this post was submitted on 02 Jan 2026
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How to make Linux Mint recognize controllers with extra buttons (pawb.social)
submitted 3 months ago by cloudskater@pawb.social to c/linux_gaming@lemmy.world
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I recently got a controller from 8BitDo that has an extra pair of triggers and two extra face buttons for screenshots or whatever you want really. Issue is, not only do do my emulators not recognize these buttons, but is seems Linux Mint doesn't know they exist at all. Even bringing up a program to map buttons to keys doesn't show any input when those buttons are pressed. Does anyone know how to make these buttons recognizable? They'd be really helpful for toggling fast forward on games with long loading screens for instance or just resetting the system on a whim.

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[–] RamRabbit@lemmy.world 18 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Install and run jstest-gtk (It's in the software manager). In the GUI, select your gamepad and you will see a list of buttons/axies that light up when they are used. If it is showing up in there, it means the OS sees it and debugging should be focused on the specific program that you are trying to map keys with. In that situation, you can use something like AntiMicroX to rebind the keys to something your program does recognize.

If the button is not showing up in the jstest-gtk GUI, then the OS isn't seeing the keys and you may need a driver for that gamepad. (If that is the case, one thing to try is to update Mint's Kernel to 6.14, which can be done in Update Manager > View > Linux Kernels)

[–] cloudskater@pawb.social 3 points 2 months ago

Yeah, I downloaded that tool and it's really useful but the buttons don't show up at all. The kernel is up to date but I think what other people are saying may be true, they might not be mappable to begin with. That doesn't explain the two face buttons not working, though.