Callibrating a Joystick

Support Gaming
1

Hello there!

I recently decided to give linux gaming another try, killed my Win11 installation, installed Manjaro and here I am.

At the moment I only play X4 Foundations and I just discovered that callibrating a joystick in 2025 is somewhat impossible for me.

X4 seems to use evdev, and I really am at a loss here.
What I tried so far:
Reading the Arch Wiki, which sadly does not say anything about callibrating in 2.2.4 evdev API deadzones and calibration.

I installed evdev-joystick-calibration from Github.
The script runs fine, but I don’t know what to do with the output because I don’t understand the udev rule syntax.

Any help would be appreciated

2

there should be a gamepad calibration option inside steam,
or what you need is something specific to your joystic or game?

sorry i can’t help.

3

I have no experience with joysticks under Linux sry, but uninstall windows before you not warm with Linux, is a really bad experience.

A slow progession (dual boot) is recommend here.

4

You could try jstest-gtk-git from the AUR, which is a graphical tool.

BTW: What is the exact model of the stick?

5

My exact model is a Cyborg 3d USB.
Quote from Arch wiki:
Linux has two different input systems for gamepads – the original Joystick interface and the newer evdev-based interface.
Jstest is for the older Joystick interface.

I do have some 30years of getting warm with linux, just did not use it much for the last years.

6

In this case try evtest-qt by the same guy (Grumbel) who wrote jstest-gtk and check out this website mentioning this tool and the same joystick model:
https://technicallycompetent.com/joysticks-linux-joydev-evdev/

1 Like
7

I “solved” this issue with money and bought a new joystick for my right hand.
Evtest-qt is sadly useless, it only shows stuff, you can’t do anything with it.
The only way to do it is the way fumum posted.
The bad thing is you really need root privileges to calibrate a joystick, because you need to be able to write to evdev.
Good thing I can finaly kick my W11 to wherever it belongs.
Next thing will be GOG and Epic.

1 Like
8

using Linux involves a lot of compromises.
you seem dedicated and preferred to spend a bit instead of going back to windows.
glad you sort it out and “Good luck on the path”.