How can a gamepad control THE mouse?

There are many questions about this subject:

• Remapping both mouse and keyboard to a gamepad
• How do I configure a joystick or gamepad?
• How to control the mouse pointer via my keyboard?
• ...

But the purpose of these questions/answers is to be able to use the gamepad for playing a game.

I would like a solution to use the gamepad to control THE mouse.
To replace the mouse by the gamepad in all applications.
That way I could control my computer in the living-room from my couch with a wireless gamepad.

Solution 1:

Following Grumbel's answer, I tried *xboxdrv solution with the support of this website and especially this page:

1. Install xboxdrv 0.8.2 from Ubuntu Software Center.

   Install also uinput and joydev if needed. I did it this way:

   sudo modprobe uinput
   sudo modprobe joydev
   

2. Need to know the event of the gamepad:

   Launch udevadm monitor --udev and then plug the game pad:

   $ udevadm monitor --udev
   monitor will print the received events for:
   UDEV - the event which udev sends out after rule processing
   
   UDEV  [6722.377700] add      /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.3/usb5/5-1 (usb)
   UDEV  [6722.383264] add      /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.3/usb5/5-1/5-1:1.0 (usb)
   UDEV  [6722.383333] add      /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.3/usb5/5-1/5-1:1.0/0003:046D:C218.0003 (hid)
   UDEV  [6722.383389] add      /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.3/usb5/5-1/5-1:1.0/0003:046D:C218.0003/hidraw/hidraw1 (hidraw)
   UDEV  [6722.387123] add      /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.3/usb5/5-1/5-1:1.0/input/input10 (input)
   UDEV  [6722.399284] add      /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.3/usb5/5-1/5-1:1.0/input/input10/event8 (input)
   UDEV  [6722.412128] add      /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.3/usb5/5-1/5-1:1.0/input/input10/js0 (input)
   

   I conclude that my gamepad's event is /dev/input/event8

3. Display names of every key, axis, button of the gamepad.

   The idea is to launch xboxdrv and test every button and note the result on paper.

   $ sudo xboxdrv --evdev /dev/input/event8 --evdev-debug
   Your Xbox/Xbox360 controller should now be available as:
   /dev/input/js1
   /dev/input/event9
   Press Ctrl-c to quit, use '--silent' to suppress the event output
   EV_ABS ABS_X 128
   EV_ABS ABS_Y 128
   ...
   

   In my case the result is:

   

4. Set the config file

   Create an xboxdrv-mouse.ini file to set X Y axis and left and right mouse button.

   Here I set gamepad buttons 2 for left mouse button and 3 for right mouse button:

   [xboxdrv]
   evdev=/dev/input/event8
   silent=true
   
   [evdev-absmap]
   ABS_X=x1
   ABS_Y=y1
   
   [ui-axismap]
   x1=REL_X:10
   y1=REL_Y:-10
   
   [evdev-keymap]
   BTN_THUMB=a
   BTN_THUMB2=b
   
   [ui-buttonmap]
   a=BTN_LEFT
   b=BTN_RIGHT
   
   # EOF #
   

   Note that value for REl_X and REL_Y seems to define the speed of the mouse, and by defining a negative value it inverts the axis (see here for REL_Y)

   Another example with more button definition

   [xboxdrv]
   evdev=/dev/input/event8
   silent=true
   
   [evdev-absmap]
   ABS_X=x1
   ABS_Y=y1
   ABS_HAT0X=x2
   ABS_HAT0Y=y2
   
   [ui-axismap]
   x1=REL_X:10
   y1=REL_Y:-10
   x2=KEY_LEFT:KEY_RIGHT
   y2=KEY_DOWN:KEY_UP
   
   [evdev-keymap]
   BTN_TRIGGER=x
   BTN_TOP=y
   BTN_THUMB=a
   BTN_THUMB2=b
   BTN_PINKIE=rt
   BTN_BASE2=rb
   BTN_TOP2=lt
   BTN_BASE=lb
   BTN_BASE3=back
   BTN_BASE4=start
   
   [ui-buttonmap]
   x=KEY_KPENTER
   y=KEY_SPACE
   a=BTN_LEFT
   b=BTN_RIGHT
   rt=KEY_KP8
   rb=KEY_KP2
   lt=KEY_KP6
   lb=KEY_KP4
   back=KEY_LEFTSHIFT
   start=KEY_RIGHTCTRL
   
   # EOF #
   
   

5. Launch it

   sudo xboxdrv --config xboxdrv-mouse.ini
   

   To avoid launching it with sudo, create a udev rule.

CONCLUSION

It works fine, it's the best solution for me.

Solution 2:

Untested on Ubuntu, but this simple recipe works on Debian Jessie (with my iBuffalo classic usb gamepad):

1. Install the right xorg module:

   sudo apt install xserver-xorg-input-joystick
   

2. Restart your display manager (or reboot)

Solution 3:

xboxdrv should be able to do what you want. It requires however a bit of configuration to work with non-Xbox gamepads, something along the lines of (check man-page for details, use --evdev-debug to find out the button and axis names):

#!/bin/sh

xboxdrv \
  --evdev /dev/input/event9 \
  --evdev-absmap ABS_X=X1,ABS_Y=y1 \
  --evdev-absmap ABS_HAT0X=dpad_x,ABS_HAT0Y=dpad_y \
  --evdev-keymap BTN_BASE=LB,BTN_BASE2=RB \
  --evdev-keymap BTN_BASE3=guide,BTN_TOP2=start,BTN_PINKIE=back \
  --evdev-keymap BTN_THUMB=x,BTN_TOP=a,BTN_THUMB2=b,BTN_TRIGGER=y \
  \
 --ui-clear \
  --ui-buttonmap rb=BTN_LEFT,lb=BTN_RIGHT,start=KEY_ESC,back=KEY_F1 \
  --ui-buttonmap a=KEY_SPACE \
  --ui-axismap X1=REL_X:20,Y1=REL_Y:20 \
  --ui-axismap DPAD_X=KEY_A:KEY_D:1,DPAD_Y=KEY_W:KEY_S:1 \
  -s "$@"

# EOF #