QStick and the KBStick Joystick Hack
This tool hasn't been updated in 6 years, so I'd think that there would be something better out there by now.
However, I see that the Frugalware Linux distribution includes a package for
KBStick, so in the Frugalware authors' capable judgement it still
has some value.
KBStick needs X Windows extension and test libraries in order to build, so you'll need to be sure they're installed.
If you get build errors you can try searching for packages with names like libxext-dev(el) and
libxtst-dev(el) and installing them to get the needed files.
DAF 7/27/09
KBStick is a little
kludge I wrote in order to use my joystick in Quake3 and other X Windows games
with (at the point I write this) no support for the Linux joystick interface.
KBStick uses the XTest extension to XFree86 to send keyboard messages to the X
Server. Unpacking the KBStick source archive (below) will create a
kbstick/ subdirectory and the source and make files to build the KBStick
executable and the QStick shell script used to run it.
You
can unpack the archive file with a command like:
gunzip -c
kbstick.tar.gz | tar xvf -
You can build KBStick and the
QStick shell script by changing to the kbstick/ subdirectory created when you
unpacked the archive and typing:
make
To run
the program, copy the kbstick executable and the qstick shell script created by
running make in the kbstick/ subdirectory to a directory in your PATH,
then type:
qstick
Requirements
KBStick does not provide the interface Linux
needs to communicate with your joystick; i.e. the joystick driver. A large
number of joysticks are supported by the Linux kernel, a list of which can be
found at:
Vojtech Pavlik's Linux
Joystick Driver page.
You must either rebuild your Linux
kernel to include support for your joystick internally or build the support into
a kernel module.
Version/Updates
- Version 0.80 posted 5-10-03. Correction of improper string manipulation bug. Huge thanks to Dave Maxwell for the professional bug report and debug data. Dave also shared his customized QStick script for Duke3D with a Sidewinder Gamepad.
- Version 0.71 posted 1-19-03. Re-correction of strcat()/strncat() typo/bug. Thanks to Ed Kenny for the bug report.
- Thanks to everyone for the e-mail, suggestions and for trying QStick.
Download QStick
Setup
Setting up a game like Quake3 to use KBStick is
simplicity itself; just run qstick in an X terminal, then run
Quake3, go to the controls configuration, use the mouse to pick which
action you want to configure, then press the joystick axis or button you want to
perfom the action. That's it!
Configuration
The qstick shell script sets up the
environment variables that KBStick reads to assign keyboard codes to presses of
the joystick buttons and movement of the stick itself. The default qstick shell
script sets up shell variables for the X KeyCodes corresponding to the numeric
keypad on the right side of most keyboards, exports the variables to the
environment, then runs kbstick in the background with the default joystick
/dev/js0.
If you wish to assign KeyCodes already set up
in the default qstick shell script to other joystick buttons/axes than thye
already are, just open the script in a text editor and change the what you want
in the assignment part of the shell script.
To change the default
assignment of joystick button #0:
KBS_Button_0=$KP_Home # Sends
Keypad Home/7 (KeyCode 79)
Just change it
to...
KBS_Button_0=$KP_End # Now sends Keypad End/1 (KeyCode
87)
To assign KeyCodes other than those set up by
default you can learn the code for the desired key you want to send by running
the xev application in an X session, pressing the desired key and
reading the KeyCode portion of the message that results (moving the
mouse pointer away from the xev window will prevent any mouse messages
you might get if you move the mouse.) You may then open qstick in a text editor
and assign a shell variable (hopefully with a descriptive name) to the KeyCode
in the first section, then assign the value of the shell variable to a button or
axis:
Semicolon=47 # Assign shell variable the KeyCode of the
semicolon key
...
KBS_Button_0=$Semicolon # Assign the value to
button #0
You can of course simply assign a KeyCode
number value to the KBS variables as well, but I personally can't remember which
of the 102+ KeyCodes go with which keys, so pre-assigning KeyCode values to
shell variables with descriptive names lets me know with a glance into the
qstick file which button or axis corresponds to which keyboard
key.
KBStick and the QStick shell script are the work of David A. Fulgham
Mail to: ( kbstick a#t ditch p#o#i#n#t org )