recommended joysticks?

float- · Apprentice Joined: 31 Aug 2003 Posts: 174

I just tried X-Plane 8 and I liked it, so now I'm figuring about getting a joystick, but as I've heard there are major problems with joysticks atm.
So what joysticks are known to work well with linux?

I also heard that some joysticks only works with kernels before 2.6.7?!

John5788 · Posted: Sun Jan 02, 2005 7:48 pm Post subject:

im using a logitech dual analog joystick with 2.6.10, works great with zsnes.
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Doogman · Apprentice Joined: 24 Sep 2004 Posts: 242

Eh? The Linux joystick scene seems to be better-than-ever right now. At least everything I have works. I'm running a 2.6.10-ck1n kernel with udev.

For MAME, I recently bought a USB Saitek P880 Dual Analog gamepad. Works great! Highly recommended. The only thing that doesn't work is the "shift" button to provide a second set of functions for each button. It must be a software function in Windows. Anyway, with 10 buttons you still have plenty for MAME. The "digital" button does work, however, so you can easily switch between the D-Pad and the first analog control.

For the "old school" soundcard gameport, I'm still using my trusty old CH Flightstick (at least 12 years old!). Perfectly supported in Linux, hat and all.

Like you, I'm getting into flight sims again, so I have a set of CH USB Pro Pedals on the way. I'm also going to dig into my closet and find my old gameport CH ProPilot yoke. Again, according the driver docs it should be completely supported (2 hats, 6 buttons + throttle) in Linux (didn't try it yet). I thought about purchasing a new CH yoke, but for $100 I think I'll get a bit more use of out my old yoke first.

In about a work I'll let you know how the whole setup works.

wolf31o2 · Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2005 6:34 pm Post subject:

I have 2 joysticks, a Microsoft Sidewinder 3D Pro (gameport) and a Microsoft Sidewinder Precision 2 (usb) and both work in anything I've tried.
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float- · Apprentice Joined: 31 Aug 2003 Posts: 174

I didn't know that you wolf, like Microsoft so much, so you can buy two joysticks from them? and at the same time you only order games from tuxgames :?:

Imek · Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2005 9:44 pm Post subject:

I have a Saitek Cyborg 3D Gold. It's a very good joystick, but I have had a few problems getting it to work with Vendetta Online. I had to find and use the old jscal to calibrate it, as the calibrator that came with libjsw doesn't seem to work with the game. Apart from that, it's flawless.

The Saiteg Cyborg Evo is the predecessor to my joystick - so I assume it'll work just as well - and I've heard nothing but great things about it.
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wolf31o2 · Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2005 11:10 pm Post subject:

float- · Apprentice Joined: 31 Aug 2003 Posts: 174

This may be little off-topic, but when will we see wolf31o2 and the other devs in the GWN ??

EDIT: NO, I'M NOT GAY, I'M JUST A WOLF-FAN!

wolf31o2 · Posted: Wed Jan 05, 2005 6:36 pm Post subject:

For some reason, the GWN seems to favor newer devs than older ones. While I am definitely not one of the old hats, by far, I've been a Gentoo dev since July 2003.

For anyone wanting to meet me, I'll be at Linux World in Boston from February 15th to the 17th.

Anyway, perhaps I'll write up a little "Featured Developer" section of my own, but it looks as if it has not been run in the GWN for quite some time.
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MrSums · Apprentice Joined: 25 May 2003 Posts: 283 Location: UK

MrSums · Apprentice Joined: 25 May 2003 Posts: 283 Location: UK

Sorry, didn't read back far enough - USB doesn't need the driver - and I hadn't enabled the module uhci-hcd, so no USB was being recognised in any event.

All working fine now

Robert
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Doogman · Apprentice Joined: 24 Sep 2004 Posts: 242

As far as recommended joysticks, or perhaps more accurately, HID's for Linux, I have some more to recommend:

CH Pro Pedals USB: These are really good USB rudder pedals made by CH Products. They perform flawlessly in Linux.

Saitek R220 Steering Wheel/ Pedals: An inexpensive but really nice USB steering wheel/pedals combo. Again, they work perfectly when penguin-powered. They are really nice to have now that I have Grand Prix Legends working under WINE. Hmmm, probably something I should write a post about...

As for old-school gameport devices, all the buttons and hats on the CH Flightstick and CH Virtual Pilot Pro are supported by the joystick module when you pass the right arguments.

As for USB joysticks and such, I think the key is to find a device that doesn't require drivers to function in WinXP. Neither of the above USB devices even come with a driver disk.

tzara · n00b Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 5

I'm also a sim freak and also use the USB versions of CH Yoke, CH Combatstick, and CH Pro Pedals. All work more-or-less perfectly with both X-plane and Flightgear, except for some occasional but rare glitches with the hat switch on the Combatstick (sometimes it just doesn't work, haven't figured out why - restarting X-plane solves it so it's probably not a Gentoo/Linux-related thing). Just plug them in and make sure you have your kernel configed for USB and Joysticks. Haven't tried one of their throttle devices yet, but that's next. CH makes the best sim-hardware products that don't cost thousands of dollars, in my opinion.