8.1 IrDA in the Kernel

Most modern kernels have all the support that you need to get infrared to work. If you build your own kernel, make sure that you've enabled infrared support. Most of the infrared support is configured under the IrDA (Infrared) Support section that appears in the kernel configuration. Figure 8-2 shows the make menuconfig kernel configuration screen open to the IrDA Support section. (You may need to select Prompt for development and/or incomplete code/drivers under the top-level Code maturity level options section of the kernel configuration to see all the available options.)

Figure 8-2. Configuring IrDA support with make menuconfig

You'll definitely want to configure IrDA Subsystem Support (CONFIG_IRDA) as well as the IrCOMM Protocol (CONFIG_IRCOMM), which lets you use the IrDA port as a serial port via one of the /dev/ircommN ports. We suggest that you compile these as modules and go into Infrared-port Device Drivers and select every driver that it offers you, configuring each as a module.