Provided by: xboxdrv_0.8.5-1ubuntu1_amd64 
NAME
xboxdrv - A Xbox/Xbox360 gamepad driver that works in userspace
SYNOPSIS
xboxdrv [OPTION]... [--] [COMMAND] [ARGUMENTS]
DESCRIPTION
xboxdrv is a driver for Xbox and Xbox360 gamepads. It works by reading the raw data from the controller
with the userspace library libusb and then passes the interpreted data to the kernel via uinput. This al‐
lows xboxdrv to provide regular joystick and event devices, which makes it compatible with all Linux
software.
Aside from the pure driver, xboxdrv also includes a rich set of configuration options that allow you to
tweak the abilities of the virtual input devices that xboxdrv will create. This includes basic button and
axis remapping, as well as more complicated things like mouse and keyboard emulation, auto-fire and
throttle control emulation.
It is also possible for xboxdrv to read input data directly from an event device, this allows the use of
the configurability of xboxdrv on regular PC joysticks, keyboards and mice and thus lets xboxdrv serve a
similar purpose as joy2key. See the option --evdev below for more information.
When a COMMAND is provided xboxdrv will launch that application and be running till that application ex‐
its. This is a convenience function to make it easier to use xboxdrv in wrapper scripts. See the section
[Writing Start-Up Scripts for Games] for more information.
OPTIONS
GENERAL OPTIONS
-h, --help
Display help text and exit.
-V, --version
Print the version number and exit.
-v, --verbose
Print verbose messages.
--debug
Print even more verbose messages then --verbose.
-s, --silent
Do not display controller events on the terminal. For regular use this option should always be
used as output data to the terminal can eat up quite a bit of CPU.
--quiet
Do not display startup text and suppress most other output.
--priority PRIORITY
Possible values for PRIORITY are "normal" and "realtime". Realtime scheduling gives the xboxdrv
process higher priority and thus allows it to function properly even when the machine is under
load.
Note that realtime priority requires running xboxdrv as root, when running xboxdrv as user there
is no way to increase the priority.
This option is deprecated, use chrt(1) instead to achive the same effect.
LIST OPTIONS
--help-led
List possible values for the led.
--help-devices
List supported devices.
--list-supported-devices
List supported devices (used by xboxdrv-daemon.py).
--list-supported-devices-xpad
List supported devices in xpad.c style.
--help-abs
List all allowed EV_ABS symbols.
--help-rel
List all allowed EV_REL symbols.
--help-key
List all allowed EV_KEY symbols.
--help-x11keysym
List all allowed X11 Keysym symbols.
--help-axis
List all allowed XboxAxis symbols.
--help-button
List all allowed XboxButton symbols.
--help-all
List all symbols that can be used in --ui-buttonmap, --ui-axismap, --buttonmap and --axismap. This
option is the same as --help-abs, --help-rel, --help-key, --help-x11keysym, --help-axis and
--help-button.
CONFIG FILE OPTIONS
-c, --config FILE
Reads configuration information from FILE. Configurations from file are handling as if they would
be command line options at the position of --config FILE.
The syntax of FILE is the familiar INI syntax used for many configuration files. Regular key/value
pairs must go into the [xboxdrv] section. '#' and ';' can be used for comments. Key names have
for most part the same name as command line options. Command line options that take a list of in‐
put mappings (--ui-buttonmap, --ui-axismap, --evdev-absmap, ...) can be split of into their own
section for better readability.
The examples/ directory contains some example configuration files.
[xboxdrv]
silent=true
deadzone=6000
dpad-as-button=true
trigger-as-button=true
[ui-axismap]
x2=REL_X:10
y2=REL_Y:-10
x1=KEY_A:KEY_D
y1=KEY_W:KEY_S
[ui-buttonmap]
a=KEY_LEFTSHIFT
b=BTN_C
x=BTN_EXTRA
y=KEY_C
[ui-buttonmap]
lb=BTN_RIGHT
rb=KEY_SPACE
[ui-buttonmap]
lt=KEY_Z
rt=BTN_LEFT
[ui-buttonmap]
dl=KEY_4
dr=KEY_2
du=REL_WHEEL:-1:150
dd=REL_WHEEL:1:150
[ui-buttonmap]
back=KEY_TAB
start=KEY_ESC
# EOF #
--alt-config FILE
A shortcut for writing --next-config --config FILE.
To load multiple configuration options use:
xboxdrv --config first.ini --alt-config second.ini --alt-config third.ini
-o, --option NAME=VALUE
Set an option as if it would come from a config file from the command line.
--write-config FILE
Write an example configuration file to FILE.
DAEMON OPTIONS
-D, --daemon
Run xboxdrv as daemon. If this option is given xboxdrv will listen to udev for USB connection
events and launch driver threads for newly connected controllers.
Configuration options can still be supplied as usual. Note however that xboxdrv when run as dae‐
mon will not create new uinput devices on demand, instead it will only create devices once at
startup for the given configurations and then assign new controllers to these configurations.
While this means xboxdrv can't support an unlimited number of controllers, it also means that
xboxdrv can allow hot plugging even for applications that don't support it themselves, as applica‐
tions will only see the permanent device files, not the controller that xboxdrv will change around
under the hood.
An example configuration that supports three controller would look like this:
xboxdrv --daemon \
# config options for the first controller
--next-controller \
# config options for the second controller
--next-controller
# config options for the third controller
The --match option can be used to limit the controller slots to only those controllers that match
the given RULE and thus be used to assign configurations only to specific controllers.
--detach
Detaches xboxdrv from the current shell, only valid if --daemon is given.
--pid-file FILE
Write the xboxdrv daemon process id to FILE.
--dbus BUS
Set which bus type xboxdrv should connect to. Allowed values for BUS are session, system, disabled
and auto. The default is auto, which will detect the appropriate bus type depending on if xboxdrv
is run as root (system or as user (session). Running with disabled will disable D-Bus support com‐
pletely.
--on-connect EXE
Launches EXE when a controller gets connected. As arguments "BUSDEV:DEVNUM", "idVendor:idProduct",
"NAME are provided.
--on-disconnect EXE
Launches EXE when a controller gets disconnected. As arguments "BUSDEV:DEVNUM", "idVendor:idProd‐
uct", "NAME are provided.
DEVICE OPTIONS
-L, --list-controller
List available controllers on the system.
-i, --id N
Use controller with id N (default: 0), use --list-controller to obtain a list of available con‐
troller.
-w, --wid N
Use wireless controller with wid N (default: 0).
--device-by-path BUS:DEV
Use the controller at BUS:DEV, do not do any automatic scanning. Useful for cases when a con‐
troller isn't known by xboxdrv, but supports one of the given protocols.
--device-by-id VENDOR:PRODUCT
Use device that matches VENDOR:PRODUCT (as returned by lsusb). Useful for cases when a controller
isn't known by xboxdrv, but supports one of the given protocols.
--type TYPE
Ignore autodetection and enforce the controller type. Possible values for TYPE:
• xbox
• xbox-mat
• xbox360
• xbox360-wireless
• xbox360-guitar
• firestorm
• firestorm-vsb
• saitek-p2500
• generic-usb
The generic-usb type is a special type that will work with any USB controller, it will however not inter‐
pret the input it gets, but just dump it to the console for development purposes. See --generic-usb-spec
for further information.
-d, --detach-kernel-driver
Detaches the kernel driver that is currently associated with the given device. This is useful when
you have the xpad module loaded and want to use xboxdrv without unloading it.
--generic-usb-spec NAME=VALUE,...
Allows one to specify from which endpoint generic-usb will read. The spec as the form of NAME=VAL‐
UE,.... Allowed values are:
vid=HEX
The vendor id of the controller to which this spec applies
pid=HEX
The product id of the controller to which this spec applies
if=NUM The interface from which GenericUSBController should be read
ep=NUM The endpoint from which GenericUSBController should be read
EVDEV OPTION
--evdev DEVICE
Allows you to read input data from a regular event device. This allows you to use xboxdrv on regu‐
lar PC joysticks. The data that is read from the event device is converted internally into a
XboxMsg object and then passed through the same configuration pipeline as it would be for a regu‐
lar Xbox360 controller. This allows you to make use of all the regular configurability, but limits
you to the number of axis and buttons that an Xbox360 controller provides.
As a regular PC joystick will most likely already create a /dev/input/jsX device by itself, you
might need to get rid of that so that a game will properly detect the joystick device created by
xboxdrv. The easiest way to accomplish that is to simply delete the old joystick and rename the
device that xboxdrv created to /dev/input/js0. When you use udev, this operation should be harm‐
less and automatically reverse itself when you remove the controller and plug it back in or when
you reboot the computer.
--evdev-debug
The evdev event handler will print all received events to stdout, this makes it easy to see which
events a given controller sends.
--evdev-no-grab
By default the evdev driver will grab the device, thus making it impossible for other applications
to receive events from that device. This is done to avoid confusing applications, as otherwise an
app would receive every event twice, once from the original device and once from the virtual xbox‐
drv one. In some cases this behaviour is undesired, such when mapping only an otherwise unhandled
subset of keys of an device, i.e. mapping the multimedia keys on a keyboard, so this option turns
the grab off.
--evdev-absmap ABSMAP,...
ABSMAP = EVDEV_ABS [ "+", "-" ] "=" XBOXAXIS ;
Sets how evdev events are mapped to Xbox axis events. An example configuration would look like
this:
--evdev-absmap ABS_X=x1,ABS_Y=y1,ABS_RZ=x2,ABS_THROTTLE=y2,ABS_HAT0X=dpad_x,ABS_HAT0Y=dpad_y
xboxdrv will output on startup a full list of event names that the given event device supports and
that can be used in place of EVDEV_ABS.
It is also possible to map half-axis with a command like:
--evdev-absmap ABS_Y+=LT,ABS_Y-=RT
This will map the upward movement of the Y axis to the left trigger and the downward movement to
the right trigger.
--evdev-keymap KEYMAP
Sets how evdev events are mapped to Xbox controller events. An example configuration would look
like this:
--evdev-keymap BTN_TRIGGER=a,BTN_THUMB=b,BTN_THUMB2=x
xboxdrv will output on start a full list of event names that the given event device supports.
STATUS OPTIONS
-l, --led NUM
Set LED status. Possible values for NUM are:
LED Status Codes
Num Behavior
0 off
1 all blinking
2 1/top-left blink, then on
3 2/top-right blink, then on
4 3/bottom-left blink, then on
5 4/bottom-right blink, then on
6 1/top-left on
7 2/top-right on
8 3/bottom-left on
9 4/bottom-right on
10 rotate
11 blink
12 blink slower
13 rotate with two lights
14 blink
15 blink once
--rumble-gain AMOUNT
You can change the rumble strength via:
$ xboxdrv --rumble-gain 50%
Values larger then 100% are possible as well and will amplify small rumble commands, rumble com‐
mands already at the maximum will stay unchanged.
-q, --quit
Exit xboxdrv after setting LED or rumble values.
CHATPAD OPTIONS (EXPERIMENTAL)
Chatpad support is still experimental. Basic keyboard usage will work, there is however currently no sup‐
port for customization or the green and orange key modifiers.
Starting xboxdrv multiple times in a row with the --chatpad option can crash the controller. Unplugging
it and plugging it back in should reset it.
--chatpad
Enables the support for the Xbox360 Chatpad. WARNING: This is preliminary code, it will crash your
gamepad when xboxdrv is started multiple times and won't provide proper keymapping for any of the
umlauts and special characters.
--chatpad-no-init
This will start chatpad support with out sending the init sequence, thus potentially avoiding
crashing the controller if xboxdrv is started multiple times.
--chatpad-debug
Output raw chatpad data to the stdout for debugging purpose.
HEADSET OPTIONS (EXPERIMENTAL, XBOX360 USB ONLY)
Xboxdrv does not support the headset, the options below are for developers only and will dump raw headset
data, not .wav files.
--headset
Enable headset support and dump incoming data to stdout.
--headset-dump FILE
Enable headset support and dump incoming data to FILE.
--headset-play FILE
Enable headset support and send FILE to the headset for playback.
FORCE FEEDBACK
--force-feedback
Enables the standard kernel force feedback interface. It is disabled by default as it causes trou‐
ble with some applications running in Wine.
Since the Xbox360 controller supports just rumble not full force feedback, xboxdrv tries to emu‐
late other effects. This emulation hasn't been tested much and might not always work as expected.
Bug reports and test cases are welcome.
Note that you must close the application that is using force feedback always before you close the
xboxdrv driver, else you might end up with a hanging non-interruptable xboxdrv process that will
require a reboot to get rid of.
When using xboxdrv in daemon mode with multiple controller slots you have to enable force feedback
for each slot separately.
--ff-device DEVICEID
Select to which virtual device the force-feedback callbacks will be connected to, it defaults to
joystick. Other allowed values are mouse, keyboard and any integer number. See --ui-buttonmap for
further information on how device-ids work.
-R, --test-rumble
Pressing LT will move the left rumble motor and pressing RT will move the right one. Rumble motor
strength depends on how hard you press. This is useful for testing the rumble motors.
-r, --rumble L,R
Set the speed for both rumble motors. Values from 0 to 255 are accepted, the default is 0,0.
CONTROLLER SLOT OPTIONS
Controller slots are used when running xboxdrv in daemon mode. Each slot represents a complete con‐
troller configuration. If you want to use multiple controller in daemon mode you have to supply multiple
controller slots.
--controller-slot N
Switches to the controller slot with the number N, numbering starts at zero.
--next-controller
Switches to the next controller slot.
--match RULE,...
Limits a controller slot to devices that match any one of the given rules. Possible match rules
are:
usbid=VENDOR:PRODUCT
Match controllers that have the given USB vendor and product ids.
vendor=VENDOR
Match controllers that have the given USB idVendor.
product=PRODUCT
Match controllers that have the given USB idProduct.
property=PROPERTY:VALUE
Match against an arbitrary udev property, with name PROPERTY and value VALUE.
usbpath=BUS:DEV
Match against the USB path given by BUS and DEV.
usbserial=SERIAL
Match against the USB iSerial number.
--match-group RULE,...
Limits a controller slot to devices that match all of the given rules. Possible match rules are
the same as for --match.
CONFIG SLOT OPTIONS
You can use multiple configurations, called config slots, with your controller. You switch between those
multiple configurations by pressing the Guide button by default, but you can also set another button via
the option --toggle.
--config-slot NUM
Select the config slot NUM.
--next-config
Allows the creation of an alternative uinput configuration to which one can toggle at runtime by
pressing the ui-toggle button (defaults to guide).
$ xboxdrv \
--mouse \
--next-config
--ui-axismap X1=ABS_X,Y1=ABS_Y \
--ui-buttonmap A=JS_0,B=JS_1
The above configuration would install mouse emulation as first configuration and a simple joystick
emulation as second configuration. Allowing toggling between mouse emulation and joystick handling
by pressing the guide button.
Not that --next-config is currently limited to only configurations done with --ui-buttonmap and
--ui-axismap, autofire, throttle emulation, deadzones and all other things can currently not be
switched at runtime.
--toggle XBOXBTN
Sets the button that will be used to toggle between different different configurations. A value of
'void' will disable the toggle button. If no toggle button is specified, the guide button will be
used to toggle between configurations.
CONFIGURATION OPTIONS
--modifier MOD
Add a modifier to the modifier stack, see [Modifier] for a full list of possible modifier.
--timeout MSEC
Specify the number of miliseconds that xboxdrv will wait for events from the controller before
moving on and processing things like auto-fire or relative-axis. Default value is 10, smaller
values will give you a higher resolution auto fire and relative event movement, but will waste
some more CPU.
-b, --buttonmap BUTTON=BUTTON,...
Button remapping is available via the --buttonmap option. If you want to swap button A and B start
with:
$ xboxdrv --buttonmap A=B,B=A
If you want all face buttons send out A button events:
$ xboxdrv --buttonmap B=A,X=A,Y=A
Possible button names are (aliases are in parenthesis):
Button Names
┌───────────────────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Name │ Description │
├───────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ start, back │ start, back buttons │
├───────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ guide │ big X-button in the middle (Xbox360 │
│ │ only) │
├───────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ a(1), b(2), x(3), y(4) │ face buttons │
├───────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ black, white │ black, white buttons (Xbox1 only, │
│ │ mapped to lb, rb on Xbox360) │
├───────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ lb(5), rb(6) │ shoulder buttons (Xbox360 only, │
│ │ mapped to black, white on Xbox1) │
├───────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ lt(7), rt(8) │ analog trigger (needs --trig‐ │
│ │ ger-as-button option) │
├───────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ tl, tr │ pressing the left or right analog │
│ │ stick │
├───────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ du(up), dd(down), dl(left), dr(right) │ dpad directions (needs --dpad-as-but‐ │
│ │ ton option) │
├───────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ green, red, yellow, blue, orange │ guitar buttons │
└───────────────────────────────────────┴───────────────────────────────────────┘
Just like with --ui-buttonmap you can add button filter to each button.
--axismap AXIS=MAPPING,...
Axis remapping is available via --axismap and works the same as button mapping. In addition you
can supply a sign to indicate that an axis should be inverted. So if you want to invert the y1 ax‐
is start with:
$ xboxdrv --axismap -Y1=Y1
If you want to swap the left and right stick start with:
$ xboxdrv --axismap X2=X1,Y2=Y1,X1=X2,Y1=Y2
Possible axis names are: x1, y1, x2, y2, lt, rt
Swaping lt or rt with x1, y1, x2, y2 will not work properly, since their range is different.
Just like with --ui-axismap you can add axis filter to each axis.
MODIFIER PRESET CONFIGURATION OPTIONS
The options in this sections are sortcuts for --modifier options. Unlike --modifier they are not order
depended, but have a predefined order that is used no matter the order in which the options are given.
--autofire BUTTON=FREQUENCY,...
Autofire mapping allows you to let a button automatically fire with a given frequency in milisec‐
onds:
$ xboxdrv --autofire A=250
Combining --autofire with button map allows you to have one button act as autofire while another
one, emitting the same signal, acts normally.
$ xboxdrv --autofire B=250 --buttonmap B=A
--axis-sensitivty AXIS=SENSITIVITY,...
The sensitive of an axis can be adjusted via --axis-sensitivty:
$ xboxdrv --axis-sensitivty X1=-1.0,Y1=-1.0
A value of 0 gives you the default linear sensitivity, values larger then 0 will give you higher
sensitivity, while values smaller then 0 will give you lower sensitivity. Sensitivity values in
the range of [-1, 1] will generally give good results, everything beyond that won't be of much
practical use.
Sensitivity works by applying:
t = 2 ** sensitivity;
pos = (1.0f - (1.0f - pos) ** t) ** (1 / t);
To the value of the axis, this means that both the minimum value and the maximum value of the axis
will always stay the same, just the response inbetween changes.
For a complete freeform way to change the axis response see the Response Curve Filter.
--calibration CALIBRATIONSPEC
If your gamepad for some reason can't reach the maximum value or isn't centered properly you can
fix that via the calibration options:
$ xboxdrv --calibration X2=-32768:0:32767
X2 is the axis name and the three values that follow are min, center and max. Simply insert the
values that jstest reports when your axis is in the respective positions.
You can also use the calibration option if you want to make your joystick more sensitive. A set‐
ting of:
xboxdrv --calibration AXIS=MIN:CENTER:MAX,...
Will cause the joystick device report maximum position when your stick is only moved half the way.
--deadzone NUM
The deadzone is the area at which the sticks do not report any events. The default is zero, which
gives the best sensitifity but might also cause trouble in some games in that the character or
camera might move without moving the stick. To fix this one has to set the value to something
higher:
$ xboxdrv --deadzone 4000
A value of 4000 works quite well for most games.
You can also give the deadzone in percentage:
$ xboxdrv --deadzone 15%
--deadzone-trigger NUM
The left and right trigger have a separate deadzone value which can be specified with:
$ xboxdrv --deadzone-trigger 15%
--dpad-rotation DEGREE
Allows you to rotate the dpad. DEGREE must be a multiple of 45. This can be useful in isometric
games where the playfield itself is rotated, thus a:
xboxdrv --dpad-rotation 45
Will give you controls that are relative to your character instead of your viewpoint.
--four-way-restrictor
The --four-way-restrictor option allows one to limit the movement on both analogsticks to only
four directions (up, down, left, right), the diagonals (up/left, up/right, down/left, down/right)
are filtered out from the output. This option is useful for games such as Tetris, that don't need
diagonals and where you don't want to accidently trigger the down-move while trying to do a
left/right move.
--relative-axis AXIS=NUM,...
The function --relative-axis allows you to change the behaviour of an axis so that your movement
of it moves its value up or down instead of applying it directly. This allows you to simulate
throttle control for flightsim games.
Since the axis might be upside down, you might want to use the --axismap function to reverse it.
$ xboxdrv --relative-axis y2=64000 --axismap -y2=y2
--square-axis
The Xbox360 gamepad, as most other current day gamepads, features a circular movement range, which
restricts the movement so that the distance to the center never gets beyond 1. This means that
when you have the controller at the top/left the value reported is (0.7, 0.7) (i.e. length 1, an‐
gle 45) instead of (1,1). This behaviour is different then most classic PC joysticks, which had a
square range and would report (1,1) when hold in the top/left corner.
Some old games (i.e. mostly DOS stuff) require a square movement range and will not function prop‐
erly with the Xbox360 gamepad. Via the --square-axis option you can work around this issue and di‐
agonals will be reported as (1,1).
UINPUT PRESET CONFIGURATION OPTIONS
The following options are simple shortcuts for common configurations that can be accomplished manually by
using --ui-buttonmap and --ui-axismap.
--trigger-as-button
LT and RT send button instead of axis events
--trigger-as-zaxis
Combine LT and RT to form a zaxis instead
--dpad-as-button
The DPad sends button instead of axis events.
--dpad-only
Both sticks are ignored, only the DPad sends out axis events. Useful for games that might get con‐
fused by additional analog axis. Combining this option with --trigger-as-button is recommend in
most situations.
--guitar
Sets a predefined button and axis mapping for use with guitar controllers. This mainly gets rid of
a few unnecessary buttons and axis not used by a guitar controller.
-m, --mouse
Lets the controller act as a mouse. It is indendical to:
$ xboxdrv \
--dpad-as-button
--deadzone 4000
--trigger-as-zaxis
--axismap "-y2=y2,-trigger=trigger"
--ui-axismap "x1=REL_X:15:20,y1=REL_Y:15:20,y2=REL_WHEEL:5:100,x2=REL_HWHEEL:5:100,trigger=REL_WHEEL:5:100"
--ui-buttonmap "a=BTN_LEFT,b=BTN_RIGHT,x=BTN_MIDDLE,y=KEY_ENTER,rb=KEY_PAGEDOWN,lb=KEY_PAGEUP,"
--ui-buttonmap "dl=KEY_LEFT,dr=KEY_RIGHT,du=KEY_UP,dd=KEY_DOWN,"
--ui-buttonmap "start=KEY_FORWARD,back=KEY_BACK,guide=KEY_ESC,tl=void,tr=void"
You can customize it by the usual means, just make sure that --mouse comes before your customiza‐
tion options on the command line.
Note that if you have your mouse buttons switched you must adjust the above to match your mouse
configuration or the button events will come out wrong.
--mimic-xpad
Causes xboxdrv to use the same axis and button names as the xpad kernel driver for wired Xbox360
controller
--mimic-xpad-wireless
Causes xboxdrv to use the same axis and button names as the xpad kernel driver for wired Xbox360
controller
UINPUT CONFIGURATION OPTIONS
--no-uinput
Do not to start UInput, instead simply read events from the controller, useful for debugging.
--no-extra-devices
By default xboxdrv will allocate multiple uinput devices and sort events to each of them. Thus
mouse related events like BTN_LEFT or REL_X will go to a virtual mouse device, while ABS_X events
would go to a virtual joystick device and KEY_ESC would go to a virtual keyboard device.
This option disables that automatism and all events will go to the same virtual device.
Manual assignment to a specific device (i.e. KEY_ESC@keyboard, BTN_A@joystick, ...) is still pos‐
sible.
--no-extra-events
By default xboxdrv will allocate multiple uinput devices and sort events to each of them. Thus
mouse related events like BTN_LEFT or REL_X will go to a virtual mouse device, while ABS_X events
would go to a virtual joystick device and KEY_ESC would go to a virtual keyboard device.
To make sure sure that a mouse, keyboard or joystick device is properly detected by Xorg, the ker‐
nel or libraries such SDL xboxdrv will insert extra dummy events. For example a mouse device needs
REL_X and REL_Y events to be detected as such, but a configuration that only wants to emulate the
mouse buttons won't provide those, thus xboxdrv will add them automatically. The --no-ex‐
tra-events option will switch this behaviour off.
--device-name NAME
Changes the descriptive name the device will have. This options acts the same as --device-names
CURRENTSLOT.auto=NAME
--device-names TYPE.SLOT=NAME,...
Changes the descriptive name the device will have. TYPE is one of mouse, keyboard, joystick, auto
or a number. SLOT is a slot number or auto. The auto name acts as wild card and matches every‐
thing.
--device-usbid VENDOR:PRODUCT:VERSION:BUS
Changes the vendor, product, version and bus id that the device will have. The last two arguments
are optional. This options acts the same as --device-usbids CURRENTSLOT.auto=VENDOR:PRODUCT:VER‐
SION:BUS
--device-usbids TYPE.SLOT=VENDOR:PRODUCT:VERSION:BUS,...
Changes the vendor, product, version and bus id the device will have. TYPE is one of mouse, key‐
board, joystick, auto or a number. SLOT is a slot number or auto. The auto name acts as wild card
and matches everything.
--ui-clear
Removes all uinput mappings and will leave the driver in a blank state and only map those things
you added yourself. If you only want to get rid of individual buttons you can use the 'void'
event.
--ui-buttonmap UIBUTTONSPEC,...
UIBUTTONSPEC = XBOXBUTTON [ "+" XBOXBUTTON ] [ "^" FILTER ] ... "=" ( RELSPEC | BTNSPEC | EXECSPEC ) ;
RELSPEC = [ DEVICEID "-" ] "REL_" [ ":" [ VALUE ] [ ":" REPEAT ] ] ;
BTNSPEC = [ DEVICEID "-" ] ( ( "BTN_" NAME ) | ( "KEY_" NAME ) ) { "+" BTNSPEC } ;
EXECSPEC = PROGRAM { ":" ARGUMENT } ;
XBOXBUTTON = "a" | "b" | "x" | "y" | "lb" | "rb" | "lt" | "rt" |
"tl" | "tr" | "start" | "select" | "back" | "guide" | "black" | "white" ;
FILTER = "toggle" | "invert" | "autofire" [ ":" RATE ] [ ":" DELAY ] | log [ ":" STRING ] ;
NAME = STRING ;
VALUE = NUMBER ;
REPEAT = NUMBER ;
DEVICEID = NUMBER ;
Allows you to change the event code that is send to the kernel for buttons. The usage is similar
to the normal button mapping, except that the right hand side is an event name from /usr/in‐
clude/linux/input.h. You can use all KEY_ or BTN_ codes for --ui-buttonmap.
If the right hand side is left empty all the supplied filters will be added to the already exist‐
ing button binding instead of a new one.
Aside from the named keys, you can also give the input code directly as number via the syntax
KEY_#NUM.
Instead of the low level KEY_ names, which represent keycodes, you can also use the higher level
X11 keysyms XK_, the keysyms have the advantage that they map directly to the key you expect,
while a KEY_ name gets mangled by the X11 keymap and will often not report what you expect in case
you use a keymap that is different then your keyboard (i.e. dvorak on a qwerty keyboard).
A full list of valid X11 keysyms can be optained with --help-x11keysym.
For joystick buttons there is in addition to the BTN_JOYSTICK, BTN_X, etc. macros the special name
JS_$NUM, which sets the given button to the $NUMS joystick button, i.e.:
$ xboxdrv --ui-clear --ui-buttonmap A=JS_0,B=JS_1
Note that this will only work if no other joystick button ids are in the way.
You can also map a button to a REL_ event. In that case you can supply additional paramaters in
the form of:
$ xboxdrv --ui-buttonmap X=REL_???:VALUE:REPEAT
VALUE gives the value of the event (default: 10)
REPEAT gives the number of milisecond to pass before the event is fired again (default: 5)
The special 'void' event allows you to clear any existing bindings for a given button, which can
be useful in cases when a game only supports a limited number of buttons.
You can also prepend a device_id to the UIBUTTONSPEC which allows you to create multiple uinput
devices. By default 'auto' is assumed as device_id which automatically try to do the right thing,
sending keyboard events to a keyboard device and mouse events to a mouse device. Other possible
values are 'mouse' and 'keyboard'. A device_id of '0' refers to the first joystick device, values
larger then 0 to the second, third, etc.
Note that the 'mouse' and 'keyboard' device_id names do not give you a mouse or keyboard device,
these are just symbolic names for the devices into which xboxdrv will sort events that look like a
mouse or keyboard event. The final determination of which device gets handled as what will be done
by the Kernel or Xorg depending on what events a device provides.
An example configuration making use of device_id would look like this:
xboxdrv -s \
--ui-clear \
--ui-buttonmap A=JS_0@0,B=JS_1@0 --ui-axismap X2=ABS_X@0,Y2=ABS_Y@0
--ui-buttonmap X=JS_0@0,Y=1-JS_1@0 --ui-axismap X2=ABS_X@1,Y2=ABS_Y@1
In this example the left stick creates a joystick device and the right stick creates a separate
joystick device.
When using multiple controller slots you can additionally append the slot id and thus assign
events across controller slot boundaries. The syntax for that is:
BTN_A@{deviceid}.{slotid}
Instead of giving just a single button, it is also possible to give two buttons to --ui-buttonmap
to allow shifting:
xboxdrv -s \
--ui-clear \
--ui-buttonmap A=JS_0,B=JS_1,LB+A=JS_2,LB+B=JS_3
In this example LB acts as shift button, if A is pressed without LB it will send out a JS_0 event,
but if LB is pressed it will send a JS_2 event instead. This allows you to multiply the number of
available buttons on the controller.
See the section KEYBOARD EMULATION below on how to resolve issues with Xorg not detecting the vir‐
tual keyboard that xboxdrv creates.
You can also apply filters to button events:
xboxdrv -s \
--ui-buttonmap A^toggle=JS_0
For documentation on the filters you can apply to events see [Button Filter].
--ui-axismap UIAXISSPEC,...
UIAXISSPEC = [ XBOXBTN "+" ] XBOXAXIS { "^" FILTER } "=" ( RELSPEC | RELREP | KEYSPEC | ABSSPEC ) ;
KEYSPEC = [ "key:" ] "KEY_" NAME ":" "KEY_" NAME ":" THRESHOLD ;
RELSPEC = [ "rel:" ] "REL_" NAME ":" VALUE ":" REPEAT ;
RELREP = "rel-repeat:" "REL_" NAME ":" VALUE ":" REPEAT ;
ABSSPEC = [ "abs:" ] "ABS_" NAME ;
FILTER = ( "calibration" | "cal" ) ":" MIN ":" CENTER ":" MAX |
( "sensitifity" | "sen" ) ":" SENSITIFITY |
( "deadzone" | "dead" ) ":" MIN ":" MAX ":" SMOOTH |
( "relative" | "rel" ) ":" SPEED |
( "responsecurve" | "response" | "resp" ) { ":" VALUE }
XBOXBTN = "a" | "b" | "x" | "y" | "start" | "back" | "guide" | "lb" | "rb" | ...
XBOXAXIS = "x1" | "y1" | "x2" | "y2" | "z" | "lt" | "rt" | "dpad_x" | "dpad_y" ;
VALUE = NUMBER ;
REPEAT = NUMBER ;
THRESHOLD = NUMBER ;
NAME = STRING ;
Similar to --ui-buttonmap this option allows you to change the event code that is send to the ker‐
nel for axes. The events that are available are the same as for --ui-buttonmap.
$ xboxdrv --ui-axismap X1=REL_???:VALUE:REPEAT
VALUE gives the maximum value of the event, the actual value that gets send is VALUE * axis_state.
(default: 10)
REPEAT gives the number of milisecond to pass before the event is fired again (default: 5).
The value of -1 has a special meaning, it will result in the REL event being fired as soon as pos‐
sible (i.e. every timeout miliseconds). This is the recomment way for handling mouse emulation,
as it will keep REL events syncronized and thus avoid jaggies in the movement, that will result
from manually specifying a timeout.
$ xboxdrv --ui-axismap X1=KEY_UP:KEY_DOWN:THRESHOLD
KEY_UP gives the keycode to be send when the axis is moved up
KEY_DOWN gives the keycode to be send when the axis is moved down
THRESHOLD gives the threshold that triggers the sending of an event
Just like --ui-buttonmap, you can also use shift keys in place of the XBOXAXIS:
$ xboxdrv --ui-axismap X1=ABS_X,LB+X1=ABS_RX
This allows you to send ABS_X events normally and ABS_RX events when the LB button is held down.
For information on how to use axis filters, see [Axis Filter].
INPUT EVENT HANDLER
Input event handler decide what comes out of the virtual input devices that xboxdrv creates. They for ex‐
ample decide that when button A is pressed on a gamepad, that a virtual keyboard will emit a press of the
space key.
Furthermore input event handler can also perform some basic transformation of the input signals, thus a
joystick can be used to send WASD keys.
BUTTON EVENT HANDLER
A button event handler decides what happens when a button is pressed, it needs to be specified with the
--ui-buttonmap option. The example below shows the simplest use case:
$ xboxdrv --ui-buttonmap A=key:KEY_A
Here key is the name of the button event handler, while KEY_A is an argument for the event handler. What
kind of arguments an event handler allows depends on the event handler.
There is also a shorthand form of specifying event handlers by just writing:
$ xboxdrv --ui-buttonmap A=KEY_A
Here no handler is specified explicitly, if that is the case, the appropriate handler will be guessed
based on the event type. EV_KEY events will be handled by the key handler, EV_REL by the rel handler and
EV_ABS by the abs handler.
key:KEY_EVENT, key:KEY_EVENT:KEY_EVENT:HOLD_THRESHOLD_MSEC
The key handler is the most basic one, it maps a button directly to a virtual key or another but‐
ton.
If additional arguments are supplied the button will be able to send out two different events. The
first event specified will be send when the button is clicked normally, while the second event
will be send in case the button is hold down for the time specified in HOLD_THRESHOLD_MSEC.
An example for the hold button would look like:
xboxdrv \
--ui-buttonmap A=JS_0:JS_1:500
This will send JS_0 events when the button is pressed and switch to JS_1 events when the button
was hold for 500 miliseconds.
The hold button feature is useful to effectly double the number of available buttons, thus the
dpad can for example be used to send out eight different button events instead of just four, which
is enough to handle weapons in most FPS games.
abs not yet implemented
rel:REL_EVENT:VALUE:REPEAT
The rel handler will send out a REL event whenever the button is pressed. VALUE gives the value of
the event that will be send, while REPEAT gives the number of miliseconds till the event will be
send again.
A typical use for REL events is emulation of the scroll wheel of a mouse, an example configuration
would be:
xboxdrv \
--ui-buttonmap Y=rel:REL_WHEEL:1:500,A=rel:REL_WHEEL:-1:500
Here Y will scroll up and A will scroll down.
cycle-key:KEY_EVENT:...
The cycle-key handler will switch the KEY_EVENT that gets send with each button press. This is
useful in situations where a range of buttons should be mapped to a single key. For example a FPS
might have weapons mapped from 1 to 6, but only a single key on the gamepad is free, thus one
could write:
xboxdrv \
--ui-buttonmap A=cycle-key:KEY_1:KEY_2:KEY_3:KEY_4:KEY_5:KEY_6
cycle-key-named:NAME:KEY_EVENT:...
The cycle-key-named handler works exactly like the cycle-key handler, except that a name has to be
supplied for the cycle sequence. The name of the sequence is used by cycle-key-ref to access the
sequence and reuse it for another button.
In this simple example A is used to toggle through all weapon keys forward, while B is used to
toggle the keys backwards:
xboxdrv \
--ui-buttonmap A=cycle-key-named:weapons:KEY_1:KEY_2:KEY_3:KEY_4,B=cycle-key-ref:weapons
cycle-key-ref:NAME:DIRECTION, sequence-key-ref:NAME:DIRECTION
The cycle-key-ref handler will access and reuse the named cycle keysequence given by NAME. If DI‐
RECTION can either be 'forward' or 'backward', if no direction is supplied it will default to
'backward'.
See cycle-key-named for a full example.
sequence-key-named:NAME:KEY_EVENT:...
The sequence-key-named works exactly the same as the cycle-key-named, with the only difference be‐
ing that the sequence-key-named will not wrap around when reaching the beginning or end of the se‐
quence.
This behaviour is useful in flight simulations or other games where thrusters might be con‐
trollered by numeric keys and it wouldn't make much sense to jump from zero to full thrust in one
go.
To move backwards through the sequence another key must be bound to sequence-key-ref.
exec The exec button handler allows one to launch an application when the button was pressed. An exam‐
ple would look like this:
xboxdrv \
--ui-buttonmap A=exec:/home/juser/local/bin/screenshot.sh
Possible uses for the button are the ability to do screenshots or perform other tasks that are
outside the main application you are using xboxdrv with.
macro A button can be bound to a macro via:
xboxdrv \
--ui-buttonmap A=macro:/home/juser/.xboxdrv/somefile.macro
The .macro file has the form of:
send KEY_LEFTSHIFT 1
wait 500
send KEY_LEFTSHIFT 0
All abs, rel and key events can be send from a macro file.
AXIS EVENT HANDLER
Axis event handler decide what happens when an axis is moved. Like button event handler they come in
different forms and like button event handler they provide a shortcut form. EV_KEY events will be handled
by the key handler, EV_REL by the rel handler and EV_ABS by the abs handler.
abs:ABS_EVENT
The abs handler is the simplest of them all, it will simply send out the value it gets as input as
the given ABS_EVENT event to the kernel. Thus a basic configuration to make the left stick behave
as joystick would look like this:
xboxdrv \
--ui-axismap X1=abs:ABS_X,Y1=abs:ABS_Y
key:KEY_UP:KEY_DOWN:THRESHOLD
KEY_UP gives the keycode to be send when the axis is moved up
KEY_DOWN gives the keycode to be send when the axis is moved down
THRESHOLD gives the threshold that triggers the sending of an event
Just like --ui-buttonmap, you can also use shift keys in place of the XBOXAXIS:
$ xboxdrv --ui-axismap X1=ABS_X,LB+X1=ABS_RX
This allows you to send ABS_X events normally and ABS_RX events when the LB button is held down.
rel:REL_EVENT:VALUE:REPEAT
VALUE gives the maximum value of the event, the actual value that gets send is VALUE * axis_state.
(default: 10)
REPEAT gives the number of milisecond to pass before the event is fired again (default: 5).
The value of -1 has a special meaning, it will result in the REL event being fired as soon as pos‐
sible (i.e. every timeout miliseconds). This is the recomment way for handling mouse emulation,
as it will keep REL events syncronized and thus avoid jaggies in the movement, that will result
from manually specifying a timeout.
The rel handler is mainly useful for mouse pointer emulation, if you want to emulate a mouse
scroll wheel use the rel-repeat handler instead.
rel-repeat:REL_EVENT:VALUE:REPEAT
The rel-repeat handler is similar to the rel handler, but optimized for emulating the scroll wheel
of a mouse.
VALUE isn't scaled to how far the axis has moved, instead it is constant, instead the time given
in REPEAT is scaled according to the axis movement. Thus the further the stick is moved, the more
events will be send.
The need for both rel-repeat and rel arises from the fact that Xorg converts scroll wheel movement
to button presses before they are handed to an application, thus an application never properly
sees the changes in VALUE, by scaling REPEAT instead that problem is worked around.
INPUT FILTER
Input filter allow to manipulate the events that come from the controller. They can be used on --button‐
map, --axismap, --ui-buttonmap and --ui-axismap. The difference between the two is that the --ui-... ver‐
sions applies to the uinput events, while the other version applies to Xbox360 controller events.
BUTTON FILTER
tog, toggle
The toggle filter will turn the button into a toggle button, clicking the button will set it to
pressed state and pressing it again will unpress it. Useful for games where you might want to per‐
manently run or duck without holding the button pressed.
inv, invert
The invert filter will keep the button in pressed state when it is not pressed and in unpressed
state when it is pressed.
auto, autofire:RATE:DELAY
The autofire filter allows one to repeatedly send button press events when the button is held
down. It takes two optional parameters:
RATE is the number of miliseconds between button press events.
DELAY the amount of miliseconds till the autofire will start, before that delay the button will
act as normal.
click-press
The click-press filter will transmit a single button click when the button is pressed.
click-release
The click-release filter will transmit a single button click when the button is released.
click-both
The click-both filter will transmit a single button click when the button is pressed and another
one when it is released.
const:VALUE
The const filter will ignore the input signal and send a constant value to the output. This can be
used for example in combination with multiple configurations to signal a game or another applica‐
tion which configuration is currently active.
delay:TIME
A button has to be held down for TIME miliseconds before it will emit an event, press events
shorter then that will be ignored.
log:STRING
The log filter will output everything to stdout that goes through it to, this is useful for debug‐
ging the filter. A STRING can be provided as parameter that will be outputed before the event.
AXIS FILTER
cal, calibration:MIN:CENTER:MAX
See --calibration.
sen, sensitivity:SENSITIVITY
See --axis-sensitivity.
dead, deadzone:VALUE, deadzone:MIN:CENTER:MAX
Deadzone filter applies a deadzone to the current axis. If only MIN is provided, the parameter
will be interpreted as -MIN:MIN:1. If the argument is 1, smooth filtering will be applied so that
the end of the deadzone is 0. Setting the argument to 0 will apply a simple cut-off filter, where
all events smaller then the threshold are ignored.
rel, relative:SPEED
See --relative-axis.
resp, response:VALUES:...
The response curve filter allows you to completely change the way an axis reacts. The filter takes
a list of VALUES that are then linearly interpolated and spread across the full range of the axis.
An example would look like this:
xboxdrv \
--ui-axismap x1^resp:-32768:-4000:0:4000:32767
Here the X1 axis is manipulated so that it will have a lower sensitivity in the center and a high‐
er one on the outside.
const:VALUE
The const filter will ignore the input signal and send a constant value to the output. This can be
used for example in combination with multiple configurations to signal a game or another applica‐
tion which configuration is currently active.
log:STRING
The log filter will output everything to stdout that goes through it to, this is useful for debug‐
ging the filter. A STRING can be provided as parameter that will be outputed before the event.
MODIFIER
While button and axis filter only apply to a single axis or button at a time, modifiers apply to the com‐
plete controller at once and can thus be used to perform modifications that require input from multiple
axis or buttons. Most of the modifiers explained below replicate functionality provided by regular op‐
tions, but allow more fine tuning, such as limiting the effects to a single analog stick instead of just
applyig it to all. Note that modifiers are applied one after the other, so order is important.
dpad-rotate=DEGREE
See --dpad-rotation.
dpad-restrictor=RESTRICTON
Restricts the dpad movement, values for RESTRICTON can be:
x-axis: only allow movement in the X axis
y-axis: only allow movement in the Y axis
fourway: allow movement in X and Y axis, but filter out diagonals
4wayrest, four-way-restrictor=XAXIS:YAXIS
See --four-way-restrictor.
square, square-axis=XAXIS:YAXIS
See --square-axis.
rotate=XAXIS:YAXIS:DEGREE:MIRROR
Rotates the stick given by XAXIS and YAXIS by DEGREE and optionally MIRRORS it.
stat, statistic
The statistic modifier doesn't actually modify anything, instead it collects statistics on the
controller, such as how many times a button has been pressed. The results of the collections will
be displayed on shutdown of xboxdrv.
Note that the stat modifier is part of the modifier stack, thus to get correct results you must
make sure that it comes first in the stack when it should work on real events and not be confused
by auto-fire or similar modifications.
RUNNING XBOXDRV
USING A SINGLE CONTROLLER
Plug in your Xbox360 gamepad and then unload the xpad driver via:
$ rmmod xpad
If you want to permanently unload it add the following line to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf:
blacklist xpad
Next you have to load the uinput kernel module which allows userspace programs to create virtual input
devices and the joydev module handles the /dev/input/jsX devices:
$ modprobe uinput
$ modprobe joydev
You also have to make sure that you have access rights to /dev/input/uinput, either add yourself to the
appropriate group, adjust the permissions or run xboxdrv as root.
Once ensured that xpad is out of the way and everything is in place start the userspace driver with:
$ xboxdrv
Or in case you don't have the necessary rights (being in group root should often be enough) start the
driver as root via:
$ sudo xboxdrv
This will create /dev/input/js0 and allow you to access the gamepad from any game. To exit the driver
press Ctrl-c.
By default xboxdrv will echo all controller events to the console, this makes it easy to see if things
are properly working, but will eat a lot of CPU, thus it is strongly recomment to disabled that output
with the --silent option.
The trigger buttons are handled by xboxdrv normally as axis, giving you analog feedback, while this re‐
produces the Xbox360 controller the most accurately, it will confuse many and only be useful in a few,
racing games mainly. So in the majority of cases it is recomment to change the triggers to regular but‐
tons via:
$ xboxdrv --trigger-as-button
USING MULTIPLE CONTROLLER
If you want to use multiple wired controllers you need to start multiple instances of the xboxdrv driver
and append the -i argument to select the appropriate controller like this:
$ xboxdrv -i 1
If you have multiple wireless controller you need to start multiple instances of the xboxdrv driver and
append the --wid option like this:
$ xboxdrv --wid 1
You have to sync the wireless controller as usual.
To see a list of all the controllers that xboxdrv detects being connected to your system use:
$ xboxdrv --list-controller
HOTPLUGGING AND XBOXDRV DAEMON
To allow hotplugging of gamepads xboxdrv has to be run in daemon mode. This is accomplished with the
--daemon option:
$ xboxdrv --daemon
When launched in daemon mode xboxdrv will listen to udev events and thus be notified whenever a new USB
device gets plugged into the computer. It will then match that device against its list of supported de‐
vices and launch a separate thread to handle that gamepad.
Note that xboxdrv will not allow an arbitrary large number of controllers to be used in that mode, it can
only handle as many controllers as you have allocated controller slots at startup. New slots can be allo‐
cated with --next-controller and by default one slot is always allocated, thus to support three con‐
troller you would run it with:
$ xboxdrv --daemon --next-controller --next-controller
Each controller slot can be configured individually and you can limit which gamepad gets assigned to
which slot with the --match option.
Note that xboxdrv will create the virtual uinput devices on startup, not when a gamepad gets plugged in,
this allows one to plug in gamepads even after a game or an application like XBMC has already been
launched and still have it all function properly.
In daemon mode xboxdrv can be detached from the current shell via --detach, to get a handle on it to kill
it you can write its pid via the --pid-file:
$ sudo xboxdrv --daemon --detach --pid-file /var/run/xboxdrv.pid
XBOXDRV DAEMON DBUS INTERFACE
When Xboxdrv is run as daemon it will export some API functions via D-Bus, thus allowing to make configu‐
ration changes at runtime. The D-Bus interface can be accessed either by the numerous language bindings
provided or via the generic command line tool dbus-send or by the more userfriendly xboxdrvctl tool. Ex‐
amples below are given for the raw dbus-send.
Introspection is provided via the usual means:
dbus-send --session --type=method_call --print-reply \
--dest=org.seul.Xboxdrv /org/seul/Xboxdrv org.freedesktop.DBus.Introspectable.Introspect
dbus-send --session --type=method_call --print-reply \
--dest=org.seul.Xboxdrv /org/seul/Xboxdrv/ControllerSlots/0 org.freedesktop.DBus.Introspectable.Introspect
dbus-send --session --type=method_call --print-reply \
--dest=org.seul.Xboxdrv /org/seul/Xboxdrv/Daemon org.freedesktop.DBus.Introspectable.Introspect
Status information on available slots, configuration and active controllers can be obtained via:
dbus-send \
--session --type=method_call --print-reply \
--dest=org.seul.Xboxdrv /org/seul/Xboxdrv/Daemon org.seul.Xboxdrv.Daemon.Status
Setting the LED on controller 0 can be done via:
dbus-send --session --type=method_call --print-reply \
--dest=org.seul.Xboxdrv /org/seul/Xboxdrv/ControllerSlots/0 org.seul.Xboxdrv.Controller.SetLed int32:4
Setting the rumble motors on controller 0 can be done via:
dbus-send --session --type=method_call --print-reply \
--dest=org.seul.Xboxdrv /org/seul/Xboxdrv/ControllerSlots/0 org.seul.Xboxdrv.Controller.SetRumble int32:255 int32:255
Setting a specific controller slot configuration, just as --toggle BTN allows, can be done with:
dbus-send --session --type=method_call --print-reply \
--dest=org.seul.Xboxdrv /org/seul/Xboxdrv/ControllerSlots/0 org.seul.Xboxdrv.Controller.SetConfig int32:2
TESTING
Knowing how to test a xboxdrv configuration is absolutely crucial in understanding what is wrong in a
given setup. Testing the configuration in a game is most often not helpful, since you won't see the true
cause beyond endless layers of abstraction between you and the actual events. Luckily there are a few
tools you can use to test, all of these are command line based and it is recomment that you get familiar
with them when you want to do any more complex configuration.
EVTEST
evtest lets you read raw input events from /dev/input/eventX. The event devices are the very core of all
event handling, things like the joystick devices are derived from the event device, so if you want to fix
some issue on the joystick device, you have to fix the event device.
evtest is available in the tools/ directory or as part of your distribution in the package evtest. your
distribution.
JSTEST
jstest lets you read the output out of a joystick event device (/dev/input/js0).
jstest is available in the tools/ directory or as part of your distribution joystick.
SDL-JSTEST
sdl-jstest lets you see events as games using SDL see them. This is very important when you want to set
and test the SDL_LINUX_JOYSTICK environment variables.
It is currently available via:
$ svn co svn://svn.berlios.de/windstille/trunk/sdl-jstest
Or from the same Ubuntu PPA that also contains xboxdrv in the package sdl-jstest.
XEV
xev lets you see the events that Xorg sees. Note however that you might not see all events, since some
will be grapped by your Window manager before they reach xev, this is normal.
xev is part of every Linux distribution, on Ubuntu its available via:
$ apt-get install x11-utils
JSCALC AND JSCALIBRATOR
Both of these tools lets you calibrate your gamepad, however with pretty much all current gamepads this
is no longer needed and actually harmful as it might overwrite a perfectly good working configuration
with a broken one (unplugging the gamepad or a reboot will fix that). So avoid them unless you clearly
understand the issues of using them.
If your gamepad produces incorrect data and you do want to calibrate it you might want to check out the
option --calibration, which lets you tweak the way xboxdrv interprets your gamepad data.
MOUSE
No tools for testing the output on /dev/input/mouseX are known.
NOTE
If the tools provide no output at all, this might not be due to a wrong configuration, but due to Xorg
grabbing your event device and locking it, see Xorg section for possible fixes.
EXAMPLES
The configurations below are just a few random examples, further examples can be found in the examples/
directory of the xboxdrv source tree or in /usr/share/doc/xboxdrv/examples/.
TURNING TRIGGERS INTO BUTTONS
By default xboxdrv will handle the trigger as analog axis, not buttons, while this is beneficial for rac‐
ing games, it will confuse many other games, thus xboxdrv provides an easy way to change the handling in‐
to buttons via the --trigger-as-button option:
$ xboxdrv --trigger-as-button
CONFIGURE A DEADZONE
Many gamepads don't center exactly at zero, but at random values around it. This 'noise' can confuse some
games and is thus be best filtered out, this can be accomplished with:
$ xboxdrv --deadzone 25%
The percentance is the amount of noise that will get filtered out, you can also give raw device values if
you leave out the % sign. If you want to have a deadzone only on a specific axis you have to use axis
filter:
$ xboxdrv --buttonmap X1^deadzone:15000
KEYBOARD EMULATION
The following configuration will cause xboxdrv to emulate a keyboard, which can be useful for games that
are played with keyboard, like Flash games or games that don't support a joystick. Since different games
use different keyboard keys you might have to adjust the keybindings to fit the game:
$ xboxdrv \
--ui-clear \
--ui-buttonmap a=XK_a,b=XK_b,x=XK_x,y=XK_y \
--ui-buttonmap dl=XK_Left,dr=XK_Right,du=XK_Up,dd=XK_Down
FIGHTING GAMES:
In this configuration the left and right trigger get turned into digital buttons. All axis except the
dpad are ignored. RB and RT are mapped to act as if buttons 1,2 and 3 are pressed simultaniously which is
useful for some special attacks. Instead of using the native button names, the 1,2,3,... aliases are
used, which makes things a little easier to read:
$ xboxdrv \
--dpad-only \
--trigger-as-button \
--buttonmap lb=1,x=2,y=3,lt=4,a=5,b=6 \
--buttonmap rb=1,rb=2,rb=3 \
--buttonmap rt=4,rt=5,rt=6
CH FLIGHTSTICK EMULATION IN DOSBOX:
In dosbox.conf set:
[joystick]
joysticktype = ch
Start xboxdrv with:
$ xboxdrv -s \
--trigger-as-zaxis --square-axis \
--relative-axis y2=64000 --axismap -y2=x2,x2=y2
Your right analog stick will act as trottle control, the trigger as rudder. Using --modifier to install a
four-way restrictor might also be worth a consideration to not accidently touch the throttle when the
rudder is moved.
USING MOUSE EMULATION AND JOYSTICK AT THE SAME TIME
To use mouse emulation and joystick at the same time you have to register two configuration with xboxdrv,
this works via:
$ xboxdrv --next-config --mouse
The --next-config option will open up a second configuration and all configuration options on the right
side of it will go there, while everything on the left side of it will go into the first configuration.
Toggling between the configurations works with the guide button, you can have as many configuratios as
you want.
MAPPING EVERY BUTTON MULTIPLE
Some games might require more buttons then your gamepad has, in those situation it can be useful to map a
button twice by using shifted buttons:
$ xboxdrv \
--ui-clear \
--ui-axismap X1=ABS_X,Y1=ABS_Y \
--ui-buttonmap a=JS_0,b=JS_1,x=JS_2,y=JS_3 \
--ui-buttonmap lb+a=JS_4,lb+b=JS_5,lb+x=JS_6,lb+y=JS_7 \
--ui-buttonmap rb+a=JS_8,rb+b=JS_9,rb+x=JS_10,rb+y=JS_11
.fi
Here all face buttons are get mapped three times, once when
pressed normally, once when pressed while LB is held down and
once when RB is held down, thus given you for the six buttons
12 virtual ones.
SAUERBRATEN
First analogstick gets mapped te cursor keys, second analogstick gets mapped to mouse. Note: This is just
an incomplete example, not a perfectly playable configuration, you have to do tweaking yourself.
$ xboxdrv \
--ui-axismap x2=REL_X:10,y2=REL_Y:-10,x1=KEY_LEFT:KEY_RIGHT,y1=KEY_UP:KEY_DOWN \
--ui-buttonmap a=BTN_RIGHT,b=BTN_LEFT,x=BTN_EXTRA \
--ui-buttonmap rb=KEY_5,lb=KEY_6,lt=BTN_LEFT,rt=BTN_RIGHT \
--ui-buttonmap y=KEY_ENTER,dl=KEY_4,dr=KEY_2,du=KEY_1,dd=KEY_3,back=KEY_TAB,start=KEY_ESC \
-s --deadzone 6000 --dpad-as-button --trigger-as-button
WARSOW
Note: This is just an incomplete example, not a perfectly playable configuration, you have to do tweaking
yourself.
$ xboxdrv \
--ui-axismap x2=REL_X:10,y2=REL_Y:-10,x1=KEY_A:KEY_D,y1=KEY_W:KEY_S \
--ui-buttonmap a=KEY_LEFTSHIFT,b=BTN_C,x=BTN_EXTRA,y=KEY_C \
--ui-buttonmap lb=BTN_RIGHT,rb=KEY_SPACE \
--ui-buttonmap lt=KEY_Z,rt=BTN_LEFT \
--ui-buttonmap dl=KEY_4,dr=KEY_2,du=REL_WHEEL:-1:150,dd=REL_WHEEL:1:150 \
--ui-buttonmap back=KEY_TAB,start=KEY_ESC \
-s --deadzone 6000 --dpad-as-button --trigger-as-button
WRITING START-UP SCRIPTS FOR GAMES
When you want full game specific configurability and automatic launching of xboxdrv, it is easiest to
write little startup scripts for your games that will launch xboxdrv, launch your game and then when the
game is finished tear down xboxdrv:
#!/bin/sh
exec xboxdrv \
--trigger-as-button -s \
-- \
your_favorite_game
# EOF #
Here your_favorite_game is the executable of your game and is passed to xboxdrv as last argument. This
will cause xboxdrv to start the game and keep running as long as the game is running, when the game is
done, xboxdrv will quit automatically.
If you want to pass parameters to the game you have to add a -- separator, as otherwise your options to
the game would be eaten up by xboxdrv.
SDL NOTES
To let SDL know which axis act as a hat and which act as normal axis you have to set an environment vari‐
able:
$ SDL_LINUX_JOYSTICK="'Xbox Gamepad (userspace driver)' 6 1 0"
$ export SDL_LINUX_JOYSTICK
You might also need in addition use this (depends on the way SDL was compiled):
$ SDL_JOYSTICK_DEVICE="/dev/input/js0"
$ export SDL_JOYSTICK_DEVICE
This will let the DPad act as Hat in SDL based application. For many games the driver will work without
this, but especially in Dosbox this variable is very important.
If you use options in xboxdrv that change the number of axis you have to adjust the variable accordingly,
see:
• ⟨ftp://ptah.lnf.kth.se/pub/misc/sdl-env-vars⟩
SDL_LINUX_JOYSTICK
Special joystick configuration string for linux. The format is "name numaxes numhats numballs" where
name is the name string of the joystick (possibly in single quotes), and the rest are the number of ax‐
es, hats and balls respectively.
SDL_JOYSTICK_DEVICE
Joystick device to use in the linux joystick driver, in addition to the usual: /dev/js*, /dev/in‐
put/event*, /dev/input/js*
TROUBLESHOOTING
"NO XBOX OR XBOX360 CONTROLLER FOUND"
This means that either your controller isn't plugged in or is not recognized by the driver. To fix this
you need to know the idVendor and the idProduct numbers, which you can find out via:
$ lsusb -v
Once done you can try to add them to this array in src/xpad_device.cpp:
XPadDevice xpad_devices[] = { ... }
If you have success with that, send a patch to <grumbel@gmail.com>, if not, contact me too, I might be
able to provide additional help.
As an alternative you can also use the --device and --type option to enforce a USB device as well as a
controller type an bypass any auto detection.
"UNKNOWN DATA: BYTES: 3 DATA: ..."
This means that your controller is sending data that isn't understood by the driver. If your controller
still works, you can just ignore it, the Xbox360 controller seems to send out useless data every now and
then. If your controller does not work and you get plenty of those lines when you move the sticks or
press buttons it means that your controller talks an un-understood protocol and some reverse enginiering
is required. Contact <grumbel@gmail.com> and include the output of:
$ lsusb -v
Along with all the "Unknown data" lines you get.
"ERROR: NO STUITABLE UINPUT DEVICE FOUND"
Make sure that uinput and joydev kernel modules are loaded. Make sure that you have a /dev/input/uinput,
/dev/uinput or /dev/misc/uinput and permissions to access it.
Before reporting this as a bug make sure you have tested if the driver itself works with:
$ xboxdrv --no-uinput -v
THE WIRELESS CONTROLLER DOESN'T WORK
You have to sync the controller befor it can be used, restart of the driver isn't needed and the driver
should let you now when it recieves a connection after you sync the controller.
KEYBOARD EMULATION
When you try to let xboxdrv send a keyboard events via --ui-buttonmap or --ui-axismap Xorg must register
the device as keyboard device to work properly. This seems to work automatically when you bind more then
two keyboard keys, if you bind less you need to create the file /etc/hal/fdi/preprobe/xboxdrv.fdi con‐
taining:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<deviceinfo version="0.2">
<device>
<match key="input.product" string="Xbox Gamepad (userspace driver) - Keyboard Emulation">
<addset key="info.capabilities" type="strlist">input.keys</addset>
</match>
</device>
</deviceinfo>
This will tell HAL and later Xorg that xboxdrv acts as keyboard.
WACOM ISSUES
In some older kernels a Wacom graphic tablet creates a joystick device, so xboxdrv or any other real joy‐
sticks ends up as /dev/input/js1 instead of /dev/input/js0. In many games this causes the joystick to not
function any more.
A temporary workaround for this is to simply delete the joystick device js0 and replace it with a symbol‐
ic link js1 via:
$ sudo ln -sf /dev/input/js1 /dev/input/js0
This workaround will only last till the next reboot, since the device names are dynamically created, but
for the time being there doesn't seem to any other way to easily work around this issue.
In newer kernels this issue is fixed.
UINPUT ISSUES
On Ubuntu 9.04 the permissions of the uinput device have changed to 0640, meaning only root has access to
the device. To change this back so that users in the group root have access the device and in turn can
run xboxdrv without sudo you have to create a file called /etc/udev/rules.d/55-permissions-uinput.rules
with the content:
KERNEL=="uinput", MODE="0660", GROUP="root"
WINE ISSUES
When using the Xbox360 gamepad in Wine it is not specially handled as Xbox360 gamepad, but as generic Di‐
rectInput gamepad. This means games will not display the proper button labels, but just numbers (i.e.
'Btn1' instead of 'A' for example). Aside from that it should work fine.
XInput support (the Microsoft DirectInput replacment, not the Xorg xinput) is as of January 2011 not im‐
plemented in Wine, so games that require XInput and don't have an DirectInput fallback will not work with
a Xbox360 controller, unofficial patches however do exist.
XORG ISSUES
If you start xboxdrv and instead of having a fully working joystick, you end up controlling the mouse
that might be due to recent changes in Xorg and its device hotplug handling. There are four workarounds,
the one that involves editing /etc/hal/fdi/policy/preferences.fdi is the recommont one.
TEMPORARY WORKAROUND USING HAL-DEVICE
Get the device id from hal:
$ hal-find-by-property --key 'info.product' --string 'Xbox Gamepad (userspace driver)'
Then remove the device from hal with:
$ hal-device -r $DEVICEID
TEMPORARY WORKAROUND USING XINPUT
Second workaround works with xinput:
$ xinput list
$ xinput set-int-prop $DEVICEID 'Device Enabled' 32 0
PERMANENT WORKAROUND USING .FDI FILES
The former two workarounds are just temporary and have to be redone after each start of xboxdrv, the last
workaround is a permanent one:
You have to edit:
/etc/hal/fdi/policy/preferences.fdi
And insert the following lines:
<match key="input.product" string="Xbox Gamepad (userspace driver)">
<remove key="input.x11_driver" />
</match>
PERMANENT WORKAROUND BY DISABLING DEVICE AUTO DETECTION
A fourth workaround involved disabling the autodetection of Xorg completely, you can do that by adding
the following lines to /etc/X11/xorg.conf:
Section "ServerFlags"
Option "AutoAddDevices" "False"
EndSection
Note that without auto detection you will have to manually configure all your mice and keyboards or your
Xorg Server won't start up properly. So unless you are already familiar with editing Xorg you better
avoid this workaround. Workaround 3) has basically the same effect, except that auto detection only gets
disabled for the single device it is causing problems.
FORCE FEEDBACK PROGRAMMING
For documentation on the FF interface see:
• ⟨http://github.com/github/linux-2.6/blob/f3b8436ad9a8ad36b3c9fa1fe030c7f38e5d3d0b/Documentation/in‐
put/ff.txt⟩
• /usr/include/linux/input.h
Additional, non Linux related, force feedback related information can be found at:
• ⟨http://www.immersion.com/developer/downloads/ImmFundamentals/HTML/⟩
• ⟨http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb219655(VS.85).aspx⟩
fftest is an application you can use to test the force feedback interface.
Force feedback is disabed by default since it causes trouble in certain application. "Tomb Raider: Leg‐
end" for example when run in Wine crashes at startup when rumble is enabled, while it works perfectly
normal when rumble is disabled.
BUGS
X11 KEYSYM ISSUES
X11 keysyms might not work correctly in --ui-buttonmap a=XK_Foobar when Foobar is mapped to multiple key‐
codes in the keymap.
Workaround: Use KEY_ instead or cleanup your keymap
Newer versions of Xorg will also do perform some auto configuration that might lead to your keymap being
switched whenever a new keyboard is detected, in cases of custom Xmodmaps this might confuse xboxdrv and
make the XK_ style names unusable. No workaround for that is known right now.
NON-INTERRUPTABLE PROCESSES DUE TO FORCE FEEDBACK
Force feedback support is brittle, if you Ctrl-c the driver in the wrong moment you will end up with a
dead uninterruptable process and basically have to reboot. This looks like it might be a kernel issue and
not a xboxdrv one.
Workaround: Kill the app that uses xboxdrv before xboxdrv itself.
QUESTIONS, BUG REPORTS AND FEATURE REQUESTS
Bug reports and feature request can be report to the xboxdrv issue tracker at:
⟨https://github.com/Grumbel/xboxdrv/issues/new⟩
General questions and requests for configuration help should be directed to the xboxdrv mailing list at:
⟨http://groups.google.com/group/xboxdrv⟩
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2010-2011 Ingo Ruhnke <grumbel@gmail.com> License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later ⟨http://
gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html⟩ . This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is
NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
SEE ALSO
xboxdrvctl(1), evtest(1), jstest(1), jstest-gtk(1), xev(1), fftest(1), lsusb(1)
0.8.3 2011-07-20 xboxdrv (1)