My Joystick will not work in games
 

Hello all,

This is my first post here. I have been searching around various Linux forum for an answer to this and I am either not searching for the right things or my specific problem has not shown up. If this problem is indeed somewhere then if I could get pointed in the right direction it would be a great help.

I have done searches based on this thread and as general a 'joystick' and all I seem to turn up is references to the fact that linux supports joysticks and various games that use joysticks.

The problem I am having is this:

When I plug a joystick into the usb port it seems to be detected fine. I start up games and turn on joystick support within the game and the name of the joystick shows up correctly but I don't have any control with the joystick.

I have tried a utility called 'Joystick Calibration' and the joystick seems to work fine in that utility. I can go through all the calibration steps and get the full range of motion from the controls and all the buttons work.

When I go back into the game in question and select the joystick, it looks like the buttons all are detected but I get either no action out of the 'analog' portions or just the faintest hint of movement.

I am at a loss as to why it appears to work in the calibration utility but not in the game.

I have tried these steps with several different input devices (joysticks, wheels) and several different games (flight, driving etc).

Glen

We need to know a little bit more information.

Which distro are you using?
What is your kernel version? (in terminal, type uname -r)
What model of joystick do you have?

Although I can't really help you here since I have no experience with joysticks in Linux, that information will be useful to whoever can help.

Also, might I ask which game(s) you are trying? I would like to try using a joystick in Linux myself and would be happy to share my results. It is odd that a calibration utility would pick up analog movement and buttons just fine, but a game would not.

I am using MEPIS 6.5
I am not at home so can not check directly but the kernel is probably 2.6.15-27. Won't be back home for about another month so there is no real way to check for sure.
I have tried a Sidewinder Freedom, another one with a big ball joint in the middle so the two halves swivel independently, a cheap Genius with either 3 or 4 analog axis and maybe 8 buttons and a hat switch. I think I tried my Logitech Freedom 2.4 but don't recall right off. Probably a cheap Genius driving wheel with pedals also. The all do the same thing.

As for games, I have tried Search and Rescue, well, I am having a hard time remembering the names since I cant look at my menus. I think I have tried TORCS in the past. A couple other driving games and some flying 'sims' and arcade games that are supposed to support joysticks.

I could probably understand if the occasional game wouldn't work but I can't seem to get anything to work except for the calibration utility.

I am on vacation and will not be able to answer any specific questions till I get back home but will try to answer any questions the best I can.

L8R