BIOS
- Make sure your infrared port is enabled in the BIOS and check what interrupt and port address it uses. With some laptops it seems necessary to have Window$x installed to be able to set BIOS parameters.
Docking Station
I have got reports, that connected to a docking station the infrared port was disabled.
Infrared Controller Chip
- Make sure your infrared port is detected by the Linux kernel. For detailed information see the "Hardware Survey" section below.
modutils
- Make sure you use modutils 2.1.x by insmod --version. I use version 2.1.121.
Shared Libraries
- The shared library glibc2 aka libc6 is recommended. There are also efforts to use glibc2.1, you may get this at ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/gnu/funet/ .
- In some files you maybe have to change #include <net/if_packet.h> to #include <linux/if_packet.h> to get things to compile. This means using kernel headers instead of glibc headers. Please consult the mailing list archive, if your are interested in further information.
- But libc.so.5 should work, too.
- the libtool and automake packages should be installed
- I am not sure whether you need the zlib library if you use the data compression features.
- What about libglib-dev?
IrLAN The latest release of net-tools (package netbase for Debian/GNU-Linux) is recommended, if you want to use an IrLAN connection. It's available from: ftp://ftp.netwinder.org/users/p/philb/net-tools/, http://www.tazenda.demon.co.uk/phil/net-tools/ and shortly from ftp://ftp.cs-ipv6.lancs.ac.uk/pub/Code/Linux/Net_Tools/ .
Graphical User Interface (GUI)
Currently there are two graphical user interfaces for Linux/IrDA under development one for KDE and one for GNOME. See GUI chapter below. For the GNOME application you will need the Perl-GTK+ module and Python. You must also install all the development packages. To run Linux/IrDA I recommend to check the command line tools first, because the GUIs don't seem to be finished yet.
Security
- Most important, you must sync your disks!!! Maybe you have to reboot your machine. Have you read the disclaimer?
Miscellaneous
- Other useful progs: APSFILTER, EZ-Magic, MagicFilter or something similar for the printer configuration.