lirc is now gone from the main kernel package due to upstream issues.

It might be made into a separate km_ package if there is enough call for it.

How can I build my own lirc kernel modules while using Alpha 3?

As lirc is supported by KDE and many other important applications (e.g. MPlayer), and as probably a lot of people have a remote control (comming with Hauppauge TV cards, for example), it would be really nice to have lirc support.

See the lirc web page for how to build their kernel module against
any kernel version.

Also, what device are you trying to use with lirc?   A lot of the devices supported
by it are able to be used by other portions of the kernel instead of lirc.

I want to use the remote control of my Hauppauge WinTV PCI FM.

Unfortunately, I am not able to build the drivers myself:
I follow the instructions (including "make oldconfig && make dep" in /usr/src/linux) and try to build lirc 0.7.1 myself, but I get the following error messages:

make  all-recursive
make[1]: Entering directory `/media/hitachi160/archiv/packages/lirc-0.7.1'
Making all in drivers
make[2]: Entering directory `/media/hitachi160/archiv/packages/lirc-0.7.1/drivers'
Making all in lirc_dev
make[3]: Entering directory `/media/hitachi160/archiv/packages/lirc-0.7.1/drivers/lirc_dev'
Makefile:8: **************************************************
Makefile:8: *** Makefile trick not undone, trying to recover *
Makefile:8: **************************************************
mv Makefile.automake Makefile
make all
make[4]: Entering directory `/media/hitachi160/archiv/packages/lirc-0.7.1/drivers/lirc_dev'
mv Makefile Makefile.automake
cp ../Makefile.kernel Makefile
make -C /usr/src/linux/ SUBDIRS=/media/hitachi160/archiv/packages/lirc-0.7.1/drivers/lirc_dev modules \
        KBUILD_VERBOSE=1
make[5]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.14.2-2'
mkdir -p /media/hitachi160/archiv/packages/lirc-0.7.1/drivers/lirc_dev/.tmp_versions

  WARNING: Symbol version dump /usr/src/linux-2.6.14.2-2/Module.symvers
           is missing; modules will have no dependencies and modversions.

make -f scripts/Makefile.build obj=/media/hitachi160/archiv/packages/lirc-0.7.1/drivers/lirc_dev
  gcc -m32 -Wp,-MD,/media/hitachi160/archiv/packages/lirc-0.7.1/drivers/lirc_dev/.lirc_dev.o.d  -nostdinc -isystem /usr/lib/gcc/i586-suse-linux/4.1.0/include -D__KERNEL__ -Iinclude  -Wall -Wundef -Wstrict-prototypes -Wno-trigraphs -Werror-implicit-function-declaration -fno-strict-aliasing -fno-common -ffreestanding -O2     -fomit-frame-pointer -pipe -msoft-float -mpreferred-stack-boundary=2 -fno-unit-at-a-time -march=i586 -mregparm=3 -Iinclude/asm-i386/mach-default -Wdeclaration-after-statement -Wno-pointer-sign -DIRCTL_DEV_MAJOR=61 -DEXPORT_SYMTAB -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I. -I../.. -I /media/hitachi160/archiv/packages/lirc-0.7.1/drivers/lirc_dev/../.. -I /usr/src/linux//include/  -DMODULE -DKBUILD_BASENAME=lirc_dev -DKBUILD_MODNAME=lirc_dev -c -o /media/hitachi160/archiv/packages/lirc-0.7.1/drivers/lirc_dev/.tmp_lirc_dev.o /media/hitachi160/archiv/packages/lirc-0.7.1/drivers/lirc_dev/lirc_dev.c
/media/hitachi160/archiv/packages/lirc-0.7.1/drivers/lirc_dev/lirc_dev.c: In function ‘cleanup’:
/media/hitachi160/archiv/packages/lirc-0.7.1/drivers/lirc_dev/lirc_dev.c:134: error: implicit declaration of function ‘class_simple_device_remove’
/media/hitachi160/archiv/packages/lirc-0.7.1/drivers/lirc_dev/lirc_dev.c: In function ‘lirc_register_plugin’:
/media/hitachi160/archiv/packages/lirc-0.7.1/drivers/lirc_dev/lirc_dev.c:378: error: implicit declaration of function ‘class_simple_device_add’
/media/hitachi160/archiv/packages/lirc-0.7.1/drivers/lirc_dev/lirc_dev.c: In function ‘lirc_dev_init’:
/media/hitachi160/archiv/packages/lirc-0.7.1/drivers/lirc_dev/lirc_dev.c:847: error: implicit declaration of function ‘class_simple_create’
/media/hitachi160/archiv/packages/lirc-0.7.1/drivers/lirc_dev/lirc_dev.c:847: warning: assignment makes pointer from integer without a cast
/media/hitachi160/archiv/packages/lirc-0.7.1/drivers/lirc_dev/lirc_dev.c: In function ‘cleanup_module’:
/media/hitachi160/archiv/packages/lirc-0.7.1/drivers/lirc_dev/lirc_dev.c:887: error: implicit declaration of function ‘class_simple_destroy’
make[6]: *** [/media/hitachi160/archiv/packages/lirc-0.7.1/drivers/lirc_dev/lirc_dev.o] Fehler 1
make[5]: *** [_module_/media/hitachi160/archiv/packages/lirc-0.7.1/drivers/lirc_dev] Fehler 2
make[5]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.14.2-2'
make[4]: *** [lirc_dev.o] Fehler 2
make[4]: Leaving directory `/media/hitachi160/archiv/packages/lirc-0.7.1/drivers/lirc_dev'
make[3]: *** [all] Fehler 2
make[3]: Leaving directory `/media/hitachi160/archiv/packages/lirc-0.7.1/drivers/lirc_dev'
make[2]: *** [all-recursive] Fehler 1
make[2]: Leaving directory `/media/hitachi160/archiv/packages/lirc-0.7.1/drivers'
make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Fehler 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/media/hitachi160/archiv/packages/lirc-0.7.1'
make: *** [all] Fehler 2

That is because the lirc source code has not been updated, and is one of the
main reasons why it is not supported anymore.

I noticed that there is version 0.7.3pre1 in http://lirc.sourceforge.net/software/snapshots/

This version can be compiled without problems in SUSE 10.1 Alpha 3.

Unfortunately, my remote does not work yet (maybe because the 0.7.1 coming with SUSE and the new version are mixed up).

However, this might be a good starting point to support lirc again in SUSE 10.1, as the code still seems to be updated.

Sorry, but no, they need to get their code into the upstream kernel for us
to be able to support it in the future.