Currently the LIRC_DCE has a hard coded link to /etc/lircd.conf not the default location in Kubuntu of /etc/lirc/lircd.conf. I submitted a patch to Mantis to correct this. I initially had this problem, I tried several things, but I think the thing I had to do was manually create /etc/lircd.conf and after that the LIRC_DCE component will make the necessary changes. I will look over my notes when I get home, but there were a couple of forum topic that you may be able to search for.
Thanks,
Rob