LircdConnectionError when connecting again to the client.

[jrobichaud]

I got this error when start my program, stop it and then start again:

lirc.exceptions.LircdConnectionError: [Errno 111] Connection refused

To reproduce:

my_user@hostname:~/ $ python -c "import lirc;client = lirc.Client(); client.close()"
my_user@hostname:~/ $ python -c "import lirc;client = lirc.Client(); client.close()"
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/my_user/.local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/lirc/connection/lircd_connection.py", line 62, in connect
    self._socket.connect(self._address)
ConnectionRefusedError: [Errno 111] Connection refused

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/home/my_user/.local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/lirc/client.py", line 36, in __init__
    self._connection.connect()
  File "/home/my_user/.local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/lirc/connection/lircd_connection.py", line 69, in connect
    raise LircdConnectionError(error)
lirc.exceptions.LircdConnectionError: [Errno 111] Connection refused

Running on raspberry pi OS:

$ uname -a
Linux hostname 5.15.32-v8+ #1538 SMP PREEMPT Thu Mar 31 19:40:39 BST 2022 aarch64 GNU/Linux

The workaround I found is to restart lircd.socket between each run of my program.

sudo systemctl stop lircd.socket; sudo systemctl start lircd.socket

[eugenetriguba]

Hey @jrobichaud, I appreciate the detailed bug report! I’ll try to find some time today to take a look at this and try to reproduce it and get back to you 🙂

[eugenetriguba]

A quick question I had was that does this problem occur if you don’t do the “client.close()” calls?

“close()” closes the underlying socket so I assume that may be why restarting lircd via systemd fixes your problem (re-opens the socket).

https://docs.python.org/3/library/socket.html#socket.socket.close https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/functions/close.html#

I think the docstring for the ”client.close()” call could probably be made clearer.

[jrobichaud]

I had the same problem without the close.

[eugenetriguba]

eugene@pi:~$ uname -a
Linux pi 5.13.0-1026-raspi #28-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT Mon Apr 25 15:22:19 UTC 2022 aarch64 aarch64 aarch64 GNU/Linux

eugene@pi:~$ sudo systemctl status lircd.socket
● lircd.socket
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/lircd.socket; enabled; vendor preset: enabl>
     Active: active (listening) since Wed 2022-05-11 22:30:18 UTC; 1s ago
   Triggers: ● lircd.service
     Listen: /run/lirc/lircd (Stream)
     CGroup: /system.slice/lircd.socket

May 11 22:30:18 pi systemd[1]: Listening on lircd.socket.

(.venv) eugene@pi:~$ pip list
Package       Version
------------- -------
lirc          2.0.1
pip           20.3.4
pkg-resources 0.0.0
setuptools    44.1.1

(.venv) eugene@pi:~$ python -c "import lirc;client = lirc.Client(); client.close()"
(.venv) eugene@pi:~$ python -c "import lirc;client = lirc.Client(); client.close()"
(.venv) eugene@pi:~$ python -c "import lirc;client = lirc.Client(); client.close()"
(.venv) eugene@pi:~$ sudo systemctl status lircd.socket
● lircd.socket
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/lircd.socket; enabled; vendor preset: enabl>
     Active: active (running) since Wed 2022-05-11 22:30:18 UTC; 2min 13s ago
   Triggers: ● lircd.service
     Listen: /run/lirc/lircd (Stream)
     CGroup: /system.slice/lircd.socket

May 11 22:30:18 pi systemd[1]: Listening on lircd.socket.

(.venv) eugene@pi:~$ python
Python 3.9.7 (default, Sep 10 2021, 14:59:43) 
[GCC 11.2.0] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import lirc
>>> client1 = lirc.Client()
>>> client1.version()
'0.10.1'
>>> client1.close()
>>> client2 = lirc.Client()
>>> client2.version()
'0.10.1'
>>> client2.close()

eugene@pi:~$ cat /etc/lirc/lirc_options.conf 
# These are the default options to lircd, if installed as
# /etc/lirc/lirc_options.conf. See the lircd(8) and lircmd(8)
# manpages for info on the different options.
#
# Some tools including mode2 and irw uses values such as
# driver, device, plugindir and loglevel as fallback values
# in not defined elsewhere.

[lircd]
nodaemon        = False
driver          = devinput
device          = auto
output          = /var/run/lirc/lircd
pidfile         = /var/run/lirc/lircd.pid
plugindir       = /usr/lib/aarch64-linux-gnu/lirc/plugins
permission      = 666
allow-simulate  = No
repeat-max      = 600
#effective-user =
#listen         = [address:]port
#connect        = host[:port]
#loglevel       = 6
#release        = true
#release_suffix = _EVUP
#logfile        = ...
#driver-options = ...

[lircmd]
uinput          = False
nodaemon        = False

# [modinit]
# code = /usr/sbin/modprobe lirc_serial
# code1 = /usr/bin/setfacl -m g:lirc:rw /dev/uinput
# code2 = ...

# [lircd-uinput]
# add-release-events = False
# release-timeout    = 200
# release-suffix     = _EVUP

eugene@pi:~$ ps aux | grep lircd
root        4568  0.0  0.1   9412  3972 ?        Ss   22:32   0:00 /usr/sbin/lircd --nodaemon
eugene      4608  0.0  0.0   8000  1892 pts/0    S+   22:36   0:00 grep --color=auto lircd

@jrobichaud I haven't been able to reproduce this. Am I missing something or doing something wrong here?

[jrobichaud]

I know I am using "default" driver.

Ill test with the rest of your config tonight.

[jrobichaud]

I have this issue only with the default driver.

I haven't been able to send infrared commands yet, there might be something wrong with my configurations.

I suppose I can close this ticket. Thanks.

[eugenetriguba]

@jrobichaud No worries! It's not always the most straight forward to setup. It'd be hard for me to give much advice that might help without more information on the environment (hardware being used, remote control file, etc.).

But that is correct. If you want to send IR signals, you should use the default driver (I wasn't having that issue with the "default" driver either though so I suspect it is likely configuration/setup related).

Instead of using systemd, running lircd directly with possibly a more verbose log level may help.

• https://www.lirc.org/html/lircd.html

They do also have a configuration guide that may help: https://www.lirc.org/html/configuration-guide.html

These also might be some useful utilities for debugging

• https://www.lirc.org/html/mode2.html
• https://www.lirc.org/html/irsend.html

There is also an open source list of remote files if it is possibly related to an issue there

• http://lirc.sourceforge.net/remotes/

If you need to create that file from scratch, there is an irrecord utility, but I've had a lot more luck with using RedRat's IR Signal Database utility.

Hope that helps! If you find it ends up being an issue with something in this package, feel free to re-open it.