Scrapz_1

[Petemac]

Hey man, did you have any luck looking for that prog for the Nostromo Speedpad? I don't even know where to begin to start getting this thing set up in linux. If you don't have the time to search for it, would you point me in the right direction? Also does anyone else out there have any info on getting this gaming keyboard up and running?

[ScRapZ_1]

I had a really long time trying to get it to work, but alot of the docs I read were based on a non-devfs system so creating certain devices got a bit iffy after awhile. There is no drivers or even a howto to get the speedpad working, but with some careful reasearch, I'm sure it can be done. Heres a brief rundown if you want to give it a go.

There is support for USB Joysticks which is pretty much what the speedpad is, just with a lot more buttons. So (in theory) its possible to get this support up and working, and then map the key events for each button. This will require some trial and error, but should be easy and fairly straight forward.
First and importantly, you need USB support, HID support, and Joystick support compiled either into the kernel, or as modules. After that you need to create the devices that the Joystick (or speedpad in our case) will comminicate with. Then finally, get a program like Joy2key to map the events. You can find a little info here (http://www.linux-usb.org/USB-guide/x194.html), which will also give you some details on getting a USB keyboard working.

Hope you have better luck than me.

TTFN,
Scrapz :p

[Petemac]

I got that speedpad working. In fact it's fairly simple as long as your kernel supports USB. It will auto detect the speedpad as a joystick. At that point you just enable joystick usage in whatever game you're gonna use it in, and you're good to go. Very very easy install. Easier than windows, and the product doesn't even support linux. Go figure lol.

[mvpittman]

So, it's pretty easy to get any joystick working?

I'm a recent Linux convert from Windows, and I've got a CH Products USB stick, throttle, and pedals. I'd love to get them working in Linux.

Are you saying it's as easy as plugging in the stick? Is it hot-swappable, or do I have to boot up with the stick(s) attached?

- Marland

[Petemac]

Almost. You need to type the following commands in to get linux to detect them:

insmod joydev
modprobe joydev

after that, to make sure the joystick(s) are working do:

cat /dev/input/js0
cat /dev/input/js1 (etc.)

When you do that, press a couple buttons. Garble should go across the screen. If it does, it's working. Just go into your game, enable the joystick and play away.

[mvpittman]

I tried the insmod and modprobe commands, but I got this:

bash: insmod: command not found

I'm using RedHat Linux 7.3 on an Intel 845 Board with USB 2.0 ports...Would that make any difference?

- Marland

[bwkaz]

You have to be root to be able to insert (and remove) modules.

In addition, if you're going to be modprobe'ing something, you don't need to insmod it (they do the same thing; the difference is that modprobe checks its database of which module needs which other one inserted, and inserts them all, while insmod only does one at a time). Try just modprobe joydev as root.