Here's the strace:

1) Do you see anything in the DOSBox console about the joystick being recognized? I guess console output is going to stdout and stderr on Linux?

2) Do other SDL-dependent program recognize the joystick?

MiniMax wrote:

1) Do you see anything in the DOSBox console about the joystick being recognized? I guess console output is going to stdout and stderr on Linux?

It says "One joystick reported, initializing with 4axis. Using joystick MOSIC SPEED-LINK Competition Pro with 2 axes, 4 buttons and 0 hat(s)", which is all correct.

EDIT: I should add that setting "2axis" instead of "auto" in dosbox.conf does not help.

2) Do other SDL-dependent program recognize the joystick?

Frozen-Bubble does recognize it, which is SDL based Perl. I don't think I have a binary SDL-based game that supports Joysticks. Do you know one I could test?

Sorry - I don't have, and don't use Linux.

Edit: Some searching and guessing tells me that the SDLMAME thing should do? http://rbelmont.mameworld.info/?page_id=163

can you attach a compiled exe of your sample code ?

Qbix wrote:

can you attach a compiled exe of your sample code ?

Sure, here it is.

MiniMax wrote:

Some searching and guessing tells me that the SDLMAME thing should do?

Thanks for your help! I'll try setting that up when I find some time for it. Might be the week-end.

Works fine here
except pressing a button generates -1 instead of 1

I'm using linux kernel version 2.6.22.1
sdl 1.2.11

Could you try the cvs of dosbox ?

Well, it's BASIC, so TRUE is supposed to be represented as -1 (all bits set).

I'm using kernel 2.6.18.8 and SDL 1.2.11

And I'm running the newest CVS of DOSBox (without any patches), compiled on my own machine yesterday.

Maybe I could try running an official release instead? I'll see if that helps.

Thanks for your help by the way!

try the following:
include/video.h
#define REDUCE_JOYSTICK_POLLING
remove that line and recompile.

I did remove that #define, then I got an error about "numsticks" being undefined in sdl_mapper.cpp, after I fixed this by commenting out "if (numsticks)" (only the if, not the "then" part) it is unfortunately still not working.

However, the strace now shows that /dev/input/js0 is being kept open, and bytes are regularly being read from it, which looks better than before.

When I get around to it I'll try recompiling DOSBox with a pristine SDL-1.2 built from source, I wouldn't be surprised if SuSE has botched their version in some way.

TeaRex wrote:

When I get around to it I'll try recompiling DOSBox with a pristine SDL-1.2 built from source.

Did this now, unfortunately still no improvement.

I'll do some more debugging when I have a bit more time.

Please try it with the 0.70 release sources as well.
I can post some locations where to put LOG_MSGs if you want.

wd wrote:

Please try it with the 0.70 release sources as well.

I tried both 0.70 and 0.71, no improvement. In 0.65 it does work however. Time for a regression hunt in between 0.65 and 0.70 I guess... I don't really have time for this now, as I'm going on vacation tomorrow, but I can try the week after next.

I can post some locations where to put LOG_MSGs if you want.

Might be a good idea.

0.65 polls the joystick using the SDL event loop (that is very often),
0.70 doesn't but directly polls the SDL joystick in larger intervals.

In sdlmain.cpp, GFX_Events() there's the start of the polling, check
that it reaches the block with SDL_JoystickUpdate and that this
function itself is called, too.

In sdl_mapper.cpp, assure that UpdateJoystick() is called (there are
four implementations for the various joysticktype= settings, just one
will be called). See if ActivateJoystickBoundEvents() is called and if
it reaches the SDL_ functions like SDL_JoystickGetButton().

It seems like all of the things you mentioned do indeed get called (except SDL_JoystickGetHats, since my stick has no hats).

Strange...

Ok, try logging the output of the calls to SDL functions like SDL_JoystickGetButton()
and see if they report the respective state correctly. If they don't then
something with the SDL installation/interfacing is off, if they ARE fine then
something in the mapper code doesn't forward them (in this case be sure
there's no mapper.txt around and play a bit with the mapper, like mapping
one of the physical joystick buttons to produce some letters).

wd wrote:

be sure there's no mapper.txt around

😊

There was one, probably very old, and it was the culprit. d'oh!

Thanks for everybody's help!!

Hehe saves some debugging then 😉

Thanks for looking into it though!