Having problems getting Joystick set up

[Esme]

Hello! I'd like to be able to fly aircraft in KSP much as I would in a flight simulator, at least with regard to directional controls, with a joystick. However, when I go into the Settings screens, none of the jopystick axis settings sections work. I suspect that the problem may be a lack of suitable software in my Linux install, but on searching Synaptic for the word 'joystick' there's such a plethora of options that I'm unsure as to which to select for the best.

KSP version: 1.04 Linux, 64 bit OS: Linux Mint 17.1 a fresh install (literally - this is a new (to me) refurbished PC) aside from addition of XFce desktop, VLC media player, removal of Thunderbird email and addition of Claws email and Sysinfo. Sysinfo details follow: System information report, generated by Sysinfo: 11/07/2015 09:20:39 http://sourceforge.net/projects/gsysinfo SYSTEM INFORMATION Running LinuxMint Linux, the LinuxMint 17.1 (rebecca) release. GNOME: 3.8.4 (Ubuntu 2015-04-02) Kernel version: 3.13.0-37-generic (#64-Ubuntu SMP Mon Sep 22 21:28:38 UTC 2014) GCC: 4.8 (x86_64-linux-gnu) Xorg: 1.15.1 (30 July 2014 12:21:54AM) (30 July 2014 12:21:54AM) Hostname: Charbydis Uptime: 0 days 1 h 17 min CPU INFORMATION AuthenticAMD, AMD Phenom 9500 Quad-Core Processor Number of CPUs: 4 CPU clock currently at 2200.000 MHz with 512 KB cache Numbering: family(16) model(2) stepping(2) Bogomips: 4419.90 Flags: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt pdpe1gb rdtscp lm 3dnowext 3dnow constant_tsc rep_good nopl nonstop_tsc extd_apicid pni monitor cx16 popcnt lahf_lm cmp_legacy svm extapic cr8_legacy abm sse4a misalignsse 3dnowprefetch osvw ibs hw_pstate npt lbrv svm_lock MEMORY INFORMATION Total memory: 5968 MB Total swap: 6139 MB STORAGE INFORMATION SCSI device - scsi2 Vendor: ATA Model: WDC WD3200AAJS-6 SCSI device - scsi3 Vendor: HL-DT-ST Model: DVD-RW GSA-H60L SCSI device - scsi6 Vendor: Generic- Model: Compact Flash SCSI device - scsi6 Vendor: Generic- Model: SM/xD-Picture HARDWARE INFORMATION MOTHERBOARD Host bridge Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 10h Processor Link Control PCI bridge(s) NVIDIA Corporation MCP61 PCI bridge (rev a1) (prog-if 01 [subtractive decode]) NVIDIA Corporation MCP61 PCI Express bridge (rev a2) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode]) NVIDIA Corporation MCP61 PCI Express bridge (rev a2) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode]) NVIDIA Corporation MCP61 PCI Express bridge (rev a2) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode]) NVIDIA Corporation MCP61 PCI bridge (rev a1) (prog-if 01 [subtractive decode]) NVIDIA Corporation MCP61 PCI Express bridge (rev a2) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode]) NVIDIA Corporation MCP61 PCI Express bridge (rev a2) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode]) NVIDIA Corporation MCP61 PCI Express bridge (rev a2) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode]) ISA bridge NVIDIA Corporation MCP61 LPC Bridge (rev a2) Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 2a6c IDE interface NVIDIA Corporation MCP61 SATA Controller (rev a2) (prog-if 85 [Master SecO PriO]) Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 2a6c GRAPHIC CARD VGA controller NVIDIA Corporation G98 [GeForce 8400] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller]) Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 0510 SOUND CARD Multimedia controller NVIDIA Corporation MCP61 High Definition Audio (rev a2) Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 2a6c NETWORK NVIDIA GRAPHIC CARD INFORMATION Model name: unknown Card Type: unknown 16x Video RAM: 256 MB GPU Frequency: 540 MHz Driver version: NVIDIA UNIX x86_64 Kernel Module 331.113 Mon Dec 1 21:08:13 PST 2014

Edited July 11, 2015 by Esme

[steve_v]

Holy moly, that redefines "wall of text"

What species of joystick / controller are we talking about here?

Anything using the hid-generic driver should "just work", KSP/Unity requires that it is plugged in and axes are centred on app startup.

For device details, easiest to catch the last few lines of 'dmesg' after you plug it in, e.g.:

Sat Jul 11 20:34:04 2015 usb 1-1: new low-speed USB device number 2 using xhci_hcd
Sat Jul 11 20:34:05 2015 usb 1-1: New USB device found, idVendor=0738, idProduct=1302
Sat Jul 11 20:34:05 2015 usb 1-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
Sat Jul 11 20:34:05 2015 usb 1-1: Product: Mad Catz F.L.Y.5 Stick
Sat Jul 11 20:34:05 2015 usb 1-1: Manufacturer: Mad Catz
Sat Jul 11 20:34:05 2015 usb 1-1: ep 0x81 - rounding interval to 64 microframes, ep desc says 80 microframes
Sat Jul 11 20:34:05 2015 input: Mad Catz Mad Catz F.L.Y.5 Stick as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.1/0000:06:00.0/usb1/1-1/1-1:1.0/0003:0738:1302.0003/input/input21
Sat Jul 11 20:34:05 2015 hid-generic 0003:0738:1302.0003: input,hidraw2: USB HID v1.11 Joystick [Mad Catz Mad Catz F.L.Y.5 Stick] on usb-0000:06:00.0-1/input0

To make sure it's actually working, try 'jstest' from the 'joystick' package, or 'evtest' from 'evtest'.

Your DE may have a GUI calibration gizmo in settings somewhere.

Also:

Check permissions on /dev/input/js0.

Post 'Player.log' from KSP startup.

Edited July 11, 2015 by steve_v

[Esme]

Oh, gosh, it's lost the formatting! Sorry about that - I;ve tried re-editing, but it's ignoring me putting line feeds in :-( It's a twisty-stick Thrustmaster joystick, several years old but hardlt used (I've had it from new) on the underside of the base is a sticker saying T-Flight Stick X v.4 Many thanks for your advice, will do! Will be back shortly after I;ve done teh things you;ve said to do :-} OK, the last bit of the dmesg output is:

[ 7385.585717] usb 2-1: new full-speed USB device number 10 using ohci-pci [ 7385.802167] usb 2-1: New USB device found, idVendor=044f, idProduct=b107 [ 7385.802173] usb 2-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0 [ 7385.802177] usb 2-1: Product: T.Flight Stick X [ 7385.802179] usb 2-1: Manufacturer: Thrustmaster [ 7385.815268] input: Thrustmaster T.Flight Stick X as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/usb2/2-1/2-1:1.0/input/input14 [ 7385.815642] hid-generic 0003:044F:B107.0004: input,hidraw1: USB HID v1.00 Gamepad [Thrustmaster T.Flight Stick X] on usb-0000:00:02.0-1/input0 [ 7408.833435] usb 2-1: USB disconnect, device number 10 [ 7418.825452] usb 2-6: new full-speed USB device number 11 using ohci-pci [ 7419.037911] usb 2-6: New USB device found, idVendor=044f, idProduct=b107 [ 7419.037922] usb 2-6: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0 [ 7419.037927] usb 2-6: Product: T.Flight Stick X [ 7419.037932] usb 2-6: Manufacturer: Thrustmaster [ 7419.051022] input: Thrustmaster T.Flight Stick X as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/usb2/2-6/2-6:1.0/input/input15 [ 7419.051503] hid-generic 0003:044F:B107.0005: input,hidraw1: USB HID v1.00 Gamepad [Thrustmaster T.Flight Stick X] on usb-0000:00:02.0-6/input0 Although I;ve installed jstest, it doesn;t seem to do anything - it keeps complaining about the lack of a file. With evtest, I got: esme@Charbydis ~ $ evtest No device specified, trying to scan all of /dev/input/event* Not running as root, no devices may be available. Available devices: /dev/input/event12: Thrustmaster T.Flight Stick X Select the device event number [0-12]: sudo evtest evtest: Permission denied You do not have access to /dev/input/event0. Try running as root instead. esme@Charbydis ~ $

Whilst I've been using Linux long enough (Mandrake was my first distro) to remember days when one sometimes had top log in as root for some things then switch back to loggin in as a user, it;s been so long since I;ve had to do that that I have frankly forgotten how. I thought sudo gave one the root access one needed anyway. What's particularly puzzling to me is that earlier I was able to get the joystick working with Flightgear fine - I was bodding around some airfields in Californioa in an ultralight and a Mitsubishi A6M with no problems at all. Doesn't that mean that the OS knows the joystick is there? (Added in edit - I had to put HTML break tags to make things more readable! Never had to do that in teh forums before! 8-} )

- - - Updated - - -

I'm unable to locate q file calle d'Player.log'. There is one called KSP.log, but it's huge, and seems to be mostly concerned with loading parts within the game. No mention of joysticks. The only lines that aren't top do with textures or models are at teh beginning which just say:

<br/><br/>

Kerbal Space Program - 1.0.4.0 (LinuxPlayer)

OS: Linux 3.13 LinuxMint 17.1 64bit

CPU: AMD Phenom 9500 Quad-Core Processor (4)

RAM: 5968

GPU: GeForce 8400/PCIe/SSE2 (256MB)

SM: 30 (OpenGL 3.3 [3.3.0 NVIDIA 331.113])

RT Formats: ARGB32, Depth, ARGBHalf, RGB565, ARGB4444, ARGB1555, Default, DefaultHDR, ARGBFloat, RGFloat, RGHalf, RFloat, RHalf, R8

Log started: Sat, Jul 11, 2015 11:41:56

Edited July 11, 2015 by Esme

[steve_v]

Check permissions on /dev/js0 (which is the 'device' argument you would pass to jstest) what file is it missing, exactly?

For evtest, you probably need to either be in the sudoers group or be root. 'su' or 'sudo su' if root login is disabled.

If it works in flightgear, then it's a Unity thing... what's in Player.log?

[Esme]

Durn, something got lost whilst I was trying to format teh above - I can't get JStest to do anything meaningful; it just says that some file is missing, and evtest says I have to run as root, it won;t event let one do anything using sudo. And it;s been so long since I've had to log in as root that I frankly cannot recall how to.

- - - Updated - - -

Just managed to figure oput evtest - it IS working, and doesn;t really need to be run as root, durned silly thing! It;s detetcing pitch, yaw, throttle fine.

The JStest output was:

esme@Charbydis ~ $ jstest

Usage: jstest [<mode>] <device>

Modes:

--normal One-line mode showing immediate status

--old Same as --normal, using 0.x interface

--event Prints events as they come in

--nonblock Same as --event, in nonblocking mode

--select Same as --event, using select() call

esme@Charbydis ~ $ jstest --normal

jstest: No such file or directory

- - - Updated - - -

Where is Player.log? I have been unable to find such a file. KSP.log I cna find, but no player.log

- - - Updated - - -

jstest definiotely not playing cricket :-(

esme@Charbydis ~ $ jstest --normal /devjs0

jstest: No such file or directory

esme@Charbydis ~ $

- - - Updated - - -

/Dev/Input/js0 permissions are greyed out, but read

Owner root: Read & write access

Group: root read & write access

Others: read only

[Esme]

steve-v : many thanks for attempting to help. Looks like it was some kind of transient glitch. On firing KSP up again and trying to set the axes again, this time it has worked. The throttle is only going between 50% and full power at the moment, but I suspect I'll be able to work out what's amiss there eventually.

:-)

[steve_v]

Zero your axes (throttle to 50%) before starting KSP.