4. Configuration

4.1 General Configuration

• First you should put your IR devices in range. Though it is maybe possible that the Linux/IR service detects every new device automagically I only have good experience with the devices in range during the configuration process.
• Keep your IR devices together in a range below one meter and an angle of 30 degree. There has to be a direct connection. If this is not possible, you may use a mirror (an unused M$ CD should work quite good).
• Add the following line into your /etc/conf.modules file.

  ---

  alias tty-ldisc-8 irtty
  

  ---

• Run depmod -a.
• Try to find out which serial port is used by the IR device. You may do so by watching the output of dmesg. If serial support is modularized do an insmod serial first. Look for an entry like:

  ---

  Serial driver version 4.13 with no serial options enabled
  tty00 at 0x03f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A    #first serial port /dev/ttyS0
  tty01 at 0x3000 (irq = 10) is a 16550    #e.g. IrDA
  tty02 at 0x0300 (irq = 3) is a 16550     #e.g. PCMCIA modem port
  

  ---

  If this is not the case, you either don't have the IR support enabled in the BIOS or your IR device is not detected by the kernel. Currently I know only one laptop model with this effect, it's the HP OmniBook 800. I am not sure wether PnP support effects the detection of the IR port. If you are unsure try it out and let me know the results.
• In some circumstances you may have to use setserial /dev/ttyS<0-2> irq 0xNNNN port M to set the values for your IR serial port (if you need it, especially when the IR port is at a separate serial line you usually don't need to change the values!). For further info look into the FAQ section below.
• Run irattach /dev/ttyS<0-2> & , if kerneld is running this will load the proper modules.
• There are eight modules:
  • irda main module controls the IR connections in general
  • irtty I suppose this supports the IrTTP layer and does all flow control
  • irlan_client network module (client)
  • irlan_server network module (server)
  • irlpt_client printer connections (client)
  • irlpt_server printer connections (server)
  • irobex Palm III support
  • irport "You should not use irport.o, this is a FIR replacement for irtty.o. irport is not finished and should probably not be used by anyone yet! Dag Brattli"
• If you don't use kerneld or kmod insert the irda module with modprobe irda.
• Do lsmod. It should show the modules irda.o and irtty.o now.
• A look into /var/log/messages should show the entry Serial connection established now.
• Give irattach some time, e.g. seven seconds, to detect other IR devices. Then watch the output from the kernel hopefully, you get it in /var/log/messages. It should look like the following:

Apr  5 06:42:12 ZAPPEL kernel: Linux IrDA v0.1 Sat Dec 13 14:54:04 1997 (Dag Brattli) 
Apr  5 06:42:12 ZAPPEL kernel: IrLPT, $Revision: 1.20 $/$Date: 1998/03/08 15:52:10 $ (Thomas Davis) 
Apr  5 06:42:12 ZAPPEL syslog: Serial connection established. 
Apr  5 06:42:19 ZAPPEL kernel: IrDA Discovered: HP LaserJet 6P 
Apr  5 06:42:19 ZAPPEL kernel:     Services: PnP Compatible Printer <7>Informing LPT service user 

4.2 Printer Connection Setup

• Remove any current print jobs with lprm "*".
• If you don't use kerneld do a modprobe irtty.o.
• Do a modprobe irlpt_client.o.
• Check the modules with lsmod. This should show: irda.o, irtty.o and irlpt_client.o
• cat /proc/misc. Gives you the minor device-number . It is the first number in the line with irlpt0.
• su to root, and do mknod /dev/irlpt0 c 10 <minor device-number>. Note: Something like ./MAKEDEV irlpt0 is not possible yet. But maybe load_misc irlpt works, though I couldn't test this yet.
• Try to write a small file to /dev/irlpt0 by cat FILE >/dev/irlpt0 (do not wonder about a bad format this is just a first check). For me this doesn't not always work, but I couldn't find out why not.
• The better way is to change your /etc/printcap to use /dev/irlpt0 in addition or instead of /dev/lp0. See Printing-HOWTO for detailed information.
• For easy printer setup you may use such a printing software like APSFILTER, MagicFilter EZ-Magic (with RedHat there should also be a GUI for this purpose). Make a copy of /etc/printcap before.
• Example for APSFILTER with a HP 6P (non-postscript, HP 6MP is with postscript). The two relevant questions are:

  "Do you have a (s)serial or a (p)arallel printer interface?" answer "p".

  "What's the device name for your parallel printer interface?" answer with /dev/irlpt0.

• Restart the print daemon with kill -HUP <PID of lpd>. If you use another print daemon choose the according command.
• Watch wether the connection indicator of your printer shows activity, e.g. the green light above the IR port of a HP 6P/MP comes on (lower left hand corner, near the paper tray).
• I couldn't get to manage printjobs larger than approximately 10 pages yet. But maybe this depends on the memory size of my hardware, which is 16MB. There seems to be a problem with the software too, Thomas Davis wrote: I will "... limiting the irlpt, so it won't eat memory when you send a large print file.".

4.3 LAN Connection Setup

• The following I couldn't test yet because I don't have a HP-NetBeam or something like that. If you can make suggestions please let me know.

• Dag Brattli wrote: "If you want to use IrLAN you must modprobe irlan_client before ifup irlan0. I had to remove the request_module() stuff since that needed a process context which I don't have in the kernel. "

• Run ifconfig irlan0 up <ip_address> netmask <ip_netmask> to configure it with IP-address and other parameters. If the protocol is still running you may start communicating. It is possible to use RedHat's netcfg to do this, since it makes it very easy. Next time you only need to do /sbin/ifup irlan0.

• Test the network device by pinging to it. For detailed information about further setup see the NET3-HOWTO.

• Do not forget to add a route, e.g. route add default gw <ip_gateway> or route add -host irlan0.

• Ping to another IP now.

• For testing reasons I recommend only to use one laptop and one IR ethernet device in the same room. If there are problems look which different modes for the IR ethernet device are possible. Try them.

4.4 Dongle Connection Setup

The only supported dongle (serial motherboard adapter) now is the Extended Systems Inc. ESI-9680 JetEye. For the Tekram IRmate 210B dongle, technical information is strongly needed. Make sure you have the define ESI_DONGLE uncommented in the Makefile. This couldn't be tested yet, because I don't have an ESI JetEye. So please send me your experiences.

4.5 Palm III Connection Setup

• Palm III -> Linux

  1) Terminal 1> irattach /dev/ttyS<x>

  2) Terminal 2> load_misc irobex

  3) Terminal 3> Start irobex_app in the irobex directory.

  4) Beam something from your Palm III.

  5) If everything is successful, you can take a look at a new file that has been created in the directory you started irobex_app. This file will be named after the object you just transfered.

• Linux -> Palm III

  This should be also possible.

• PPP

  Rui Oliveira wrote: "This is just to let you know that with the latest IrCOMM patch (050998) of Takahide Higuchi, I managed to HotSync and establish a ppp connection between my Palm III and my Linux box. I'm using IRLink (from IsComplete) to redirect the serial port to ir. Communication with pilot-xfer works flawlessly. Although I was able to establish a ppp connection, I'm still unable to fetch mail and do Web browsing. This is probably due to connection time-outs. I am checking this out."

4.6 Handy Connection Setup

As far as I know some handies use the IrCOMM standard, e.g. Ericsson SH888 and NOKIA 8110. Benny Amorsen wrote: "I have used minicom with the SH888, and I actually got it to establish a connection in minicom (CONNECT 9600...). I could not get it to do anything after that, and hanging up by dropping carrier does not work. +++ worked, so I could hang up that way. I would say that the SH888 is very close to working with linux-irda, and actually it might work in 2.0.x kernels. I only use 2.1 kernels.".

IrCOMM is included in the CVS repository now, but I am unsure wether it is included in the official snapshot.

Maybe other handies use the IrOBEX standard, see the Palm III section for infos about setting up a connection.

4.7 Digital Camera Connection Setup

Markus Schill wrote: "Great that there are also other people who are interested in using the SONY DSC-F1 IR adapter under linux. Up to now I have only toyed arround with the linux-irda software and the serial IR adapter from PuMa Technologies that came with the camera. This is the status. I am using linux 2.0.33 and the latest linux-irda... If I use:

insmod irda 
insmod irtty 
insmod irport 
irattach /dev/cua0

There are two programs for linux available that can be used for the communication with the camera via cable: (1) chotplay and (2) stillgrab. They both take a tty as commandline option, so I guess that they should work if the irtty layer of the protocol stack works correctly (???? I have not looked at anything in the linux-irda code, yet!). I am not sure whether I understand the stack but shouldn't the irtty make the thing look like a normal tty? What service should be started. "

Dag Brattli wrote: "I'm not sure which application level protocol the camera uses, but it is possible that it implements the IrDA(TM) Infrared Transfer Picture Specification (IrTran-P). If you take a look at http://www.irda.org/standards/pubs/IrTran-P_10.pdf, you will see that it is a protocol which is implemented above IrCOMM (not IrTTY!). IrTTY is something we use just to be able to talk to the Linux serial driver. "

IrCOMM is included in the CVS repository now, but I am unsure wether it is included in the official snapshot.

4.8 Window$95 and Linux/IR

Why this? Unfortenately Linux users are not always supported with necessary hardware information. Sometimes it is possible to look at this informations in Window$95.

Where to get? At http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/info/irda.htm you will find a support pack "Infrared Transfer 2.0". It is a self-extracting archive W95IR.EXE with 331KB.

With some machines e.g. a HP Omnibook 800 it is neccessary to use a vendor specific version of this package (e.g. for the HP Omnibook 800 you may find it at the recovery CD).

Especially the ..\windows\inf\*.inf files and the device manager are of interest to look for configuration details.

There are also some non M$ products available. Note: Some of them use proprietary IR protocols:

• CounterPoint: QuickBeam 1.15
• LapLink 7.5
• CarbonCopy 32 4.0
• pc ANYWHERE 7.5
• Puma Technology: TRANXIT pro 4.0

Connection between Linux/IR and Window$95 IrDA

For the moment it should only be possible to get a network connection between to PC's (e.g. no getty). If you have setup Infrared Transfer 2.0, you will find an IrDA network device in the <Network Device Section>. But I couldn't get a working connection yet. Please see Q13 in the FAQ section.

Maybe it is also possible to use the IrOBEX protocol. But I guess the necessary software is only provided with a Palm III.

Takahide Higuchi <thiguchi@pluto.dti.ne.jp> provided an experimental patch for IrCOMM support. It is available for download from http://www.pluto.dti.ne.jp/~thiguchi/irda/ With this patch you can send or receive short messages between a linux box and a terminal program on a win95 laptop! But he thinks that some programs (like pppd) would fail because many ioctls are not implemented at this time. The patch is included in the CVS repository now, but I am unsure wether it is included in the official snapshot.

4.9 Linux to Linux Connection

There should be three ways to get two Linux machines connected via Linux/IR. But I couldn't check this yet and I am not sure wether it is supported by the official snapshot:

• Dag Brattli wrote about the IrOBEX support: "The awakened reader may wonder what prevents the beaming of files from Linux to Linux? Well, nothing!! (but I haven't tried that yet). This means that we now have a "simple" way of beaming files between Linux laptops. I think that this may be the "killer app" we all have been waiting for!" Try to "load_misc irobex in both ends, and then try iroabex_app get on one of the machines and irobex put <file> on the other.".
• Via Linux/IR network connection. Please see Q13 in the FAQ section.
• With IrCOMM support, in other words over a serial line, which could mean minicom, pppd, etc.

4.10 Multiple Instances

Dag Brattli wrote: "The IrLAP layer has been enhanced to allow more than one instance (so I can use IrLAN on my built-in ir-port, and communicate with the Pilot with the IrDA dongle at the same time) ... So how do you make two Linux/IR connections? Well, you just fire up irattach for each of the IR ports you have like this: "

irattach /dev/ttyS0 &    (my ESI dongle)
irattach /dev/ttyS2 &    (my builtin IrDA port)

insmod irlan_client
insmod irobex

I am not sure wether this feature is included into the official snaphot or only in the development CVS.

4.11 Fast InfraRed (FIR)

The IrDA(TM) standard knows three kinds of speeds:

- SIR = Standard up to 115kbps IrDA,

- MIR = Medium Speed IrDA,

- FIR = Fast IrDA (4Mbps)

Up to 115.200bps usually the IrDA controller works like a serial port. Up to 4Mbps it works in "FIR mode". But note: "SIR is used to negotiate the session. No SIR, no session. " (Thomas Davis). To start FIR service load the irport.o module after irda.o and irtty.o.

Linux/IR doesn't officially support FIR yet. Thomas Davis wrote: "The irport module is currently used for FIR support; the only chipsets to be supported at this time are SMC and TI. SMC is currently in CVS; TI is not. ".

For latest improvements see Linux/IR homepage http://www.cs.uit.no/~dagb/irda/irda.html , the Linux/IR mailing list archiv at http://bolowsky.ita.chalmers.se/linux-ir/ and in my hardware overview http:/userpage.fu-berlin.de/~r2d2c3po/ir_misc.cgi.

4.12 Configuration Tool

If you like you may use my configuration tool for these steps:

• General Configuration
• Printer Connection Setup
• LAN Connection Setup
• Dongle Connection Setup, not yet ready
• Palm III Configuration, not yet ready

How to use the configuration tool:

• Download the text file irconfig from http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~r2d2c3po/irconfig.
• Put it in the same directory as all the other Linux/IR programms.
• Do a chmod a+x irconfig.
• Maybe you have to edit the first line #!/bin/sh according to your system.
• You have to be root to use the script.
• Start the script with ./irconfig.
• You may edit the first part of the script if necessary.
• You have also this options ./irconfig [ start|stop|test <tty> <port> <irq> ].

  At the moment I cannot recommend the tool any longer, I hadn't time enough to test it with the new snapshots.