Ubuntu – How to a gamepad control THE mouse

joystickmouseremote

There are many questions about this subject:

But the purpose of these questions/answers is to be able to use the gamepad for playing a game.

I would like a solution to use the gamepad to control THE mouse.
To replace the mouse by the gamepad in all applications.
That way I could control my computer in the living-room from my couch with a wireless gamepad.

Best Answer

Following Grumbel's answer, I tried *xboxdrv solution with the support of this website and especially this page:

  1. Install xboxdrv 0.8.2 from Ubuntu Software Center.

    Install also uinput and joydev if needed. I did it this way:

    sudo modprobe uinput
sudo modprobe joydev

  2. Need to know the event of the gamepad:

    Launch udevadm monitor --udev and then plug the game pad:

    $ udevadm monitor --udev
monitor will print the received events for:
UDEV - the event which udev sends out after rule processing

UDEV  [6722.377700] add      /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.3/usb5/5-1 (usb)
UDEV  [6722.383264] add      /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.3/usb5/5-1/5-1:1.0 (usb)
UDEV  [6722.383333] add      /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.3/usb5/5-1/5-1:1.0/0003:046D:C218.0003 (hid)
UDEV  [6722.383389] add      /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.3/usb5/5-1/5-1:1.0/0003:046D:C218.0003/hidraw/hidraw1 (hidraw)
UDEV  [6722.387123] add      /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.3/usb5/5-1/5-1:1.0/input/input10 (input)
UDEV  [6722.399284] add      /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.3/usb5/5-1/5-1:1.0/input/input10/event8 (input)
UDEV  [6722.412128] add      /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.3/usb5/5-1/5-1:1.0/input/input10/js0 (input)

    I conclude that my gamepad's event is /dev/input/event8

  3. Display names of every key, axis, button of the gamepad.

    The idea is to launch xboxdrv and test every button and note the result on paper.

    $ sudo xboxdrv --evdev /dev/input/event8 --evdev-debug
Your Xbox/Xbox360 controller should now be available as:
/dev/input/js1
/dev/input/event9
Press Ctrl-c to quit, use '--silent' to suppress the event output
EV_ABS ABS_X 128
EV_ABS ABS_Y 128
...

    In my case the result is:

    game pad with labels

  4. Set the config file

    Create an xboxdrv-mouse.ini file to set X Y axis and left and right mouse button.

    Here I set gamepad buttons 2 for left mouse button and 3 for right mouse button:

    [xboxdrv]
evdev=/dev/input/event8
silent=true

[evdev-absmap]
ABS_X=x1
ABS_Y=y1

[ui-axismap]
x1=REL_X:10
y1=REL_Y:-10

[evdev-keymap]
BTN_THUMB=a
BTN_THUMB2=b

[ui-buttonmap]
a=BTN_LEFT
b=BTN_RIGHT

# EOF #

    Note that value for REl_X and REL_Y seems to define the speed of the mouse, and by defining a negative value it inverts the axis (see here for REL_Y)

    Another example with more button definition

    [xboxdrv]
evdev=/dev/input/event8
silent=true

[evdev-absmap]
ABS_X=x1
ABS_Y=y1
ABS_HAT0X=x2
ABS_HAT0Y=y2

[ui-axismap]
x1=REL_X:10
y1=REL_Y:-10
x2=KEY_LEFT:KEY_RIGHT
y2=KEY_DOWN:KEY_UP

[evdev-keymap]
BTN_TRIGGER=x
BTN_TOP=y
BTN_THUMB=a
BTN_THUMB2=b
BTN_PINKIE=rt
BTN_BASE2=rb
BTN_TOP2=lt
BTN_BASE=lb
BTN_BASE3=back
BTN_BASE4=start

[ui-buttonmap]
x=KEY_KPENTER
y=KEY_SPACE
a=BTN_LEFT
b=BTN_RIGHT
rt=KEY_KP8
rb=KEY_KP2
lt=KEY_KP6
lb=KEY_KP4
back=KEY_LEFTSHIFT
start=KEY_RIGHTCTRL

# EOF #

  5. Launch it

    sudo xboxdrv --config xboxdrv-mouse.ini

    To avoid launching it with sudo, create a udev rule.

CONCLUSION

It works fine, it's the best solution for me.

Related Question