README.md
1[](https://travis-ci.org/Grumbel/jstest-gtk)
2
3jstest-gtk
4==========
5
6jstest-gtk is a simple joystick tester based on Gtk+. It provides you
7with a list of attached joysticks, a way to display which buttons and
8axis are pressed, a way to remap axis and buttons and a way to
9calibrate your joystick.
10
11You can find the latest version at:
12
13 * http://github.com/Grumbel/jstest-gtk/tree/master
14
15Questions, comments and bug reports can be given to:
16
17 * Ingo Ruhnke <grumbel@gmail.com>
18
19
20Compiling
21---------
22
23Make sure you have the following pieces of software installed (they
24are part of most distributions):
25
26 * cmake
27 * sigc++
28 * gtkmm
29
30You can compile it by typing:
31
32 $ mkdir build
33 $ cd build
34 $ cmake ..
35 $ make
36
37
38Usage
39-----
40
41Once compiled you can start jstest-gtk with:
42
43 $ ./jstest-gtk
44
45or if you know the device you want to test with:
46
47 $ ./jstest-gtk /dev/input/js0
48
49The main window will provide you with a list of currently available
50joysticks. When you double click a joystick it will display the Test
51dialog, allowing you to test buttons and axes on the joystick.
52
53The mapping dialog allows you to reorder the buttons and axis. This is
54useful for example when a game expects the dpad to be on axis 0 and 1,
55while in reality it is often on axis 4 and 5 on a dual-analogstick
56gamepad.
57
58The calibration dialog allows you to manipulate some low level details
59on how the raw axis values are mapped to the joystick device. For
60example you can inverse an axis, disable an axis or remove its
61deadzone, to gain more fine control on small movements. This is
62especially useful as the default calibration values for most joysticks
63give it a far bigger deadzone then needed, thus reducing your ability
64for fine movements.
65
66
67SDL Notes
68---------
69
70Depending on what version and what compilation flags where used, your
71version of SDL might not use the joystick interface at all, but
72instead use the /dev/input/event* device directly. That means that any
73calibration or button/axis mapping will be ignored, as those apply to
74the joystick interface, not evdev.
75
76To work around that you have to set an environment variable that
77forces SDL to use the joystick device:
78
79 $ SDL_JOYSTICK_DEVICE="/dev/input/js0"
80 $ export SDL_JOYSTICK_DEVICE
81
82When you need two or more joysticks this will not work and you might
83need to recompile SDL and disable the evdev support.
84
85More info can be found at:
86
87 * ftp://ptah.lnf.kth.se/pub/misc/sdl-env-vars
88
89`SDL_LINUX_JOYSTICK`:
90 Special joystick configuration string for linux. The format is
91 `name numaxes numhats numballs`
92 where name is the name string of the joystick (possibly in single
93 quotes), and the rest are the number of axes, hats and balls
94 respectively.
95
96`SDL_JOYSTICK_DEVICE`:
97 Joystick device to use in the linux joystick driver, in addition to
98 the usual: `/dev/js*`, `/dev/input/event*`, `/dev/input/js*`
99
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