Useing Joystick/gamepad as mouse pointer

zarathustra674 · 08-15-2003, 03:17 PM

Ive seen numerous posts where people mention using their gamepad as a remote control. I recently purchased the logitech wireless, and its working fine. But, Id really like to be able to use it to contol the mouse pointer so that I can watch dvd's from a distance and be able to control the pointer/program functoins.

Ive read about joy2key, but this really isnt what Im looking for. Ive also found a dream slack project page, which has a progam called js2mouse. I cant get this to work, Ive tried compiliing it, to no avail. Ive read the man pages for Xfree, and I cant really come up with anything there either. There was a posting in a newsgroup about using a joy driver in xfree3.36 i think, but that person never got it to work either.

Mandrake 9.1

c-vinc02 · 09-02-2003, 02:23 PM

Hi

I answer in
this post :

Quote:

Yes, you can use a XFree86 module to use joystick as mouse pointer (not tested)... You can also use your joystick with GPM : gpm -t js ... (tested, doesn't work )...

Other solution : Js2mouse , it works with any kind of joystick (analogic, numeric, both at the same time) and with any kind of prog (XFree86, GPM, ...)

You do not need to be root to use it !!!
For the moment, key-remapping is not allowed (the key-map is hard-coded, so you must modified sources if you want to change the map)

http://www710.univ-lyon1.fr/~c-vinc02/downloads.html

zarathustra674 · 09-03-2003, 12:40 AM

I saw that after a google(js2mouse), but I'm still relatively new, and I noticed the makefile doesnt have any information in there. I emailed the author for suggestions on how to use this but I never got a reply(His site does say that he was very busy), Could you elaborate on how to compile this program? Also if you have it working, does it do a pretty good job of controlling the mouse? Im running mandrake 9.1 just in case you need to know that. And I have one particular joystick that I want to use. Its a Logitech wireless. It works pretty good with xmame, except for playing roadrunner, and like my hammerhead fx, its hard to control the roadrunner with it. If you dont have time to elaborate on its use, I'll try to figure it out. I should do that anyway before asking. I tried a few things but never got anything going. This was a function I really missed from windows. If you do elaborate, I will foward the instructions to others who want to know, or tell them to come here. Thanks again.

__
I thought I'd add this note. I did get an email back from the author but, I hadn't checked that address. I usually check yahoo, and never my isp address. The author, c-vinc02, had emailed me at my isp's address the next day with instructions. My apologies to c-vinc02. Again, js2mouse works great on my box.

Coproscefalo · 09-03-2003, 11:46 AM

Interesting program, i just downloaded it but wont be able to test it until today nite. But for compiling here are the instructions:

*Download the file (which you probably already have) from
js2mouse

*Extract the archive

*Go to the extracted folder (js2mouse) and go to the directory "src" and a file called build.sh should be there.

*Open a terminal (or konsole if using KDE) and go to the directory containing the build.sh script (should be someting like "cd /home/fulanito/js2mouse/src") and type "./build.sh"

*Now on the "js2mouse/src" directory should be an executable file called "js2mouse," from the terminal just type "./js2mouse" and it should be ready (again, i havent tested it yet i'll do it today nite, with a HammerHead FX by the way).

zarathustra674 · 09-04-2003, 10:18 PM

Got js2mouse compiled and working thanks to help from the people of this forum. I never even saw any documentation when I first downloaded this program about a month ago. I think the author didn't have it written yet. Anyway. It works great with my logitech cordless, and im sure it probably will with the hammerhead fx. After reading some documentation on adding a second mouse on the Xfree site, I can now use the ps2 mouse, and the gamepad to control the mouse pointer! Groovy! If, anyone has any trouble getting it to work, I'll gladly try to help. But, after reading the Xfree doc's and the js2mouse doc, its pretty straight forward.

Big thanks to the author of this prog.. c-vinc02 I didn't realize he was the poster above.

fakie_flip · 09-21-2010, 03:54 PM

Does it work with Xorg? Such as the one in Ubuntu 10.04? I have it compiled, "sudo make install". Then I run it, it detects the logitech dual action gamepad I have. Nothing happens. I ran cat on the fifo it created, and characters do display when I push buttons on the gamepad, however, that is not controlling my mouse. I also tried replacing in my xorg.confg the mouse device to the /dev/j2m_fifo and restarted X, still nothing. Any help appreciated.

zarathustra674 · 09-15-2011, 02:13 PM

Yes, you should be able to use it with Xorg. However, I have not used that app for quite a while. Now, I use qjoypad which does exactly what I wanted and with a gui. Qjoypad can be found already compiled somewhere but I can't remember where. The app's page may have it, but I think for the buntu's I got it from getdeb. Js2mouse is a great app, but it's quite a bit more work getting it configured. Getting it to work as a second pointer was a great learning experience for me many moons ago.

I know this is an old thread, but figured someone might be able to use it in the future.