Spacenavi support for Second Life: 1.20.0.84331 (Linux)

Questions and answers about 3Dconnexion devices on UNIX and Linux.

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Armin
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 1:17 am

Spacenavi support for Second Life: 1.20.0.84331 (Linux)

Post by Armin »

HI,
I was so happy when I read on poth the 3dconnexion and the second life web page that now the spacenavigator is fully working with second life(SL).
But after download big disappointment: Its still not working on the Linux client.
On the SL issue tracker i read it needed a libndofdev implementation for linux,
and as far as i saw on an similar issue about macosx with source included the source is already prepared for linux; some commented lines suggest its based on the blender plugin.
Looks to me it should easy for 3dconnexion to provide the missing piece to SL for the Linux client.
Well, just for a first step a link to existing (open) source code would be nice.

ok to place the indirect questions direct:
when will the missing driver be available ?
where can i find (opensource) source code for it?

kind regards,
Armin
ettore
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Post by ettore »

Hi Armin,
I am not really sure why Linden Labs put the Linux version up there: joystick support on Linux is simply not yet implemented. In fact, we didn't mention it in our press release:
http://www.3dconnexion.com/news/press/0 ... ndlife.php
They should at least release note it.

Yes, in order to add support all is missing is implementing the libndofdev routines. The other code is cross-platform I do have something kinda working but there are still problems to be solved. I can't provide a date as of now.

The current code should be available through the second life website:
https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Source_downloads
ettore pasquini
software engineer
3Dconnexion, inc.
Armin
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 1:17 am

Post by Armin »

Thank you for your quick answer Ettore,
its good to see that there is work going on about this. The Spacenavigator is such a great device and I'm really looking forward to see it working with SL on Linux.

:)
Armin
walldog
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Apr 22, 2008 12:51 pm

My new SpaceNavigator PE has arrived.

Post by walldog »

I am unable to understand how to install it. I believe I followed the complicated instructions correctly. In Synaptic Package Manager, it is claimed that GNU C Compiler, GNU make and Xlib headers are all installed on this system.

root@blackbox:/tmp/spacenavd-0.3# ./configure
configuring spacenavd...
prefix: /usr/local
optimize for speed: yes
include debugging symbols: yes
x11 communication method: yes

creating makefile ...

Done. You can now type make (or gmake) to compile spacenavd.
root@blackbox:/tmp/spacenavd-0.3#

That appears to have not failed.

but then...

root@blackbox:/tmp/spacenavd-0.3# make
gcc -pedantic -Wall -g -O3 -DUSE_X11 -c -o spnavd.o spnavd.c
spnavd.c:18:19: error: stdio.h: No such file or directory
spnavd.c:19:20: error: stdlib.h: No such file or directory
spnavd.c:20:20: error: string.h: No such file or directory
spnavd.c:21:19: error: ctype.h: No such file or directory
spnavd.c:22:20: error: signal.h: No such file or directory
spnavd.c:23:19: error: errno.h: No such file or directory
spnavd.c:24:20: error: assert.h: No such file or directory
spnavd.c:25:20: error: unistd.h: No such file or directory
spnavd.c:26:19: error: fcntl.h: No such file or directory
spnavd.c:27:23: error: sys/types.h: No such file or directory
spnavd.c:28:22: error: sys/stat.h: No such file or directory
spnavd.c:29:24: error: sys/socket.h: No such file or directory
spnavd.c:30:20: error: sys/un.h: No such file or directory
spnavd.c:31:22: error: sys/time.h: No such file or directory
spnavd.c:34:25: error: linux/types.h: No such file or directory
spnavd.c:35:25: error: linux/input.h: No such file or directory
spnavd.c:79: error: expected
ettore
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Post by ettore »

hi walldog,

like I said earlier, linux support is not there yet. You are trying to compile the free driver, but that won't help: the current SL client app is not interfacing with it.

Linux support for our devices will come to SL, but we don't know a date as of now.
ettore pasquini
software engineer
3Dconnexion, inc.
walldog
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Apr 22, 2008 12:51 pm

Post by walldog »

ettore wrote:hi walldog,

like I said earlier, linux support is not there yet. You are trying to compile the free driver, but that won't help: the current SL client app is not interfacing with it.

Linux support for our devices will come to SL, but we don't know a date as of now.
Hi ettore,
Thank you for the prompt reply.
Can I not use this device (SpaceNavigator PE) in another program? I have Blender installed. Does this device work on any linux programs. If so, is there a list of programs that this expensive device can be used with the Linux (ubuntu) operating system? How is this device installed in linux?

Thanks.
ettore
Moderator
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Location: SF Bay Area, CA

Post by ettore »

walldog wrote:
ettore wrote:like I said earlier, linux support is not there yet. You are trying to compile the free driver, but that won't help: the current SL client app is not interfacing with it.

Linux support for our devices will come to SL, but we don't know a date as of now.
Hi ettore,
Thank you for the prompt reply.
Can I not use this device (SpaceNavigator PE) in another program? I have Blender installed. Does this device work on any linux programs. If so, is there a list of programs that this expensive device can be used with the Linux (ubuntu) operating system? How is this device installed in linux?

Thanks.
Here's a list of supported apps:
http://www.3dconnexion.com/solutions/ca ... up_app.php

we provide a driver, that you can also download from our website:
http://www.3dconnexion.com/support/downloads.php
ettore pasquini
software engineer
3Dconnexion, inc.
Armin
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 1:17 am

Post by Armin »

hm, any chance to get the 3dxsrv working together with wine? For SL 1.20.2 is working with wine (as far as i can say from a 5 minutes test) this could be a temporary option.

:)
Armin
Seonaid
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri May 09, 2008 8:59 pm

Post by Seonaid »

Rumor is SecondLife 1.20 is on it's final release candidate, but near as I can tell, support for the SpaceNavigator is still broken in Linux. Has anyone had any success in making this a "show stopping" bug for the 1.20 release?
Armin
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 1:17 am

Post by Armin »

No, nothing new yet. And of course it will be a showstopper as soon as windows and mac users are going to fly us away . It will be like one resident saying "take so-and-so to a exploration tour?" - answer "no, s/he will slow us down, you know on linux, no joystick". And the SL release-notes blog censored me kindly commenting that there is still no joystick support 4 linux. So I decided not to start a bug report at the SL jira in the mood i got by being censored. I'm hoping somebody more relaxed can find friendly words keeping the goal to make it work in focus.

Armin
oobscure
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Nov 13, 2008 1:52 pm

Post by oobscure »

a little update:

Right now, Spacenavigator doesn't work with the official Linux Second Life viewer. However, it's possible to patch the sources so that it works on Linux.

:arrow: Patches and documentation can be found here.

Linden Lab will probably support this in the official Linux codebase soon or later; also, the viewer build process documentation (wiki.secondlife.com) is going to be updated - it's a mess right now.

Should anyone need instructions or help to build the Second Life Linux viewer with SpaceNavigator support, please contact me in-world (send me an instant message inside Second Life) - my avatar name is Opensource Obscure.

note:
I personally think that the SpaceNavigator use _strongly_ enhances the Second Life experience.
Armin
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 1:17 am

Post by Armin »

Yeah,it's fun :)

For we have now a link to the patch here, and LL has integrated the driver to their trunk, which most likely points to it could be soon in a release.
I think this thread here is solved, isn't it ?
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