What is LIRC ?

LIRC is a package that allows you to decode and send infra-red signals of many (but not all) commonly used remote controls.

Recent linux kernels makes it possible to use some IR remote controls as regular input devices. Sometimes this makes LIRC redundant. However, LIRC offers more flexibility and functionality and is still the right tool in a lot of scenarios.

The most important part of LIRC is the lircd daemon which decodes IR signals received by the device drivers and provides the information on a socket. It also accepts commands for IR signals to be sent if the hardware supports this. The second daemon program called lircmd will connect to lircd and translate the decoded IR signals to mouse movements. You can e.g., configure X11 to use your remote control as an input device.

The user space applications allows you to control your computer with your remote control. You can send X11 events to applications, start programs and much more on just one button press. The possible applications are obvious: Infra-red mouse, remote control for your TV tuner card or CD-ROM, shutdown by remote, program your VCR and/or satellite tuner with your computer, etc. I've heard that using lirc on Raspberry Pie is quite popular these days.

Supported remote controls

If you can't find your remote control here it does not mean that your remote control is not supported. It's just that there is no config file for it yet. All remote controls that are supported by learning remote controls, i.e. almost any, should also work with LIRC.

Supported capture devices

Besides a remote control you also need a capture device to read the data from the remote. Former versions focussed on home-brew capture hardware connected to the serial or parallel port. Descriptions how to build such hardware can be found here. Current versions of LIRC also support a broad range of other hardware. As a starter, you can use the kernel built-in support for many USB dongles and similar. Besides this LIRC supports basically any conceivable way to capture your data including serial devices, parallel ports, sound input etc. You can see the complete list in the left pane.

News

• [14-Oct-2015]

  lirc-0.9.3a released.

• [4-Sep-2015]

  lirc-0.9.3 released.

• [9-Dec-2014]

  lirc-0.9.2 released.

• [10-Jun-2014]

  lirc-0.9.1 released.

• [10-Jun-2014]

  LIRC has a new maintainer! Yay!

• [26-Mar-2011]

  lirc-0.9.0 released.

• [06-Sep-2010]

  lirc-0.8.7 released. After more than 10 years LIRC has a new maintainer. Jarod Wilson is taking over. Good luck for the next 10 years!

• [13-Sep-2009]

  lirc-0.8.6 released.

• [21-May-2009]

  lirc-0.8.5 released.

• [12-Oct-2008]

  lirc-0.8.4 released.

• [04-May-2008]

  lirc-0.8.3 released.

• [09-Jun-2007]

  lirc-0.8.2 released.

• [07-Jan-2007]

  lirc-0.8.1 released.

• [25-Feb-2006]

  A new 0.4.4 maintenance release of libirman fixes incompatibilities with gcc 4.0.

• [21-Jan-2006]

  lirc-0.8.0 released.

• [14-Aug-2005]

  lirc-0.7.2 released.

• [17-Apr-2005]

  lirc-0.7.1 released.

• [07-Nov-2004]

  lirc-0.7.0 released. In memoriam Manuel Estrada Sainz.

• [04-Apr-2004]

  I have made a 0.4.3 maintenance release of libirman. This should fix incompatibilities with 2.6 kernels.

• [12-Jul-2003]

  article in c't issue 15/03 features LIRC's UDP driver.

• [03-May-2003]

  New lirc-xmms-plugin released.

• [01-Feb-2003]

  New releases of xirw, xrc and the lirc-xmms-plugin are available.

• [06-Oct-2002]

  lirc-0.6.6 released.

• [26-Jan-2002]

  lirc-0.6.5 released.

• [23-Jan-2002]

  lircrc_config-0.1.0 released.

• [11-Nov-2000]

  www.lirc.org online.

• [10-Nov-2000]

  The REALmagic remote control that is bundled with Hollywood Plus DVD cards does work with the PixelView RemoteMaster driver. You will just need the proper config file from CVS.

• [19-Oct-2000]

  My LIRC article was published in the c't netherlands.

• [18-Sep-2000]

  Tonu Raitviir has added support for Chronos Video Shuttle II TV card.

• [26-Aug-2000]

  There's a c't article about LIRC.

• [23-Aug-2000]

  Hans-Hermann Redenius has contributed a IRdeo device. Receiving of IR signals already works. I will add code for sending as soon as I find some free time.

• [23-Aug-2000]

  Konrad Riedel has added support for CARACA

• [10-Aug-2000]

  An article about LIRC published in the Linux Magazin.

• [21-Jul-2000]

  lirc-0.6.1 released.

• [19-Jun-2000]

  New xmms plugin released.

• [02-Apr-2000]

  lirc-0.6.0 released.

• [03-Mar-2000]

  Milan Pikula has provided a driver for the SIR (serial infrared) mode of IrDA ports available in many notebooks. It's available now through CVS.

• [30-Apr-1999]

  LIRC now has a CVS tree at gdev.net!

• [29-Apr-1999]

  First test code for Fly Video 98 TV cards available.

• [03-Apr-1999]

  A patch to add Avermedia TV98 support to lirc-0.5.5pre8 has been provided by Ryan Gammon.

• [23-Mar-1999]

  LIRC X11AMP Plugin by Carl van Schaik.

• [07-Mar-1999]

  First test code for Hauppauge remote controls available.

• [03-Mar-1999]

  lirc-0.5.4 released. Major homepage update.

• [02-Mar-1999]

  There is a Windows port of LIRC available at the WinLIRC Homepage.

• [03-Feb-1999]

  Got it! I have the specs for the Hauppauge remote control. :-) Many thanks go to Roger Hardiman for providing the necessary information and Peter Stevenson for finding Roger.

• [31-Jan-1999]

  Recently a Tekram IRMate IR-210 fell into my hands. I managed to send IR signals to my satellite receiver using my linux box within 1 hour! Receiving of IR signals was also possible but has some limitations. You can see this as a motivation for you to work on support for IrDA compliant hardware as I don't have the time to do it myself.