Interact Hammerhead FX Game Pads
CONVENTIONS USED

I have recently got my Interact Hammerhead FX USB game pad to work in Linux, and I must say that it was certainly much easier to do than when you try to find the proper drivers for whatever version of Windows you use. This tutorial is specific to the Interact Hammerhead FX, but it should also work for any Interact game pads. Also, I have included the proper step to get your Microsoft Sidewinder to work, although I have no means of testing it. If you know of other game pads and joysticks and the correct module to load, please contact me so I can add it here.

First of all, open a terminal.

Type in su and hit Enter.

Firstly, type in modprobe usb-uhci and hit Enter.

Next, type in modprobe hid and hit Enter.

Now type in modprobe joydev and hit Enter. This will enable joystick devices.

If you are using a SoundBlaster Live! or Audigy sound card, and have the game pad plugged into the gameport instead of the USB port, you must also type in modprobe emu10k1-gp and hit Enter.

Next, type in modprobe interact and hit Enter. This is the driver for Interact devices. If you want to enable Microsoft Sidewinder devices, type in modprobe sidewinder instead.

Now type in exit and hit Enter. This returns you to your user account.

Now type in js_demo and hit Enter to test the game pad or joystick.

If you don't have this program installed, you can get it by installing FlightGear. Note that FlightGear is a large game, so you may want to just skip this step. I would recommend you try something like Tux Racer, as an alternative.

Assuming that this works, and you want to load these drivers at system startup, type in su and hit Enter in the terminal.

Now type in pico /etc/modules and hit Enter.

Now, at the end of the file, add the two modules:

usb-uhci
hid
joydev
interact

Also, add emu10k1-gp to the file if you are using the gameport on the SoundBlaster Live! or the Audigy. You must add it before the line that says interact.

Now you can play your favorite games using your game pad! That is, if they do support game pads. For example, Tux Racer does, but Frozen Bubble doesn't (which is it's only downfall). I looked at the source code, but it's all Perl. If you add game pad support to Frozen Bubble and send me a patch, I'll be forever grateful!

If you have any questions or anything to add to this, let me know!


© D. Olson 2001-2003 -- Originally found on The Mandrake eXPerience