Re: G25 + Linux

["D. Ragno" <homerj@icculus.org>]

I never did get all of this to work with a MOMO Racing (black) wheel.
The wheel by itself was ok, however i had combined not separate axis
for the pedals and no FF.

I'd like do some further investigation on the why, I only really
started to look into it, when rFactor and GTR2 started to work in
wine. I think this wheel is acting similar to the G25, starting in a
compatibility mode, and needed commands to set it to native. I'm not
sure if the hardware itself is a single axis for the pedals, with some
separation done in the driver to report two separate ones. I've seen a
patch for a 2.4 kernel to this effect.

If there's some serious work going into better support of the Logitech
loops, I'd like to keep in the loop and contribute. Jean-Philippe
probably has the best overall explanation of it all, as when I was
looking for information, it was sparse at best and conflicting at
worst. Is there someone at Logitech that could offer up some actual
documentation?

2008/5/12 Annick et Jean-Philippe <jpmeuret@free.fr>:
> Hi, all.
>
> For the happy owners of a Logitech G25 wheel that did not manage yet
> to enjoy the full features of the beast under Linux, this is a small
> summary of what I found on the net and my own humble experience about it
> on a 2.6.22.9 Kernel (Mandriva 2008.0 x86_64) :
>
> Note: This is only my own understanding and summarizing of what people cleverer
>      than me discovered by themselves. My work only consisted to put
>      all the stuff together in an as clear, simple and explict as possible
>      sum-up. See at the bottom for references and real authors.
>
> 1) when plugged in, the G25 identies itself as a Logitech Formula Force EX
>   USB device (046d:c294) ; you only get 4 axes and 12 buttons, that is
>   neither clutch pedal nor any of the 3trd to 6th gear on the grid shifter
> 2) to get the lacking native features of the beast, it must be sent a command
>   to switch to its native mode, that makes it disconnect and reconnect
>   as itself this time (USB device ids 046d:c299)
>   Note: Another similar command can also switch it to the Logitech Driving
>         Force Pro mode.
> 3) to send the command, you need a userland tool that basically writes
>   the associated bytes on the USB device, and the one I am using is
>   usbtool <ftp://srv.l14.ru/pub/usbtool-0.1.tar.gz>
>   (the package includes pre-built binaries for python 2.5,
>    and sources if you need to build it yourself) ;
>
>   to swhitch the G25 to its native mode, after plugging it in, I simply use :
>     ./usbtool -v g25-set-extended-mode
>
>   Note: you can also send other pre-configured commands with the usbtool
>         (run ./usbtool --list-commands to see which)
>         like g25-set-range-wheel-900 (teasing ;-)
>   BUT: I never succeeded to send 2 successive commands to the device :
>        the first one is generally OK (sometimes, though, you may need to repeat
>        it), but the second (and following ones) seems to be completely ignored.
>
> 4) but this makes disappear the /dev/jsX and /dev/input/eventY devices !
>   to get them back and be able to play with the G25, I use :
>     sudo rmmod joydev
>     sudo rmmod usbhid
>     sudo modprobe usbhid
>   (man sudo and sudoers to be able to run these root commands)
>
> 5) Then, if you find that the "dead zone" at the center of the wheel
>   is too large (the centered angle where nothing happens when you steer into),
>   it is only beacause you need to calibrate your device.
>   I use jscal (ff-utils @ http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/libff)
>   to do that :
>   a) plug-in the device
>   b) send the native mode-switch command if you like (see above 3)
>   c) jscal -c /dev/jsX (X being 0, 1, ... look which in /dev after plugging-in)
>   d) jstest /dev/jsX (to test if everything fits your desire)
>   e) jscal -p /dev/jsX (to get the jscal command to put in your .bashrc
>      or any script you would run before your favorite games ...)
>
> Note: All this stuff should also work for a Driving Force Pro, and some says
>      that it's also true for the Momo Racing wheels ... but don't tested.
>
> Now, as far as force feedback is concerned, I have no such good news
> for the moment : fftest and ffcstress don't work for me for the moment.
>
> References:
>
> Thanks to avl, eckzow, anrp, thelusiv, tof8pool, synapse247 and cuckoo,
>  on http://vdrift.net forum :
>  http://vdrift.net/Forum/viewtopic.php?t=412&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=60
>  http://vdrift.net/Forum/viewtopic.php?p=3751&highlight=linuxinput#3751
>  ftp://srv.l14.ru/pub/usbtool-0.1.tar.gz
>
> Thanks to Jiri Kosina, Chris Guirl,
>  from the Linux input dev team
>  http://www.mail-archive.com/linux-input@atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz
>  http://www.mail-archive.com/linux-input@vger.kernel.org
> (search "g25" on each list)
>
> Hoping this helps ...
>
> Jean-Philippe.
>
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