Linux gamepad configuration

• Logitech F710 gamepad
  • Standard configuration
  • Advanced configuration with the xpad driver
  • Advanced configuration with the xboxdrv driver
• Bluetooth gamepads

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Nowadays most gamepads will work out of the box with Linux but ocasionally your may run into trouble. Here I will give you some examples about how to test your gamepads and how to connect/associate Bluetooth gamepads. More specific details about gamepad configuration are given in the Kodi, EmulationStation, Retroarch and MAME sections.

Logitech F710 gamepad

Standard configuration

The wireless joystick I have is a Logitech F710. More info and documentation can be found here.

This is the output of dmesg just after the joystick is plugged in (change this to use journald -k -f)

[ 1161.417155] usb 2-1.7: new full-speed USB device number 6 using ehci_hcd
[ 1161.512684] usb 2-1.7: New USB device found, idVendor=046d, idProduct=c22f
[ 1161.512699] usb 2-1.7: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[ 1161.512710] usb 2-1.7: Product: Logicool Cordless RumblePad 2
[ 1161.512721] usb 2-1.7: Manufacturer: Logicool
[ 1161.516099] hid-generic 0003:046D:C22F.0003: hiddev0,hidraw0: USB HID v1.11 Device [Logicool Logicool Cordless RumblePad 2] on usb-0000:00:1d.0-1.7/input0
[ 1161.517662] hid-generic 0003:046D:C22F.0004: hiddev0,hidraw1: USB HID v1.11 Device [Logicool Logicool Cordless RumblePad 2] on usb-0000:00:1d.0-1.7/input1
[ 1177.329515] usb 2-1.7: USB disconnect, device number 6
[ 1177.783171] usb 2-1.7: new full-speed USB device number 7 using ehci_hcd
[ 1177.878820] usb 2-1.7: New USB device found, idVendor=046d, idProduct=c21f
[ 1177.878839] usb 2-1.7: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[ 1177.878888] usb 2-1.7: Product: Wireless Gamepad F710
[ 1177.878899] usb 2-1.7: Manufacturer: Logicool
[ 1177.878908] usb 2-1.7: SerialNumber: 12199EDB
[ 1177.880308] Registered led device: xpad1
[ 1177.880532] input: Generic X-Box pad as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/usb2/2-1/2-1.7/2-1.7:1.0/input/input6

In this case Linux detects this joystick as a Generic X-Box pad. The kernel driver for this Logitech Joystick is xpad.

In Ubuntu and Debian the package joystick provides some console tools to test and calibrate your joystick.

There is also a graphical calibration tool in package jstest-gtk.

Executing:

$ jstest /dev/input/js0

these are the buttons and axis of the joystick (when the MODE LED is off)

Axis name	Description	Button name	Description
Axis 0	Left analog horizontal	Button 00	A
Axis 1	Left analog vertical	Button 01	B
Axis 2	Back left button (L2 trigger)	Button 02	X
Axis 3	Right analog horizontal	Button 03	Y
Axis 4	Right analog vertical	Button 04	Back left (L1)
Axis 5	Back right button (R2 trigger)	Button 05	Back right (R1)
Axis 6	D-pad horizontal (hat)	Button 06	BACK
Axis 7	D-pad vertical (hat)	Button 07	START
					Button 08	Logicool button
					Button 09	Left analog pad center
					Button 10	Right analog pad center

Advanced configuration with the xpad driver

NOTE When I originally wrote this section the F710 gamepad was recognised as a generic gamepad. Modern kernels have support for it and so the triggers_to_buttons options does not work. Check this out.

One interesting thing is to configure L2 and R2 as buttons rather than analog triggers. To do that with xpad, use the module parameter triggers_to_buttons. According to the documentation only works for non recognised XBox joysticks. You can modify the module xpad operation with three parameters:

• dpad_to_buttons Map D-PAD to buttons rather than axes for unknown pads.

• triggers_to_buttons Map triggers to buttons rather than axes for unknown pads.

• sticks_to_null Do not map sticks at all for unknown pads.

Activating the option triggers_to_buttons makes the analog back triggers to behave like buttons and not axis:

$ rmmod xpad
$ modprobe xpad triggers_to_buttons=1

To make this change permanent, create the file /etc/modprobe.d/joystick-F710.conf and insert

# Logitech F710 Wireless joystick
# Make back triggers to behave like buttons and not axes.
options xpad triggers_to_buttons=1

With the triggers_to_buttons option ON, the configuration of the joystick as seen by jstest is now:

Axis name	Description	Button name	Description
Axis 0	Left analog horizontal	Button 00	A
Axis 1	Left analog vertical	Button 01	B
Axis 2	Right analog horizontal	Button 02	X
Axis 3	Right analog vertical	Button 03	Y
Axis 4	D-pad horizontal (hat)	Button 04	Back left (L1)
Axis 5	D-pad vertical (hat)	Button 05	Back right (R1)
		Button 06	Back left trigger (L2)
		Button 07	Back right trigger (R2)
		Button 08	BACK
		Button 09	START
		Button 10	Logicool button
		Button 11	Left analog pad center
		Button 12	Right analog pad center

---

Kernel xpad.c source code

Advanced configuration with the xboxdrv driver

The user space driver xboxdrv has many configuration options and also support button remmaping. xboxdrv can be installed with the package of the same name.

Bluetooth gamepads