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I'm fairly certain that IRDA is just a error detection/ correction protocol. You don't need it if the software you're using already has error detection/correction (e.g. Laplink, Zmodem if you're transferring files, or TCP/IP if you're running SLIP over your IR :-). Linux will just treat the IR connection as a standard null-modem connection, no special drivers needed. IRDA is an error detection/correction protocol in the same sense that TCP/IP is. It's actually a pretty complicated piece of software, that does device addressing, service and speed negotiation, and other hairy crap (too hairy, IMHO). I'll spare you the gory details but an IrDA device is kind of like a miniature web server that maintains a database of available services, etc. For more info, see the Linux software or www.irda.org. Most IRDA-compliant devices seem to respond to raw serial input just fine. I've printed raw text on my HP LJ 6MP via the IR port without problems before. Obviously for something large like mutli-megabyte postsript files, the error correction is useful. I don't know what the error rate is on these things so I can't say *how* useful though. This is very interesting, that the 6MP is capable of doing that. It's a feature (possibly undocumented) totally separate from the 6MP's IRDA printing function. Printing to an IRDA printer takes quite a lot of protocol if you do everything per the IRDA IrLAP/IrLMP spec.