PSX gamepad in linux doesn't work (gamecon module)

[BigCletus]

Home-made DB25 connecter made and worked with PSX controller under WinME. I issue this command:

modprobe gamecon gc=0,7

and dmesg reports:

gamecon.c: No PSX controller found.
input0: PSX controller on parport0

lsmod shows:
parport_pc 19076 1 (autoclean)
parport 37056 1 (autoclean) [gamecon parport_pc]

and:
gamecon 7308 0 (unused)
parport 37056 1 (autoclean) [gamecon parport_pc]
input 5856 0 [gamecon keybdev mousedev hid]


I have been searching the web for hours with no luck. I searched the forums as well and found very few info on this topic, one post I found was from myself from over a year ago when I tried getting this to work previously and gave up.

Has anyone successfully been able to get this working? I would really appreciate some info or help. I mainly want to use my playstation pad in Xmame.

Also, if it was working properly, would it get assigned to something like /dev/js0? Or is it different since it is parport not gameport? Thanks for any help.

[BigCletus]

so nobody on here has done this before? Please, any info is helpful.

[BigCletus]

Ok I got it working....kind of. I have to also enter modprobe gamecon js_console=0,7 but it seems i have to unload and reload the gamecon module several times before it begins to work. It is very touchy.

Now the problem is that it slows everything down! Quake 3 crawls with the joystick enabled and so does xmame. It is not even playable it is so slow. How could this happen? It doesnt decrease any performance in windows? Am I doing something wrong? I feel like I am having a conversation with myself. Kinda weird.

[McQuaid]

I am having the same problem. I've used my psx pad in other distros without problems, but with this distro (morphix) it's making games, and video (using joypad support in freevo) very choppy.

Did you find a solution to this problem?

[BigCletus]

Yes, the solution is to ditch the homemade adapter that you spent all that time on and buy a cheap $5 dollar USB to PSX controller adapter. They are all over the place on the web. Someone told me that the parallel port controlers suck in Linux. I believe them.

[McQuaid]

I'm sorry can't agree with that. As I mentioned, this printer port adapter has worked for me in other distros (mandrake 8, 9, JAMD) and it continues to function without problems in windows, so I know it's not like one of the wires or something has come loose.

In previous distros, I had the controller working perfectly in games like epsxe, mame, zsnes etc. I could jump to another distro again, but I've got this one set up the way I like it and would like to resolve this issue instead of just changing distros. But I'm not going to bother with grabbing a usb adapter for something I know there must be a way to resolve.

[BigCletus]

All I am saying is that why bother with it if there is an inexpensive solution by using the USB adapter. Just getting the parrallel port adapter working to begin with was a chore considering how little info there is available on it as far as the syntax is concerned. Let alone working out the speed problems with it. I just didn't want to waste any more of my time with it. If you do find a solution using the parrallel port adapter please post what you did, I would be interested in finding out the secret.

[Grommer]

I'm gonna have to disagree about the USB adapter as well. I have a dual PS/N64 adapter and can pick it up just fine, and it works great in zsnes, but when trying to get it to work in Xmame, or EPSXE, it wont even detect it.

[McQuaid]

Just like to report that the slowdown problems are all gone in linux 2.6.

Now, I just wish they would modify gamecon to support multiple psx pads. The odd time I'll have some friends over and we'll fire up nhl94 in snes for some old school hockey.

Btw, does gamecon support analog psx pads? Mine are digital and might grab one for some games. It says in the readme it supports them but just want to make sure both actually work. For ex, only 1 analog stick works in win98 with the directpadpro dirvers in win98 (but I believe that was fixed in xp).

I wonder how hard it would be to modify gamecon to support multiple console controllers.