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Configuring Logitech WingMan Force 3D Joystick - Linux?

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Configuring Logitech WingMan Force 3D Joystick - Linux?

Postby redey » Sun May 02, 2021 7:03 pm

Hi all - I'm upgrading a Linux Mint 20.1 MATE 64-bit desktop for a gentleman who also asked me to set up a flight simulator for him. I've heard about FlightGear for years, but this is the first time I've tried getting it working.

Now, the game seems to work fine - I installed it from FlatHub and all is well, and the joystick seems to be working fine except for two issues...

One is...no force feedback? This is also the first time I've set up a joystick on Linux, so I am sure I am missing something there. The Force Feedback isn't really an issue, so if you have any ideas, you can mention those, but the real issue is...

The joystick buttons and axis all seem to work fine EXCEPT the throttle. When using jtest-gtk to calibrate and test the stick, the throttle, even at it's 0% stop, seems to be showing reading at 50% all the time? So, when I am in-game and throttle to 0% for landing, etc...the throttle stays at a minimum of 50% in-game...which....obviously isn't going to fly! (pun intended ;) ) You can see this in the following screenshot:
Image

Now, despite being an old joystick, this is actually brand new in that it has never been used before, so I know it's not an issue with the stick itself.

How would I go about getting the throttle to work correctly so that the 0% stop on the throttle corresponds to 0% in Flightgear?

Cheers and thanks!

EDIT - I see somebody has had a similar problem: viewtopic.php?f=24&t=37819 ? How do I go using different XML files?
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Re: Configuring Logitech WingMan Force 3D Joystick?

Postby Johan G » Mon May 03, 2021 8:26 am

redey wrote:One is...no force feedback? This is also the first time I've set up a joystick on Linux, so I am sure I am missing something there.

Force feedback joysticks are relatively rare, so my guess is that few of developers have had a big enough "itch" for one to get one and add support for them.

redey wrote:The joystick buttons and axis all seem to work fine EXCEPT the throttle. When using jtest-gtk to calibrate and test the stick, the throttle, even at it's 0% stop, seems to be showing reading at 50% all the time?

I saw another mention of someone having issues with pretty much all the axis after upgrading to FlightGear 2020.3.8. This should not be the same issue though as you see the other axis. What version of FlightGear did you install, and if 2020.3.8 maybe you could try 2020.3.6?

Maybe someone could chime in with a better suggestion.
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Re: Configuring Logitech WingMan Force 3D Joystick - Linux?

Postby ludomotico » Mon May 03, 2021 11:15 am

I don't know about this specific joystick, but I can say that some logitech devices don't work correctly if the Logitech game center is not running in Windows. This application is not available for Linux, but the kernel do seem to have a specific module: https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/v4.12/i ... di-devices

Maybe you must
Code: Select all
modprobe adi
before using this joystick?

Regarding force feedback, I'm not aware if FlightGear has any out-of-the-box support to force feedback, even if the relevant OS drivers were loaded. The wiki shows some efforts by using an external application to manage force feedback (https://wiki.flightgear.org/Force_feedback), so I guess FG does not include force feedback in its core. Even if it does, support would be aircraft-specific and I'm not aware of any aircraft with force feedback support.
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Re: Configuring Logitech WingMan Force 3D Joystick - Linux?

Postby tom_nl » Tue May 04, 2021 1:50 pm

I have one of these that I originally bought to use with Flight Simulator 2000 (many years ago). When I got back into simming I then used it with FlightGear on my Mac - it does work as a standard USB stick without the Logitech drivers, and FG has a default profile for it., but I ended up abandoning it for several reasons and went to a non-force feedback stick: An even older, but much better gameport Thrustmaster X fighter that I got second hand for 5 Euros, and then did an Arduino pro micro modification to make it a USB stick. The reasons being:

1) The centring uses the force feedback motors, and they're very imprecise for this compared to springs, so I had to set a massive dead zone to stop the plane wobbling all over the sky.
2) At maximum deflection, it only registers 50% on the axes so had to use multipliers. which had the effect of making '1' worse.

Personally, i'd invest in a good non-force feedback stick as FG doesn't support force feedback to the best of my knowledge.

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Re: Configuring Logitech WingMan Force 3D Joystick - Linux?

Postby Michat » Tue May 04, 2021 5:33 pm

Perhaps he needs to change throttle axis number to linux, at Imput/joystics/Logitech/WingMan Force 3D ?

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