How to use joy2key for SIXAXIS joypad (or any really!)

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December 21st, 2007
naivri

How to use joy2key for SIXAXIS joypad (or any really!)

HI there

I´ve recently entered the ubuntu world with my PS3. This is a post I stuck on the PSubuntu forums, but thought I would mirror it here are people are having problems figuring out how to use joy2key

If like me, you hate the way some emulators allow/don´t allow joystick control then this is the post for you !

This is especially relevant if you use a sixaxis joypad. With the sixaxis, the d-pad is recognised as buttons and button0 = the select key ! This is no good for programs that will look at the first 2 axis in you dev/input/js0 and use them for up/down/left/right. Besides, with the amiga, the platformers tended to have up as jump, no good with the sixaxis stick.

eg VICE - c64 emulator, is quite good, left stick for movement, any button (0 through to 19) it will accept as the fire button. UAE however, will only accept button0 as fire, so you have to use left stick and select button as fire button. Unacceptable !

Code:

sudo apt-get install joy2key

then

Code:

joy2key -dev /dev/input/js0 -terminal

It will prompt you

Code:

Calibrating axis 0 Please center the axis and press a button. ?

So just push any button on the pad without touching the stick. It will change to

Code:

Locked at 0 Please move the axis to its lowest position and press a button. ?

Hold the left stick to the left, it will change to

Code:

value: -32767

now hit any button. It will then change to

Code:

Please move the axis to its highest position and press a button. value: 0

do what it says....it will change to

Code:

value: 32767

It will then tell you

Code:

Using deadzone of 50% Calibrations set at: Axis 0 low threshold set at -16383 Axis 0 high threshold set at 16383 (you can put these in your .joy2keyrc to avoid calibrating in the future)

So repeat for axis 1 (up/down on left stick) if you please, but it will tell you the same thing as me so you can do it or just hammer the X button until you reach axis 26 and it give you the ctrl-c to exit prompt.

We are going to keep this info in a config file so u dont have to do it every time.

Code:

nano ~/.joy2keyrc

will open a blank file, paste the following in

Code:

COMMON -X -dev /dev/input/js0 -thresh -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383

ctrl-X to exit, then Y for yes to save.

Thats the basic config file sorted ! Now for the fun bit. Getting joy2key to map a keystroke to the joypad movements.

there are 2 options
-buttons
-axis

now say for instance i had

Code:

-buttons a b c d e f g h i

This would tell joy2key that when i push button0 - send a signal saying a has just been pressed. When i push button1 - send a signal saying b has just been pressed etc
also

Code:

-axis a d w s

would tell it that if axis0 minimum (ie left) is pushed, send the a keystroke and if axis0 maximum (ie right) is pushed, send the d keystroke. If axis 1 minimum (ie up) is pushed then send the w keystroke etc etc

for keys like left control right shift etc, you need the key mappings that X11 uses. there is an app that will tell you that ! ie for UAE, i want the fire button to be right control so i need to know what right control is as a keymap in Xwindows

Code:

xev

will open the even viewer and will display a lot of junk

Code:

PropertyNotify event, serial 18, synthetic NO, window 0x3400001, atom 0x107 (XKLAVIER_STATE), time 4250290198, state PropertyNewValue PropertyNotify event, serial 26, synthetic NO, window 0x3400001, atom 0x12b (_NET_WM_ICON_GEOMETRY), time 4250290327, state PropertyNewValue FocusOut event, serial 27, synthetic NO, window 0x3400001, mode NotifyNormal, detail NotifyNonlinear

just press the key u want to know the keymap for ie right control and it shows

Code:

KeyRelease event, serial 30, synthetic NO, window 0x3400001, root 0x3f, subw 0x0, time 4250341503, (805,386), root:(810,435), state 0x4, keycode 109 (keysym 0xffe4, Control_R), same_screen YES, XLookupString gives 0 bytes: XFilterEvent returns: False

and there is our keymap in the middle Control_R. Use this to find out what any key maps to for use in the config file.

Now, I want to map up/down/left/right on the keyboard to d-pad up/down/left/right. I also want to map right control to the X button. Using the event viewer as described above I find that they are conveniently called Up Down Left Right and Control_R

Last piece in the puzzle is knowing what the buttons all are. If you have jscalibrator, it will show you what the buttons are by trial and error pressing and seeing what button depresses in the window.

Or you could just look at the list below! (for the SIXAXIS pad)
button0 Select
button1 L3
button2 R3
button3 Start
button4 Dpad Up
button5 Dpad Right
button6 Dpad Down
button7 Dpad Left
button8 L2
button9 R2
button10 L1
button11 R1
button12 Triangle
button13 Circle
button14 Cross
button15 Square
button16 PS Button

pain in the neck thing is, you cant tell joy2key to map buttons 4, 5, 6, 7 and 14. Since it runs from the command line it needs something for all the buttons up to the last one you are using.

so our code is

Code:

-buttons r r r r Up Right Down Left r r r r r r Control_R

as you can see, i just mapped r to every button from 0 upwards apart from the one i wanted, starting from button0 !

so from that button 4 is Up on the keyboard (from the arrow keys), button5 is Right, button6 is down & button 7 is left - all from the arrow keys. Lastly button 14 is right control.

So we have now mapped up/down/left/right on the D-pad to the arrow keys and the X button to right control!

as a last measure, we will map the left stick to up down left right as well

Code:

-axis Left Right Up Down

remember the order is -axis axis0min axis0max axis1min axis1max

So lets throw all that in the config file (~/.joy2keyrc). We will put it in a section called uae (as the config lets you have lots of configs for different apps)

Code:

COMMON -X -dev /dev/input/js0 -thresh -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 START uae -X -buttons r r r r Up Right Down Left r r r r r r Control_R -axis Left Right Up Down

you get the format dont you?

i could equally put in more configs for different apps by just starting them

Code:

START appname

save you .joy2keyrc file and you are ready to start

open 2 terminal windows
in one start your app (eg VICE or UAE). So we now have our emu running.

in the 2nd window type

Code:

joy2keyrc -config uae

and it will say

Code:

naivri@localhost:~$ joy2key -config uae joy2key - reads joystick status and dispatches keyboard events By Peter Amstutz (tetron@interreality.org) This is free software under the GNU General Public License (GPL v2) (see COPYING in the joy2key archive) You are welcome to use/modify this code, and please e-mail me if anything cool comes of it! Version: 1.6.1 Binary built on Jan 26 2007 at 17:31:47 Please select a window to send events to

your mouse pointer will change to a cross and just click the window that has your emulator running. It will then change to

Code:

Initialization complete, entering main loop, ^C to exit...

Play away till your heart is content !

Its quite clever, when you close the window of the app/emu you are playing, joy2key will detect it and kill its self!

Any questions, let me know
July 4th, 2008
Nazty_Nayt

Re: How to use joy2key for SIXAXIS joypad (or any really!)

Ok, I'm just lost. I've been trying for a week now to get my PS3 controller (wired) to work with my computer/epsxe emulator, but to know luck at all. I've tried following this guide but this is way over my head.

I got here

Code:

COMMON -X -dev /dev/input/js0 -thresh -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383 -16383 16383

And went to do the a b c d e f , etc.. buttons thing, and when I did that it says command not found. When I do XEV, this little white box pops up with a white box inside that, and it doesn't do anything, I can wave my mouse over it, and a bunch of stuff gets entered into the terminal.

It says push the key you want the map of Ie Right control, so I push the > arrow key, I'm guessing that's what we're going for here, and it gives me the key release log, but I have no idea what I'm supposed to do with it, do I copy it or something? So anyways I guess I'm done so I move on, and do the following code

Code:

-buttons r r r r Up Right Down Left r r r r r r Control_R

In which case like earlier I get the same thing

Code:

bash: -buttons: command not found

I just don't see what I'm missing here, I've read this thing over, and over again, I am thankful though that someone has something on this, cause I've been trying to get this working for weeks now :x Please help me out here, thanks.
November 2nd, 2008
crazyfuturamanoob

Re: How to use joy2key for SIXAXIS joypad (or any really!)

I installed joy2key with synaptic, and I have tested it.
But it doesn't work.

Quote:

arho@ohra-laptop:~$ joy2keyrc -config test
bash: joy2keyrc: command not found
arho@ohra-laptop:~$

What to do?

Edit: The command is joy2key, not joy2keyrc, edit your post. You probably misspelled it.
February 9th, 2009
lernatix

Re: How to use joy2key for SIXAXIS joypad (or any really!)

I really want to use on my Yellow Dog PS3 install,
no I don't expect you to figure that out for me. ;)

However, the idea of having the right control key
for a fire button irritates me almost as much as
having a select button for one.

So, my question. Can a button be re-mapped to
another button?

Code:

ie: -buttons r r r r Up Right Down Left r r r r r r button 1

joy2joy anyone?
July 11th, 2009
kidYojimbo

Re: How to use joy2key for SIXAXIS joypad (or any really!)

hey i've been looking into this as i've wanted to get epsxe going again after leaving windows behind . solution for ubuntu 8.10 and the version of joy2key 1.6.1 some of the commands may have changed , so after i set my sixaxis to just have letters as buttons , the command to run it was

joy2key -rcfile .joy2keyrc

-N
November 5th, 2010
Sonic132

Re: How to use joy2key for SIXAXIS joypad (or any really!)

Sorry for digging through the graveyard. But I'm having some severe issues with calibrating joy2key. I get it set up as a mouse. One stick set to move the pointer and one set to scroll wheel. But I can't seem to set the buttons to do anything.
Anyone have a successful configuration file? If so I could probably just copy and paste it into mine.
If not, anyone know of a working guide?
I really, really appreciate it!

Thanks for taking time to read this.
December 2nd, 2010
starscalling

Re: How to use joy2key for SIXAXIS joypad (or any really!)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sonic132

Sorry for digging through the graveyard. But I'm having some severe issues with calibrating joy2key. I get it set up as a mouse. One stick set to move the pointer and one set to scroll wheel. But I can't seem to set the buttons to do anything.
Anyone have a successful configuration file? If so I could probably just copy and paste it into mine.
If not, anyone know of a working guide?
I really, really appreciate it!

Thanks for taking time to read this.

post that config man
March 25th, 2011
briggsosaurus

Re: How to use joy2key for SIXAXIS joypad (or any really!)

So my ps3 controller use to work directly plugged in, with no problems (on games that supported joysticks) since I've tried to install joy2key and follow these directions, not only did the joy2key fail to recongize my controller, its made it so my controller won't work at all on my computer, but it still works on my ps3. Any clues to why joy2key would whipe out my joypad drivers (I belive)
March 31st, 2011
magnetic651

Re: How to use joy2key for SIXAXIS joypad (or any really!)

I have a problem with this part:

"Last piece in the puzzle is knowing what the buttons all are. If you have jscalibrator, it will show you what the buttons are by trial and error pressing and seeing what button depresses in the window.

Or you could just look at the list below! (for the SIXAXIS pad)
button0 Select
button1 L3
button2 R3
button3 Start
button4 Dpad Up
button5 Dpad Right
button6 Dpad Down
button7 Dpad Left
button8 L2
button9 R2
button10 L1
button11 R1
button12 Triangle
button13 Circle
button14 Cross
button15 Square
button16 PS Button"

How do I figure out the order of my buttons (I have a Logitech F310)?? jscalibrator does not work
March 31st, 2011
magnetic651

Re: How to use joy2key for SIXAXIS joypad (or any really!)

Okay, I got it working, though I still don't know the layout of my buttons!

I have a second controller, what would it show up as in /dev/input ?? It isn't js1

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