Infinite loop during postinstall

[Allen Chemist]

Hardware is an asus A6U laptop with a built-in IR transmitter and receiver. The IR chipset is an IT8705 which attaches itself to TTYS1 on boot.

This is re-creatable, every time LIRC is installed during the dpkg postinstall it hangs here:
Unpacking lirc (from .../lirc_0.8.3~pre1-0ubuntu7_amd64.deb) ...
Setting up lirc (0.8.3~pre1-0ubuntu7) ...
 * Reloading kernel event manager... [ OK ]
 * Loading LIRC modules
dpkg: error processing lirc (--configure):
 subprocess post-installation script killed by signal (Interrupt)
Errors were encountered while processing:
 lirc
oE: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

(it will either hang on kernel event manager or loading lirc modules)

After installing LIRC, processor gets pinned, dmesg reports:
[ 1057.501216] lirc_dev: lirc_register_plugin: sample_rate: 0
[ 1057.502441] lirc_it87: found IT8705.
[ 1057.502508] lirc_it87: IRQ 7 already in use.
[ 1057.696209] lirc_dev: lirc_register_plugin: sample_rate: 0
[ 1057.697371] lirc_it87: found IT8705.
[ 1057.697436] lirc_it87: IRQ 7 already in use.
[ 1057.902435] lirc_dev: lirc_register_plugin: sample_rate: 0
[ 1057.903565] lirc_it87: found IT8705.
[ 1057.903632] lirc_it87: IRQ 7 already in use.
[ 1058.114486] lirc_dev: lirc_register_plugin: sample_rate: 0
[ 1058.115651] lirc_it87: found IT8705.
[ 1058.115717] lirc_it87: IRQ 7 already in use.

ad infinum (processor usage is 100% by sys)

As far as I can tell, this is as a result of it being already in use by another application. LIRC install *should* terminate with an error that it is in use, rather than hang (or stop the other application).

Modules currently loaded and related to InfraRed:
root@pteradon:~# lsmod | grep -E 'ir|ser|lirc'
lirc_it87 23520 1
lirc_dev 18248 1 lirc_it87
irtty_sir 10880 2
sir_dev 19592 1 irtty_sir
irda 222956 2 irtty_sir,sir_dev
crc_ccitt 3584 1 irda
cpufreq_userspace 6180 0
cpufreq_conservative 10632 0
serio_raw 9092 0
dm_mirror 26368 0
dm_mod 71160 10 dm_crypt,dm_mirror,dm_snapshot

Version information:
Ubuntu hardy, updated daily
Kernel version: 2.6.24-16-generic
Architecture: amd64

As a workaround, I can't remove the irtty_sir/irda/sir_dev/crc_ccitt modules since they are in use or are depended on by something in use. I added them to the modprobe.d/blacklist file, but that doesn't seem to prevent them from being loaded.

[Mario Limonciello (superm1)]

I think I see the issue here, but i'm not sure on a solution yet.