So I use my wired XBox 360 controller for gaming on my computer. Every application registers the gamepad so I can use it on games, yet Ubuntu itself doesn't recognize the controller. For example, any game I play I can just plug in the controller and then setup the keys in game to the controller under a joypad setting. However, in Ubuntu, if I were to say make up a new shortcut using one of the buttons on the controller it wouldn't register.

This becomes a problem because my monitor goes to "sleep" after 10 minutes of inactivity. So while I'm playing a game using the controller if I don't press a key on the keyboard or move the mouse my computer will fall asleep. Obviously I can remedy this by setting the time to a higher interval or never in the system settings but I don't want to change this every time I switch from gaming to something else.

Is there any way for Ubuntu to recognize the controller's keys as keys on the keyboard or something of the like? All I want it to do is recognize one of the keys on the controller as a key to stop it from thinking I'm inactive when I'm not x.X

You can use programs like qjoypad or rejoystick to map buttons from your controller to the keyboard.