.04 Server.
If there is a fixed upstream version, what is needed to see an updated package in Ubuntu?
Is there anything I can help with?

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

What's the issue exactly? That the package doesn't show a text interface to configure things anymore? That seems the same than bug #1788235 which has been closed as not being a bug

@Alec, the issue you are referring to is different right?

[Alec Leamas (leamas-alec)]

The main issue described in this bug is bogus, as apparent from bug #1788235

However, the configuration script lirc-setup *is* indeed broken . This is fixed in Debian upstream from 0.10.1, but hasn't trickled down. That said, users will still need to read README.Debian, and the process to configure lirc is still very different from what it used to be. Also, most users updating does not need lirc-setup.

I'm considering closing this bug as a duplicate or just invalid.

[Alec Leamas (leamas-alec)]

That said, if someone filed a bug against lirc because lirc-setup is broken, that bug is certainly valid. But IMHO, that's a very different story. And since there is a usable work-around it would probably just be closed as fixed upstream.

[Jarno Suni (jarnos)]

I upgraded from 16.04 to 18.04 and lirc does not work anymore. systemd shows errors such as "lircd-0.10.0[928]: Error: Cannot glob /sys/class/rc/rc0/input[0-9]*/event[0-9]*"
I suppose it is a bug, as lirc should work after upgrade without manual reconfiguration.

[Alec Leamas (leamas-alec)]

> I suppose it is a bug, as lirc should work after upgrade without manual reconfiguration.

No it should not, as apparent if you read the comkplete discussion in this bug or, more on the spot, bug #1788235.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

@Alec, could you provide some details on how buggy it is/the Debian|upstream fix, which would help to at least fix that issue in bionic...

[Alec Leamas (leamas-alec)]

Basically, it isn't buggy but requires manual intervention when updating.

A script called lirc-setup is however broken. It's primary use-case is fresh installs rather than updates which have no need for it. A workaround to make it wotk could be found in comment #2.

Some users have had problems with duplicated keys caused by the lirc-uinput.service running. Stopping the service fixes this (it is not enabled by default in recent updates).

However, the main problem is users claiming that lirc should work as before without changes after a fully unattended update. I have done what I can to describe that this is not the case...

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for lirc (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]