1IRATTACH(8) IRATTACH(8)
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6 irattach - binds the Linux-IrDA stack to a IrDA port
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9 irattach [ <dev> ] [ -s ] [ -d dongle ] [ -v ] [ -h ]
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13 irattach binds the Linux-IrDA stack to an IrDA port. It configures the
14 low level of the Linux-IrDA stack in the kernel. This step is usually
15 necessary before you (or applications) can use the higher layer of the
16 IrDA stack.
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18 The irattach command loads the necessary Linux-IrDA driver, which con‐
19 figures the IrDA hardware, and configures the IrDA stack to operate on
20 the new IrDA port. Multiple IrDA ports can be activated through multi‐
21 ple irattach commands.
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23 irattach by default uses the irtty driver which connects to the Linux
24 TTY subsystem and use the standard Linux serial driver. This works well
25 for most machines and configurations, but limits the baud rate to
26 115200bps (IrDA SIR mode). The mode of operation will work with most
27 FIR hardware (as found in laptops - they provide serial emulation) and
28 most serial dongles (provided the proper dongle type is specified),
29 making it a safe choice. However, USB dongles and a few FIR hardware
30 don't support serial emulation and can't be used with the irtty driver.
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32 irattach can also use one of the Linux FIR drivers (including USB don‐
33 gle drivers) instead of the irtty driver. Most FIR drivers require
34 proper configuration of module parameters (this is documented below).
35 FIR drivers allow you to use higher baud rates (generally up to 4Mbps).
36 In general, Linux FIR support is not as stable and mature, due to lack
37 of time and documentation.
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39 irattach must be run as root or installed setuid root, as it requires
40 root privileges. If you have compiled the IrDA stack as modules (recom‐
41 mended), then you will need to edit the /etc/modules.conf file. See
42 the Infrared-HOWTO for details.
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45 <dev> : this is the name of a TTY, an IrDA interface or IrDA driver.
46 irattach decides to use the irtty driver or one of the FIR drivers
47 based on this argument.
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49 · TTY name : this is the serial port to be configured using the irtty
50 driver, such as /dev/ttyS0. irattach will use the irtty driver, so
51 only SIR will be available. You need to check your serial configura‐
52 tion or BIOS to know which serial port is the IrDA port that need to
53 be passed to irattach.
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55 · interface name : this is the device name of an IrDA interface, such
56 as irda0. irattach will use one of the FIR drivers (including USB
57 dongle drivers). The selected FIR driver must be loaded prior to the
58 call to irattach, or the proper alias for the device name must be set
59 in /etc/modules.conf.
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61 · module name : this is the name of an FIR driver module, such as nsc-
62 ircc (see list below). All new IrDA interfaces created after loading
63 the module will be configured, so this won't work if the module is
64 already loaded. This feature is still experimental.
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66 -s : starts discovery of remote IrDA devices (note that the form "-s 1"
67 is no longer supported)
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69 -v : shows version information (this happens, when no option is given,
70 too)
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72 -h : shows help information.
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74 -d dongle : attaches an additional dongle driver to the IrDA port.
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76 You need a dongle driver if you have an infrared device that connects
77 to your computer's serial port (normal 9-pin serial port connector).
78 These devices are called dongles, and can currently be used by any SIR
79 driver (IrTTY or irport). This option is not compatible with FIR driv‐
80 ers, and only works with the irtty and irport drivers.
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82 The currently known (serial) dongles are:
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84 · esi Extended Systems JetEye PC ESI-9680
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86 · tekram Tekram IrMate IR-210B dongle
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88 · actisys ACTiSYS IR-220L dongle
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90 · actisys+ ACTiSYS IR-220L+ dongle
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92 · girbil Greenwich GIrBIL dongle
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94 · litelink Parallax LiteLink dongle & Extended Systems JetEye PC
95 ESI-9680B
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97 · airport N.N.
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99 · old_belkin Belkin (old) SmartBeam dongle or any dongle only capable
100 of 9600 bauds
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102 · ep7211 IR port driver for the Cirrus Logic EP7211 processor (ARM
103 based)
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105 · mcp2120 Dongles based on the MCP2120 (Microchip)
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107 · act200l ACTiSYS Ir-200L dongles
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109 · ma600 Mobile Action ma600 dongles
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111 · toim3232 Vishay/Temic TOIM3232 and TOIM4232 based dongles
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114 If you are one of the lucky people which have a FIR chipset or USB don‐
115 gle that is supported by one of the Linux-IrDA drivers, you can use
116 irattach with the interface name of the IrDA port to configure. You
117 will need to configure /etc/conf.modules appropriately, with at least
118 an alias of irda0 to the driver name, or load the driver manually
119 beforehand.
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121 You don't strictly need to use irattach with FIR drivers, you can use
122 modprobe to load the driver, ifconfig to bring up the interface and set
123 the various sysctl by hand, but irattach offer a convenient way to do
124 it.
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126 Of course, you need to know which FIR driver applies to your hardware.
127 You may use findchip to get information about the FIR chip. If this
128 doesn't help, the Infrared-HOWTO shows other means to retrieve these
129 data.
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131 Also, you often need to configure the Linux-serial driver to ignore the
132 IrDA port, otherwise both drivers will conflict. This can usually be
133 done with setserial /dev/ttySx uart none.
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135 The currently known FIR drivers are:
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137 · ali-ircc ALi FIR Controller Driver for ALi M5123 (options: io, irq,
138 dma). This driver supports SIR, MIR and FIR (4Mbps) speeds. This
139 chipset is used by e.g.:
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141 The ALi M5123 FIR Controller is embedded in ALi M1543C, M1535,
142 M1535D, M1535+, M1535D South Bridge.
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144 · irda-usb IrDA-USB device driver, for USB devices/dongles that comply
145 with the official IrDA-USB class specification. Note: USB 2.0 is not
146 yet tested. (options: qos_mtt_bits int, description "Minimum Turn
147 Time"). This is used, for e.g.:
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149 ACTiSYS ACT-IR2000U
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151 KC Technology KC-180
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153 Extended Systems XTNDAccess ESI-9685
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155 Note that there is another USB driver for those devices called ir-usb
156 which is NOT compatible with the IrDA stack and conflict with irda-
157 usb. Because it always loads first, you have to remove ir-usb com‐
158 pletely.
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160 Devices based on the SigmaTel chip are not not compliant with the
161 IrDA-USB class specification and therfore not supported by this
162 driver.
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164 · nsc-ircc NSC IrDA device driver (options: io, irq, dma, dongle_id,
165 qos_mtt_bits). This chipset is used by e.g.:
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167 IBM ThinkPad dongle_id=0x09
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169 HP OmniBook 6000 dongle_id=0x08
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171 · sa1100_ir Infrared driver for devices based on the StrongARM SA1100
172 embedded microprocessor (options: power_level, tx_lpm). This driver
173 may support FIR on devices that can do it. This chipset is used by
174 e.g.:
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176 Samsung YOPY, COMPAQ iPAQ, SHARP Zaurus SL5000/5500
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178 · smc-ircc SMC IrCC controller driver (options: ircc_dma, ircc_irq).
179 This chipset is used by e.g.:
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181 Fujitsu-Siemens Lifebook 635t Sony PCG-505TX
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183 · w83977af_ir Winbond W83977AF IrDA device driver (options: io, irq,
184 qos_mtt_bits). This chipset is used by e.g.:
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186 Corel NetWinder
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188 · toshoboe Toshiba OBOE IrDA device driver, supports Toshiba Type-O IR
189 chipset. (options: max_baud). This chipset is used by e.g.:
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191 Toshiba Libretto 100CT., and many more old Toshiba laptops.
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193 · donauboe is a new version of toshoboe and has better FIR support and
194 compability with the Donauoboe chip http://libxg.free.fr/lib-
195 irda.html (options: ..). This chipset is used by e.g.:
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197 Toshiba Libretto 100CT., Tecra 8100, Portege 7020 and many more
198 Toshiba laptops.
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200 · vlsi_ir VLSI 82C147 SIR/MIR/FIR device driver This chipset is used by
201 e.g.:
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203 HP Omnibook 800
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205 (options: ..).
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207 · clksrc int, description "clock input source selection"
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209 · ringsize int array (min = 1, max = 2), description "tx, rx ring
210 descriptor size"
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212 · sirpulse int, description "sir pulse width tuning"
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214 · mtt_bits int, description "IrLAP bitfield representing min-turn-
215 time"
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218 Attach the IrDA stack to the second serial port (integrated IrDA port
219 using serial emulation) and start discovery:
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221 · irattach /dev/ttyS1 -s
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223 Attach the IrDA stack to the first serial port where you have an exter‐
224 nal ACTiSYS serial dongle and start discovery:
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226 · irattach /dev/ttyS0 -d actisys+ -s
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228 Attach the IrDA stack to the first IrDA-USB dongle and start discovery:
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230 · modprobe irda-usb ; irattach irda0 -s
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232 Attach the IrDA stack to the NSC FIR (4Mbps) device driver on a
233 Thinkpad laptop:
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235 · modprobe nsc-ircc dongle_id=0x9 ; irattach irda0 -s.
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237 Attach the IrDA stack to the NSC FIR (4Mbps) device driver on a
238 Thinkpad laptop:
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240 · irattach irda0 -s.
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242 This assume that you have added the following entries to
243 /etc/conf.modules:
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245 options nsc-ircc dongle_id=0x09
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247 alias irda0 nsc-ircc
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250 The following hints are a very short introduction into the configura‐
251 tion of Linux/IrDA. If this doesn't help read the Linux/IrDA-Tutorial
252 and/or the Infrared-HOWTO . Before configuring Linux/IrDA make sure
253 whether you want to configure SIR or FIR. It's recommended to try SIR
254 first, unless your device is not compatible with SIR (for example USB
255 dongles).
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257 To get the SIR "serial" device have a look into the BIOS. Then run
258 dmesg | grep tty to get a survey of tty devices supported by your
259 machine. Now try to choose the one, which is probably the IrDA device
260 and use irattach /dev/ttySx -s.
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262 If you don't succeed with SIR (which seems a rare case) you may try
263 FIR. First look up the BIOS. Then run findchip to get information about
264 the IrDA controller chip. Use setserial /dev/ttySx uart none to avoid
265 conflicts with the serial driver. Note: don't use setserial if you
266 configure SIR. Now you may use irattach.
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268 Finally irdadump should show at least your computer itself. If it
269 doesn't start at the beginning.
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271 This man page deal only with the low level of the IrDA stack (IrDA
272 ports and IrDA drivers). After this step is done, you usually need to
273 setup your favorite application to access the high level IrDA stack
274 (via IrCOMM, IrLPT, IrNET, IrLAN or IrSOCK), which is documented else‐
275 where.
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277 This man page doesn't document the usage of the irport driver. The
278 irport driver support the same hardware as the irtty driver, but is
279 configured like a FIR driver.
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282 This section currently contains the raw error messages from source code
283 only.
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285 "ioctl(TIOCGETD): %m"
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287 "irattach: tty: set_disc(%d): %s"
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289 "tcsetattr: %m"
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291 "Failed to open %s: %m"
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293 "Couldn't get device fd flags: %m"
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295 "Couldn't set device to non-blocking mode: %m"
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298 N.N.
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301 irattach(8), irdaping(8), irdadump(8), findchip(8), irpsion5(8), mod‐
302 probe(8)
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304 Linux/IrDA Project http://irda.sourceforge.net -*- Linux/IrDA-Tutorial
305 http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/IrDA/index.html -*-
306 Infrared-HOWTO http://tuxmobil.org/howtos.html -*- Infrared-Hardware-
307 Survey http://tuxmobil.org/ir_misc.html
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310 This manual page is written by Werner Heuser <wehe@tuxmobil.org>. It is
311 based on the READMEs from irda-utils by the Linux/IrDA Project and the
312 Linux/IrDA-Tutorial. It was subsequently updated and modified by Jean
313 Tourrilhes <jt@hpl.hp.com>.
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316 Copyright (c) 2001 Werner Heuser Copyright (c) 2002 Jean Tourrilhes
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318 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
319 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL), Version
320 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
321 with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts and no Back-Cover
322 Texts.
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326 03 July 2006 IRATTACH(8)