(Figured I'd make this a new thread to make it easier for search engines to find it in the future. Skip to the last paragraph for the actual solution if you don't care about the commentary.)I've been struggling for about a week to set-up my joystick in X-Plane 10 so I could look around the virtual cockpit with the hatswitch. The problem is that hatswitches are actually axes on joystick hardware, but Windows has been fudging this for years, and the drivers report it as button presses. Linux, on the other hand, reports what it actually is, which is axes, and as far as X-Plane is concerned, there's no way to assign look commands to a hatswitch that reports as an axis. Austin is aware of this idiosyncrasy but has stubbornly refused to address it, and so Linux simmers are left on their own.I've tried several solutions like jhat and joy2key with little success since they're poorly documented command line programs. Then finally I stumbled on QJoyPad which provides an elegant and intuitive GUI interface and makes it a cinch to assign keyboard commands to joystick inputs. I was able to quickly and easily assign my hatswitch to Q, E, R, and F and finally, I can look around the VC using the hatswitch! It's a beautiful thing.

Mountain Man, thanks for the workaround....I have an off topic question. Do you run XPX in both Windows and Linux? I used to dabble with Ubuntu, just wondering if XPX performs better in one or the other?Glen

Mountain Man, thanks for the workaround....I have an off topic question. Do you run XPX in both Windows and Linux? I used to dabble with Ubuntu, just wondering if XPX performs better in one or the other?Glen

My question also, I used to run Ubuntu when I had my Quadro laptop as one of my Opengl games performed way better under Linux vice Windows.

If I remember correctly I was running a dual boot Win7 / Ubuntu when I first got XP9. It's been a while, but I seem to recall that it ran a bit smoother in Ubuntu. I didn't have my Eyefinity setup then with Trackir, and I do remember not being able to get the hat switch to work properly on my Saitek Yoke. Without Trackir the hat switch is a must and I just went back to running Windows. I have no problem running a dual boot again if it runs considerably better in Linux.Glen

I have an off topic question. Do you run XPX in both Windows and Linux? I used to dabble with Ubuntu, just wondering if XPX performs better in one or the other?

As I was trying to solve this issue, I seriously considered giving up on X-Plane in Linux and copied my install over to my Windows 7 drive and found that performance was identical, so it seems equally well optimized for both operating systems (although I did have to disable pixel shaders in Win7 because it rendered all the runways as blue and all the water as bright green). I'm running 64-bit Kubuntu 11.10.Incidentally, simply copying the directory where I had installed X-Plane 10 to Windows proved successful. All I had to do was run the X-Plane updater for Windows, and it pulled in the rest of the files it needed.

As I was trying to solve this issue, I seriously considered giving up on X-Plane in Linux and copied my install over to my Windows 7 drive and found that performance was identical, so it seems equally well optimized for both operating systems (although I did have to disable pixel shaders in Win7 because it rendered all the runways as blue and all the water as bright green).  I'm running 64-bit Kubuntu 11.10.Incidentally, simply copying the directory where I had installed X-Plane 10 to Windows proved successful.  All I had to do was run the X-Plane updater for Windows, and it pulled in the rest of the files it needed.

Just curiousDid you install Ubuntu inside Windows or on a completely separate partition outside of Windows.I heard from someone else that if you installed XP9 on it's own independent partition in Ubuntu, you can can get up to double the fps, but if it's installed in Ubuntu within Windows, performance is roughly the same.Interested to know if it's the same with XP10

Thanks for the feedback,Probably just leave things the way they are then, although messing around with Linux is fun.Glen

Just curiousDid you install Ubuntu inside Windows or on a completely separate partition outside of Windows.I heard from someone else that if you installed XP9 on it's own independent partition in Ubuntu, you can can get up to double the fps, but if it's installed in Ubuntu within Windows, performance is roughly the same.Interested to know if it's the same with XP10

I have Linux and Windows installed on separate drives.

I have Linux and Windows installed on separate drives.

K, thanx!

(Figured I'd make this a new thread to make it easier for search engines to find it in the future. Skip to the last paragraph for the actual solution if you don't care about the commentary.)I've been struggling for about a week to set-up my joystick in X-Plane 10 so I could look around the virtual cockpit with the hatswitch. The problem is that hatswitches are actually axes on joystick hardware, but Windows has been fudging this for years, and the drivers report it as button presses. Linux, on the other hand, reports what it actually is, which is axes, and as far as X-Plane is concerned, there's no way to assign look commands to a hatswitch that reports as an axis. Austin is aware of this idiosyncrasy but has stubbornly refused to address it, and so Linux simmers are left on their own.I've tried several solutions like jhat and joy2key with little success since they're poorly documented command line programs. Then finally I stumbled on QJoyPad which provides an elegant and intuitive GUI interface and makes it a cinch to assign keyboard commands to joystick inputs. I was able to quickly and easily assign my hatswitch to Q, E, R, and F and finally, I can look around the VC using the hatswitch! It's a beautiful thing.

Thanks !I use jhat, but always good to know about another solution. The interface looks nice.Pascal

I heard from someone else that if you installed XP9 on it's own independent partition in Ubuntu, you can can get up to double the fps, but if it's installed in Ubuntu within Windows, performance is roughly the same.

Hi Goran !Performance will be better with GNU/Linux, but I don't think you'll double your FPS. You may get 5% to 15% more FPS, not more. You may only be able to double your FPS if your Windows system is always defragmenting your drive and your anti-virus constantly scanning your file system while you're running X-Plane.Phoronix made a test a few years ago and Windows 7 was even better with low resolutions and low-end graphic boards:http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=linux_windows_part1&num=9I'm not using GNU/Linux because it's faster, I'm using it because it's free software.Happy flying. :(

Hi Goran !Performance will be better with GNU/Linux, but I don't think you'll double your FPS. You may get 5% to 15% more FPS, not more. You may only be able to double your FPS if your Windows system is always defragmenting your drive and your anti-virus constantly scanning your file system while you're running X-Plane.Phoronix made a test a few years ago and Windows 7 was even better with low resolutions and low-end graphic boards:http://www.phoronix....ows_part1&num=9I'm not using GNU/Linux because it's faster, I'm using it because it's free software.Happy flying.

Excellent. Thanks Max. Explains a lot.

good find thanks

I can happily report that this also works with the CH Eclipse Yoke (just got it today... it's awesome!), though curiously, only one of the Eclipse's hatswitches reads as axes. The other one reads as button presses.

I had the same problem and never really liked the approach of representing a joystick as a keyboard, especially if it means I can't use the actual arrow keys on my keyboard for something else (for example moving my "head" instead of turning it). Last weekend I figured out how to use uinput to simulate any kind of input events on Linux (keyboard, mouse, joystick, all of it) and wrote uhat. Works perfectly for me so far, it's very nice to finally have the hat switch working properly.If the solutions above don't work for you, you can try uhat. Right now I'm probably the only user which feels a bit ... lonely. (-:Now I just need to decide if I should upgrade my CPU to get my old framerates back even in cloudy weather... :-)