Xbox 360 Controller in Windows and Linux?


I've had a Gravis controller for several years. It was a nice contoller with two analog sticks and buttons galore but it had one major problem. Its drivers were horrible. I would install the drivers and the contoller would work for a while, but eventually it starts acting up. I'll plug it in but it wouldn't work until I would reboot the computer.

Just recently I bought the new game Marvel Alliance. When I tried to start the game with my Gravis, the game just crashes. To start the game I had to make sure the contoller was not plugged in so I could at least play using the keyboard. This was very hard though. I couldn't easily do a lot of the needed combos. So my search began for a new controller.

The battle was between two. I was looking at the Logitech and the Xbox 360 controller. I went with the Xbox 360 controller because I'd seen that there were drivers for it in Linux. I wasn't able to find anything for the Logitech. I don't have any current games in Linux that would even use the controller, but you never know what might happen in the future.

So, once I decided to buy the Xbox controller the search was then on as to where to buy it from. I'd been looking and then I saw a deal for the wired version for $35 from buy.com. It was labeled as the Xbox 360 contoller for Windows, and said it came with the CD. This was naturally the one I purchased.

A few days later I received it in the mail and opened it up. I then got the drivers installed and plugged in the controller. Naturally it worked, but the question was, would it do the job in Marvel Alliance. Natually, that was the first application I opened to test it out. The game loaded and made it to the main menu. Things were looking good. I went into the setup and chose to use the controller and then I loaded up my game. The game knew the controller and setup all the buttons just like the Xbox 360 version, it even has pictures for the different buttons when navigating the menus. I was quite impressed.

The next day I then started up into Linux, and noticed the controllers light was flashing. It then sparked the interest to see if I could get the controller working in Linux. I did a quick Google search and game across a Ubuntu forum post that references a Gentoo wiki in which they have drivers to compile for the controller. I followed the guide and wholla, I had a working Xbox 360 controller in Linux. Still not sure what good its going to do me, but I'm ready now if any good racing games are released for Linux.

All in all, I'm very happy with my purchase. Its a sturdy controller, the ergonomics are great, and it works for the PC as well as the Xbox 360. Its everything I needed & more.


Drivers in Linux go to:
http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Xbox_360_controller_on_Linux

The Guide on installing them on Ubuntu:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=164040&highlight=xbox+controller

Comments

Anonymous said…
Hi

Nice article you have dude, i'm trying to make the 360 controller work but none of the links you provided work, could you give some advice on how you make it work? thanks.
6/04/2009 10:19 AM
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