Found a howto on setting up ePSXe! It only covers v. 1.5.2, but it's very detailed:
http://www.linux-gamers.net/modules/...p?articleid=20

megaman, I'm also using a psx to usb converter for my emulating Do you have a 1 player or 2 player converter? what emulators are you using this on

Hi johnson_steve!

I have a very old Rockfire adapter. I think it's a pioneer, because the drivers included with it does not even work with WinXP (I mean, no forcefeedback, all the rest is just fine, including both analogs), nor I ever could find a driver for it to work with XP (no problems under Win2K though). I use it with the emus I use the most: zsnes, gens and ePSXe. To get it to work with ePSXe in Linux, you will need an external plugin. I'm using "ammoQ's padJoy Joy Device Driver 0.8". It's also an older driver. Looks like newer padJoy plugins has better support for the analogs, but I never gave it a try =).

The truth is, if your joypad is recognized by Linux and the emulator in question supports joypad/sticks, it should always work ^_^

mine is a two player unit but to linux it apairs as one joystick with lots of axis and buttons. do you know of anything that might be able to remap this as 2? it works fine with mupen64 both controllers. I haven't tried any psx emulators yet but I'll take a look at epsxe. Works in snes9x and gens (only the first controller) but under gens it is unplayable with the analog stick but works with the d-pad I got this same kind of erratic behavior from the analog stick when I tried to use joy2key (this is the same problem with 3 different controllers) have you had anything like this? I'm not sure how to set up force-feedback or if the emulators I use support it. is there a way to test and see if it works?

Well, I have the exact same problem, well, almost ^_^. I also happen to have a cable that can split the joystick port into two ports, so you can connect two joypad/sticks(non-USB) at the same time. The problem is exactly as you said, Linux sees it only as one device (js0) with lots of axes. I've no idea how to fix that.

If I, however, connect two pads on two different USB ports (or one at the joypad port and one at the USB port) Linux sees two different devices without a problem (thus js0 and js1). Weird =)

I never could get force feedback either to work with Linux, either from the joystick port on my Audigy 2 or through USB. I wonder if these kind of devices are supported in Linux =(

Megaman:
I have built my system for gaming. I have recently decided to try out linux. I have the FC4 cd's and have had nothing but heartache. I have to turn acpi off and then hook my monitor into the onboard card. Is there anything you can tell me that might help. I keep getting errors that say it could be a hardware issue at the endof my installs.
System:
2.4Ghz Celeron
1G PC2100
333mhz fsb
2x80 G Seagate hds
1xdvdrw+- Cyberhome 16x dual layer
1xcdrw 48x HP
SBlive sound card
Geforcefx 5200 with 256mb ram

I have had no problems with windows running my hardware, but I would like to switch to linux soon.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Cobra08t!

That's a very difficult question. Especially because you have a nice, standard system which should work fine with Linux, out of the box. I don't know about Fedora Core 4, but Fedora Core 3 was one of my biggest nightmares with Linux yet. Also, Fedora Core 4 is pretty new, so bugs must be fixed, I guess.

I have one suggestion though. For your monitor problem, see if you can disable the onboard video card from your bios (I don't remember doing that on my PC, but I did, disabled the onboard sound card). Maybe Linux is trying to use the onboard video card as the default display(?).

I would highly suggest you to try another distribution though. At least until FC4 matures a bit ^_^. Perhaps Ubuntu? It's just one CD and I found it very nice to play with. If you are low in bandwidth, you can even orders free CD's and free shipping at Ubuntu's homepage.

Also, keep in mind that, if you are going to use this machine _only_ as a gaming system, things can get tricky, especially if you are one of those gamers that wants to play always the latest and greatest around. Very few games works with Linux. There're few native ones, some that will work with Cedega, others with Wine and there're also a few Installers around that can give you some boost.

At the end, for gaming only, nothing beats a Windows machine, for now. We might (hopefully) change that perspective soon.

Good luck!

hey thanks. I started out with the onboard video off. I had to turn it off to be able to install. I am downloading Ubuntu and Mandrake 10.1 as we speak. I will give them a try tonight.hopefully one of them works. I want to game with Linux because I really would rather not upgrade untill Longhorn comes out, and my friend told me that linux runs faster. I would like to use some of my games at full potential, like FarCry and Painkiller. Will they work will Wine?

You're welcome ^_^. I never used Wine for gaming. Well, I tried, but did not like. Love Cedega, however. There's a site called Unofficial TransGaming Wiki. There you can search the database to check if your game is supported by Cedega.

http://digital-conquest.ath.cx/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Painkiller seems untested:

http://digital-conquest.ath.cx/wiki/...le_Out_of_Hell

While FarCry seems to be working pretty bad:

http://digital-conquest.ath.cx/wiki/index.php/Far_Cry

As you can see, these are the kind of troubles you will face when trying to run Windows games in Linux. It either won't work fully or won't work at all, with few exceptions. I've also noticed that a few games that are Linux native, runs better in Linux then Windows, such as Neverwinter Nights (runs perfectly, except for the Full-motion videos between chapters), Doom 3 or Unreal Tournament 2k4.

Again, for gaming, WinXP all the way ^_^. The only reason I would use Linux as a gaming box is:

- I will run only emulators (such as Mame, Snes, Nes, etc) or
- The games I play have native Linux ports, such as Enemy Territory, Unreal and Nevewinter Nights.

I don't want to discourage you, but I found gaming in Linux not worth the hassle. I'm moving back to use Windows as my primary desktop OS(not only for gaming, but also Internet bank, DirectX programming, Java Programming and 3D modeling), Linux/BSD as my server(web, mail, ftp, file, printer) and Ubuntu or Slackware on my old Laptop.

Your candor is appreciated. I was just hoping to get more out of my Pc without upgrading again. Looks like that may be the route to go though. Thanks again.

You're welcome mate . I'm a big fan of Linux, on all aspects one can think of, be it as server or desktop, really. But it won't make any miracle at your specification (which is very nice) and, unless you are using something like Fluxbox or XFCE, using KDE or Gnome won't do anything but use more memory and be much slower then WinXP. And call me lame, but I lost the count of how many times Gnome crashed on me. Certainly WinXP did not crash half of it. Still, Linux users don't consider it a crash because the system is still running, except Gnome and Xserver...

However, there are things that you can do to get better performance in games with WinXP:

- Right click on my computer >> Preferences >> Advanced >> Performance >> Settings. There, make sure to choose "Adjust for best Performance".

- On the same window, choose "advanced >> Virtual memory". You will notice that by default, Windows has two sizes for Virtual Memory. That's bad because if Virtual Memory (AKA swap) is ever used, it will need to be resized on the fly. Adjust initial and maximum values to be the same.

- Right click on your desktop and choose "Preferences >> Appearance >> Effects". Disable everything on it.

- Make sure to use Windows classic theme. It's not only nicer, but also faster then the ugly bluish aqua crap.

- Click on "Start >> run" and type msconfig. On "start up" tab, disable all the crap you won't need at start up.

- Defrag from time to time and keep the system up-to-date.

These basic steps would guarantee you a very nice, stable desktop and gaming system (at least for a while ^_^)

Regards!

I have done most of that. I will have to check the page filing though. I agree with you, the classic format is much better. I have tried most of the tweeks out there for window. I've done the 0verclocking thing, with my ram, cpu, and Gpu. All to no better proformance only a hotter box. I may just have to breakdown and upgrade. I was mad the other day, (and this may be what sent me on the Linux goose chase) when I went into Wal-Mart and saw an E-machine with all the specs I have been waiting to get. 64bit AMD/ 1600Mhz FSB / ATI PCI Express Graphics card, and all the other standard stuff, for only $700. Thanks again man. I may pick up Linux again later when I upgrade and have a system that it likes better. For now I'm going to stick whith XP.

Good choice Cobra08t!

Linux is an amazing Operating System, both as Desktop and Server, that's for sure. But the lack of games put it's usability to another level, from a gamer's perspective. I'm sticking with Windows for everything and FreeBSD as server... for the moment ^_^.

Crossover Wine developers just threw down a challenge to make "most" programs install on Wine by this time next year. Also, they are making huge strides on Direct3D. Hang in there, perhaps this time next year you won't need Windows as much. q)

Just a question to the poster way back up at the top, where have you heard snes9x being faster?
In my opinion, zsnes blows away all other SNES emulators. The core of it is written in assembly, and when compiled from source it can run an SNES Rom at 8-10% CPU usage (on a 3ghz machine, but still...).