maybe is a driver issue, not lirc package. Do you ask upstream?

please try latest 2.6.36 kernel and lirc 0.8.7 package, thanks

Lirc still has problem (2.6.36 + lirc 0.8.7, all repo)

$ sudo modprobe lirc_serial
FATAL: Error inserting lirc_serial (/lib/modules/2.6.36-ARCH/kernel/drivers/staging/lirc/lirc_serial.ko): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)

$ dmesg |tail
lirc_dev: IR Remote Control driver registered, major 61
lirc_serial: module is from the staging directory, the quality is unknown, you have been warned.
lirc_serial: Unknown symbol lirc_dev_fop_poll (err 0)
lirc_serial: Unknown symbol lirc_dev_fop_open (err 0)
lirc_serial: Unknown symbol lirc_dev_fop_close (err 0)
lirc_serial: Unknown symbol lirc_dev_fop_read (err 0)
lirc_serial: Unknown symbol lirc_dev_fop_ioctl (err 0)

There's something worth mentioning in official FAQ:
"From 2.6.36 on all LIRC kernel drivers are already included in the kernel. There has been a slight interface change in the LIRC ioctls that will affect 64-bit kernels. We're already working on a 0.9.0 release which is supposed to be fully functional with the in-kernel drivers. In the meanwhile you should use a 0.9.0-pre snapshot."

It seems that it is no longer necessary for >2.6.36 kernels to install lirc, nonetheless under x86_64 the utils won't work because the kernel version uses a differnt ioctl.

*EDIT* I managed to get it working. I downloaded the 0.9.0-pre1 version and configure&&make right away (without patching), the tool binaries are immediately usable with present kernel modules.

lirc-utils 0.8.7 work with kernel26 2.6.36, if I not install 'lirc' package.
However it's not solved my original problem, irrecord not catch anything from my Pinnacle PCTV remote. In Windows XP and Ubuntu 9.04 it worked well, but I can't use it in current Arch Linux.

I'm also having problems with lirc_serial. I load the lirc_dev and lirc_serial without errors. But it doesn't work.
When i run mode2 -d /dev/lirc0 i get:

mode2: could not get hardware features
mode2: this device driver does not support the LIRC ioctl interface
mode2: major number of /dev/lirc0 is 251
mode2: LIRC major number is 61
mode2: check if /dev/lirc0 is a LIRC device

whenever i press a button on my remote i see a line such as this

Nov 18 02:57:10 localhost kernel: lirc_serial: ignoring spike: 1 1 4ce479e6 4ce479e6 53586 5356a

in /var/log/messages.log after 5-10 seconds since my remote button was pressed.

I've got the following messages in messages.log with kernel26 2.6.35.8-1 and lirc 0.8.6-7:

Nov 18 01:59:01 localhost kernel: lirc_dev: IR Remote Control driver registered, major 61
Nov 18 01:59:02 localhost kernel: lirc_serial: auto-detected active high receiver
Nov 18 01:59:02 localhost kernel: lirc_dev: lirc_register_driver: sample_rate: 0
Nov 18 01:59:02 localhost kernel: lirc_serial $Revision: 5.104 $ registered
Nov 18 01:59:32 localhost kernel: lirc_dev (lirc_serial[0]): userspace uses outdated ioctl please update your lirc installation

With kernel26 2.6.35.8-1 and lirc 0.8.7:

Nov 18 02:46:37 localhost kernel: lirc_dev: IR Remote Control driver registered, major 61
Nov 18 02:46:38 localhost kernel: lirc_serial: auto-detected active high receiver
Nov 18 02:46:38 localhost kernel: lirc_serial: this usually means that there is no receiver attached to the selected port
Nov 18 02:46:38 localhost kernel: lirc_dev: lirc_register_driver: sample_rate: 0
Nov 18 02:46:38 localhost kernel: lirc_serial $Revision: 5.108 $ registered

Now my receiver works after some configuration, so it's not a bug. However Arch wiki completely misleading me.
I've found this table: http://www.lirc.org/html/table.html#@hw-other-serial and it says that I not need lirc_serial driver, but I have to configure lirc to use pinsys lircd driver. Here is my working configure file (/etc/conf.d/lircd.conf):

LIRC_DEVICE=""
LIRC_DRIVER="pinsys"
LIRC_EXTRAOPTS=""
LIRC_CONFIGFILE="/usr/share/lirc/remotes/pinnacle_systems/lircd.conf.pctv"

I think that Arch wiki page about LIRC should be rewrite a bit.

My working configuration only works with lirc-utils version 0.8.7-1 (both with 2.6.35 and 2.6.36 kernels), it isn't works with 0.8.6-5. So eventually 0.8.7-1 fixed my problem.

It's probably the lirc-utils that needs updating. I installed 0.9.0-pre snapshot and mode2 now works. So it's not a driver's issue.

lirc-0.9.0-pre1 is now in testing, please report success.

worked perfectly after modprobe and starting lirc server