The Sixaxis emulator supports standard joysticks thanks to the SDL library.
The sixaxis itself is not a standard joystick. This means some ugly patches have to be done to get it work.
It already works fine in usb mode, which makes it usable as-is with the sixaxis emulator, BUT bluetooth mode doesn’t work out of the box.
If you want to use your sixaxis in bluetooth mode, there is an excellent tool called QtSixA. There is a big thread about it in Ubuntu forums.
It turns out that QtSixA (current version is 1.5.0) works fine with the sixaxis emulator 😀
This tool even let you use the motion sensing! This is not supported by the sixaxis emulator… for now 🙂
To install it, from a terminal:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:falk-t-j/qtsixa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install qtsixaThere is a shortcut in menu Applications > Accessories.
The pairing is currently broken, to fix it, just type in a terminal:
sudo mv /usr/bin/sixpair /usr/sbin/sixpair
All buttons and sticks are working with the sixaxis emulator. There is an issue with some ‘analog’ (pressure sensitive) buttons that are not working as axes: square/triangle/circle/cross.
There also is a minor compatibility issue regarding the joystick name which is different in bt mode. The joystick name is used to distinguish joystick models, so that this will require a small patch.
Remember: don’t use the same bluetooth address at the same time! This requires 2 sixaxis (1 turned off, 1 turned on). Or a usb dev board (such as the teensy++) to pair custom bluetooth addresses.