A gamepad has a button to switch between xinput and directinput. but it doesnt tell which mode is on. so is there a way to tell what is active in linux?

I guess directinput is MS specific, so xinput works on linux.

i'm only guessing here, but run "xinput" which will list everything it sees, if your controller not there, flip the switch and try again. if it only shows it on one setting, thats probably the xinput setting.

The main time you flip that switch is if the game you're trying to play doesn't recognize the controller right away.

Run (in terminal)
and it will show the associated driver with the gamepad (you will also get a lot of other output - since this lists every USB device). The 'xpad' driver is needed for xinput ('xinput' has nothing to do with X.org by the way - its 'xbox input' or some similar shorthand, and is based on the Xbox 360 (and now Xbox One) controller model), top of my head I forget what dinput mode (if supported) will show (probably usbhid)- not all gamepads support it (many newer generic controllers are based on 'xinput' solely since there is good driver support in many systems (Windows, linux, Xbox consoles, some mobile devces, etc) for it). So short version: if it is using xpad as its driver, it is using xinput mode, else it is not using xinput mode. If the gamepad has no switch, and looks vaguely Xbox-shaped, it is probably an xinput device.

More about xpad:
https://github.com/paroj/xpad (this is included in a number of distros OOB at this point as well - I'd be surprised if Debian does not have it)

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My guess? Run evtest with each mode. The mode where the results look right would be Xinput.

Explanation:

DirectInput is the old joystick protocol where games are expected to provide a GUI to map controller actions to game actions. Xinput is a gamepad protocol where gamepads just report Xbox controller actions. The evtest program will show you the events the kernel see, so I would expect Xinput mode to give results that look more like what you're actually entering. In games, either mode should work transparently because SDL2 remaps those kernel events in userspace. That's why you can just plug in a DualShock 4 (a DirectInput device) and start playing games with it.

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That are some of the values reported from evtest for my steelseries gamepad:
Event: time 1631105189.744713, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 304 (BTN_SOUTH), value 1

Event: time 1631105190.648714, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 307 (BTN_NORTH), value 1

Event: time 1631105191.312708, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 308 (BTN_WEST), value 1

Event: time 1631105191.808715, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 305 (BTN_EAST), value 1

Event: time 1631105234.976764, type 3 (EV_ABS), code 16 (ABS_HAT0X), value -1

Event: time 1631105292.792803, type 3 (EV_ABS), code 0 (ABS_X), value 0


Turning another gamepad to another mode i get from evtest :

Event: time 1631105622.137207, type 4 (EV_MSC), code 4 (MSC_SCAN), value 90003
Event: time 1631105622.137207, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 290 (BTN_THUMB2), value 1

Event: time 1631105635.273205, type 4 (EV_MSC), code 4 (MSC_SCAN), value 90002
Event: time 1631105635.273205, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 289 (BTN_THUMB), value 1

So i guess the second format is direct input.

So i plug an gamepad which says it has a xinput-dinput button:

$ jstest /dev/input/js0
Driver version is 2.1.0.
Joystick (Microsoft X-Box 360 pad) has 8 axes (X, Y, Z, Rx, Ry, Rz, Hat0X, Hat0Y)
and 11 buttons (BtnA, BtnB, BtnX, BtnY, BtnTL, BtnTR, BtnSelect, BtnStart, BtnMode, BtnThumbL, BtnThumbR).


T: Bus=02 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=08 Cnt=03 Dev#= 9 Spd=12 MxCh= 0
D: Ver= 2.00 Cls=ff(vend.) Sub=ff Prot=ff MxPS=64 #Cfgs= 1
P: Vendor=045e ProdID=028e Rev=01.10
S: Manufacturer=Microsoft Inc.
S: Product=XBOX 360 For Windows
S: SerialNumber=200FA00
C: #Ifs= 4 Cfg#= 1 Atr=a0 MxPwr=500mA
I: If#=0x0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 2 Cls=ff(vend.) Sub=5d Prot=01 Driver=xpad
I: If#=0x1 Alt= 0 #EPs= 4 Cls=ff(vend.) Sub=5d Prot=03 Driver=(none)
I: If#=0x2 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=ff(vend.) Sub=5d Prot=02 Driver=(none)
I: If#=0x3 Alt= 0 #EPs= 0 Cls=ff(vend.) Sub=fd Prot=13 Driver=(none)

Now i press the aforementioned button for six seconds and:

$ jstest /dev/input/js0
Driver version is 2.1.0.
Joystick (MY-POWER CO.,LTD. USB Joystick) has 7 axes (X, Y, Z, Rz, Hat0X, Hat0Y, (null))
and 12 buttons (Trigger, ThumbBtn, ThumbBtn2, TopBtn, TopBtn2, PinkieBtn, BaseBtn, BaseBtn2, BaseBtn3, BaseBtn4, BaseBtn5, BaseBtn6).

T: Bus=02 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=08 Cnt=03 Dev#= 8 Spd=12 MxCh= 0
D: Ver= 1.00 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS=64 #Cfgs= 1
P: Vendor=0e8f ProdID=0003 Rev=01.09
S: Manufacturer=MY-POWER CO.,LTD.
S: Product=USB Joystick
C: #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=80 MxPwr=100mA
I: If#=0x0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 2 Cls=03(HID ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=usbhid


So i think my original question is answered . You can discern by using evtest , usb-devices.