A Taste Of Things To Come
Set-up the controller
This is an excerpt of an earlier post.
SIXAXIS needed to be paired with N900. You need to know the BT address of the phone. Go to Settings -> Product information and find out your Bluetooth address: 34:7E:39:4A:37:XX.
Then you need to connect PS3 SIXAXIS to your PC with the USB cable.
Use the sixpair tool. You may compile it yourself
sudo apt-get install libusb-dev wget http://www.pabr.org/sixlinux/sixpair.c gcc sixpair.c -lusb -o sixpair
or just download my precompiled binary.
Next, write your N900 Bluetooth address into your controller:
sudo ./sixpair 34:7E:39:4A:37:XX # your N900 BD address
Windows should download Linux LiveCD and use it to run sixpair.
Install software
Open Web Browser (MicroB) on your N900 and tap the green install arrow:
Usage
- Activate Bluetooth on N900
- Press PS button on controller – this will launch sixad via udev
- Wait for the BT icon to turn blue and sixaxis LEDs stop flashing
- Map keys in your console emulator settings by pressing buttons on controller.
Left stick simulates mouse movement, right stick simulates scroll wheels, directional pad simulates arrow keys and buttons are mapped as on the following picture:
- HAVE FUN!
TIPS
- To disconnect SIXAXIS just turn off Bluetooth on N900
- To re-pair controller with PS3, connect it with USB cable to PS3 and press PS button.
THANKS TO
- gomcoite for inspiration
- falkTX for the SixA daemon
- Cadabena for usefull tip
- Piotr for filming the movie with his N900
- Maemo community for the moral support
- Nokia for creating the greatest pocket microcomputer
I´m practically drooling already :)
man!!! i wish i didnt rush out and buy 2 wiimotes a few days ago.. i dont even have a wii..
Would this work for multi-player SNES…i.e 2 PS3 Controllers?
Doesn’t work! :(
works with up to 7 controllers, the above instructions are a little vague…..
I have no clue what these instruction mean… Any chance of laymans terms?
Hah, fix this for HTC touch pro 2 wm6.5 and il fucking Cry like a baby :D
1. Update the kernel
Get kernel-modules package and dpkg -i it(DO YOU MEAN TYPE THIS IN X-TERMINAL?), or just tap kernel-modules.install from N900 MicroB.
Get zImage-2.6.28-20094803.3+0m5+0hid0 to your workstation (DO YOU MEAN MY PC?) and reflash kernel:
$ sudo flasher-3.5 -f -k zImage-2.6.28-20094803.3+0m5+0hid0 -R2 (X-TERMINAL?). Install XOrg joystick driver
Get xserver-xorg-input-joystick package and dpkg -i it, or just tap xserver-xorg-input-joystick.install from N900 MicroB.
3. Install SixA daemon
Get sixad package and dpkg -i it, or just tap sixad.install from N900 MicroB.
Does this work with the DualShock or only SixAxis?
Dualshock is Sixaxis with added rumble, so yes it does work with Dualshock.
I just bought a Sixaxis. This guide does not seem to work. Any idea when we will get a more complex and complete guide just for the N900 bundled with the sources? Also, some people must be guided through the flashing, since it is, although fairly simple, something non-linuxpeople find a little bit hard to do.
If the whole thing is that simple, how do you start up sixaxisd or sixpair or sixad? The guide should be more specific regarding the end :) The program is showing in the uninstallation menu but checking everywhere (eg /dev/… and /usr/…) I am really out of ideas here.
But nice work. This is just the thing I have been waiting for…
I followed the steps above, I turned the N900 bluetooth on, but the PS3 controller failed to connect with N900… what did I miss there?
I never said this was easy. In fact getting things click took me some time and research. You are expected to know what you are doing before proceeding.
Sources are available as Debian source packages. Just add deb-src lines duplicating the deb lines in /etc/apt/sources.list or get them directly from apt repository pool.
If you do not know what the hell am I talking about, you should not attempt to install these packages on your device. It’s very hard to brick N900, but you may be the (un)lucky one to succeed.
A good place to ask questions and look for help is the Maemo forum: http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=41693
Razi: I forgot to describe the pairing procedure. Please follow the 0 paragraph.
For people using Ubuntu 9.10:
while compiling the sixpair.c (gcc sixpair.c -lusb -o sixpair) you will get an error. Several errors…
You have to use the following:
sudo apt-get install libusb-dev
!!!
If you flash your Kernel you prevent N900 from updating its firmware on it`s own. You will need a computer to do that in the future, so beware.
!!!
For anyone getting a error message using the easy installation this is exactly the issue…
http://wiki.maemo.org/Extras/3rd_Party_Package_Policy
One more message: IT WORKS!!!
Thank you Smoku. Using this guide my Sixaxis Dualshock 3 is working great!
There is absolutely no lag.
It keeps asking me
”
Accept connection with device?
PLAYSTATION(R)3 Controller
”
one time after another. Where could I be wrong?
So by doing this you disable the n900′s internal update OS feature and you have to manually do it using the PC?
I think this needs to be clearly outlined in the guide as if I had done this on my n900 and found out this on a comment afterwards I would have been very pissed
AtteK0: thanks for usefull tips. Added to the guide.
I’ve updated the sixaxis-support package to no longer lock the kernel version. It should install fine now.
Ok. I simplified the installation process to just tapping the green install arrow. :)
Can you please be more clear on your posts… Do we still have to do the set up the controller section before “just tapping the green arrow” or do we bypass the controller seciton and simply only download the package and install?
works great, 1000 thumbs up :)
It worked fine with me! My controller only fails to connect to my ps3… I’ve already put in the Bluetooth adress of the system back into the controller, but does not seems to help. Can someone help me with this problem?
You need to connect your controller to the PS3 with USB cable and press the PS button on the controller.
The controller can be paired with only one device at one time.
Full detailed help here, just for reference.
Mainly for Windows users.
http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p=517534&postcount=220
Fantastic work Tomasz. This is the sort of thing that demonstrates how great a platform the N900 is. I’ve been trying to use a bluetooth mouse with the N900 (my preferred controller for FPS games) and I notice that its config doesn’t exist too well with the sixaxis controller. One needs to ensure the input plugin isn’t disabled in /etc/bluetooth/main.conf for the mouse to work, and is disabled for the sixaxis to work. It’s easy enough to turn this config on or off but it would be nice if there was no need. Also, my attempt to get mouse working isn’t quite there because the response is far too sensitive to be usable. Any ideas?
With desktop Ubuntu Linux BlueZ is enough to have a working PS3 controller (and BT mouse, BT keyboard and you-name-it).
Unfortunately Nokia is trying hard to lock us out of non nokia-blessed hardware and ships castrated Linux/BT stack and we need to patch it with such problematic solutions.
Tomasz,
when I unpack your precompiled binary I get a error (unpacking failed) and when I try to compile it myself I get an error to (“the command “l” of -lusb is unknown).
I use ubuntu. what am I doing wrong? and a third (perhaps stupid question: how do I install sixpair? )
thanks for your help and great work
$ wget http://tomasz.sterna.tv/uploads/2010/02/sixpair.gz
2010-04-21 09:59:49 (558 KB/s) – zapisano `sixpair.gz’ [4485/4485]
$ gzip -d sixpair.gz
$ chmod +x sixpair
$ ./sixpair
No controller found on USB busses.
No problems here…
allright, I am gonna try it tonight Tomasz.
thanks for the help.
damn Tomasz, I am really stupid sometimes….It works fine now!
thanks for the help and forgive me my stupidness (I forgot to connect my laptop with internet :D)
Hey this is cool as hell. Any chance this can get ported for android os? I have a droid and this would be grate for it
The code of sixad is straighforward, so it should be easy to rewrite it for Android for someone with good Android coding skills.
Hi Tomasz,
I installed sixad and sixaxis-support from the application manager, I followed your tutorial by using sixpair to write to the PS3 controller. However, whenever now I try to pair the controller with the n900, i keep getting the following message pop up on the device:
“Accept connection with device?
PLAYSTATION(R)3 Controller”
even when I press “yes’ it keeps popping up multiple times and the controller never pairs..
suggestions?
Read Steven Goacher’s comment.
You need to disable “input” in /etc/bluetooth/main.conf
Thank you very much! I had a blast playing SuperTux with my Sixaxis, it worked right away, without any key mapping config.
Given that it’s very similar, I was wondering if there was any way to pair the PS3 BD remote with the N900, the problem being that it doesn’t have a USB connector? This could be nice, when playing videos on the TV.