Linux Joysticks and Gamepads

Setting up the XBox 360 Controller in Oolite under Linux

Linux distributions such as Ubuntu Lucid have the xpad kernel driver built in. While this works out of the box, this offers limited configurability. Here I will outline a better alternative which works irrespective of whether your Linux distribution includes xpad support.

1. Install [XBoxDrv] - for Ubuntu there is a binary package. Installation instructions are [here].
2. Don't worry about all the stuff about sudo modprobe uinput and changing permissions on /dev/uinput etc.
3. Download [runxboxdrv] a wrapper I wrote to make using xboxdrv very simple. Hopefully, this will be included in a future release of XBoxDrv.
4. Also in the download are an Oolite configuration for xboxdrv: oolite.cfg and a key configuration for Oolite to go with it: keyconfig.plist
5. Extract them to your home folder and move keyconfig.plist to ~/.Oolite/Addons
6. Run from a menu icon or shell using: ~/runxboxdrv --cfg ~/oolite.cfg /usr/bin/oolite
7. The only joystick setup needed in Oolite is to set up the axes. The left hand analog stick left-right should be roll. The right hand stick is up, down, left, right.
8. Open oolite.cfg in a text editor to see the mappings of everything else. The option names correspond to those at [xboxdrv manpage] but without the "--"
9. The left shoulder button acts like a shift key and effectively almost doubles the number of buttons.

If you have any problems, post on the [Forums].