getting started with a joystick (gamepad)

[curmudgeon]

I came across a generic (usb) game controller that I decided to try out. I have never used one before on any operation system (or game console, since I don't have any of those :) ).

I spent some time reading through various documentation and howtos, and installed joystick and qjoypad.

The joystick has thirteen buttons, ten of which are recognized (the three that aren't are quite small and labeled turbo, auto, and clear), and two axes (FOUR of which are recognized for some reason). All three programs (joystick, qjoypad, and kde / settings / system settings / input devices / joystick) saw the same thing.

Since many games don't support controllers natively, I wanted to set up a simple profile with qjoypad mapping the buttons to the arrow keys, and the axes to the cursor.

I had no problems with the keys, but when I tried to set up the axes (making the x axis correspond to horizontal movement of the mouse and the y axis correspond to vertical movement of the cursor), I discovered that it moves the cursor to the right whether I press the left or right control, and down whether I press the up or down control. Testing it does show that the device does emit -32767 when the left control is pressed, and +32767 when the right control is pressed, but I don't know why qjoypad is not picking that up.

I am completely clueless when it comes to anything about this type of hardware, and I am hoping that I encounter someone here who can explain what is going on.