Comment 3 for bug 1312287

I have the same problem after upgrading to 14.04; the remote just stopped working. Everything seems to load correctly, but there is no output from irw or mode2.

⟫ dmesg | grep ttyS
[ 0.504063] 00:06: ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4, base_baud = 115200) is a 16550A
[ 0.505388] 0000:05:00.0: ttyS4 at I/O 0xd000 (irq = 20, base_baud = 115200) is a 16550A
[ 0.505468] 0000:05:00.0: ttyS5 at I/O 0xd100 (irq = 20, base_baud = 115200) is a 16550A

⟫ dmesg | grep lirc
[ 4.432792] lirc_dev: IR Remote Control driver registered, major 249
[ 4.435963] lirc_serial: module is from the staging directory, the quality is unknown, you have been warned.
[ 5.348020] lirc_serial lirc_serial.0: auto-detected active high receiver
[ 5.348095] lirc_serial lirc_serial.0: lirc_dev: driver lirc_serial registered at minor = 0

⟫ sudo setserial -a /dev/ttyS0
/dev/ttyS0, Line 0, UART: unknown, Port: 0x03f8, IRQ: 4
        Baud_base: 115200, close_delay: 50, divisor: 0
        closing_wait: 3000
        Flags: spd_normal

⟫ cat /etc/modprobe.d/lirc-serial.conf
#COM1 equivalent, /dev/ttyS0
options lirc_serial irq=4 io=0x3f8

⟫ ls /dev/lirc*
/dev/lirc0 /dev/lircd

⟫ cat /etc/lirc/hardware.conf
# /etc/lirc/hardware.conf
#
#Chosen Remote Control
REMOTE="Home-brew (16x50 UART compatible serial port)"
REMOTE_MODULES="lirc_dev lirc_serial"
REMOTE_DRIVER=""
REMOTE_DEVICE="/dev/lirc0"
REMOTE_LIRCD_CONF="/usr/share/lirc/remotes/avermedia/lircd.conf.avermediarmtk"
REMOTE_LIRCD_ARGS=""
<and more...>

I have tried the suggestions from Dan above, but to no avail. Both of the following shows nothing:
⟫ irw

⟫ sudo mode2 -d /dev/lircd

The remote itself works, as I can see another device reacting to the pulses from the the remote. It also worked like a charm in 13.10 before the upgrade.