How to set up a Sixaxis Controller with QJoypad in Ubuntu

Dualshock 3 Controller with a mini-USB-cable

We are going to connect the Controller via USB, so you make sure your Sixaxis Controller is plugged in with a mini-USB-cable.

First of all we install the joystick Package via

sudo apt-get install joystick

In order to make sure Ubuntu is able to read the Controller input execute

cat /dev/input/js0

Now move the sticks or press some buttons on the Controller. The text output (which is the raw controller data) in your terminal should change.

Qt's logo

QJoyPad, our Linux Xpadder or joy2key equivalent, is based on the Qt framework so we will have to install it as well.

sudo apt-get install libqt4-core  libqt4-dev qt4-dev-tools qt4-designer  qt4-doc

We will also need these packages

sudo apt-get install libxtst6 libxtst-dev

Now comes the more complicated part: Download QJoyPad. Open up a Terminal an execute the following commands in order to extract the source.

cd ~/Downloads
tar xzf qjoypad-4.1.0.tar.gz

compile the source:

cd cd qjoypad-4.1.0/src/
./config
make
sudo make install

QJoyPad will start minimized in the system tray, but Natty doesn't allow every application to show up in the system tray. We will change these settings; execute:

gsettings set com.canonical.Unity.Panel systray-whitelist "['all']"

After logging out and in again or simply restarting unity you will be able to execute qjoypad. Now you can take input from the controller translate it into key strokes or mouse actions. The UI should be self explanatory ;)