Linux Kernel Module For Nintendo Powerglove 236
antistatickid writes: "I've dusted off some schematics for a simple parallel interface to the nintendo powerglove (circa 1990), and have written a linux kernel module for the device since none of the old code works anymore. I'm hoping to generate some interest in homebrew vr: the gloves are cheap, and can be used for things like controlling midi synthesizers with the wave of your hand (a demo of which I've included on the project page)."
And the obvious use... (Score:3, Funny)
Too bad it doesn't have tactile feedback.
Re:And the obvious use... (Score:3, Funny)
THAT would be tacticle feedback.
Re:And the obvious use... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:And the obvious use... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:And the obvious use... (Score:1)
(This one's for brass eye fans)
Re:And the obvious use... (Score:1)
Therimin and Powerglove... (Score:3, Interesting)
Best of all, think of the applications for singers. No longer is them moving their hands around in the air pointless and retarded looking, but it could actually affect thing such as lighting and tempo even (of MIDI tracks)...
I can't wait to get a powerglove on Ebay now... but there will probably be a rush of powerglove bids now too
Re:Therimin and Powerglove... (Score:3, Interesting)
The whole point of the Theremin is that you only need to use your bare hands, since the tone is a function of the distance between you and the pitch rod. I think a Powerglove would just complicate things. However, this could be a real boon for MIDI artists on a serious budget(PD/Jmax). There is a rich history of glove interfaces to other Midi instruments. The MAX [cycling74.com]programming environment has a 'glove' object that interfaces with the new defunct Gold Brick interface. Plus, for the ultimate in coolness, there's Laetitia Sonami's Lady's Glove [sonami.net], which rocks my world. Check out the video [mit.edu].
Re:Theremin and Powerglove... (Score:3, Informative)
The theremin reacts the your body's electromagnetic field. Touching a metal part of the signal chain (such as the case of a stompbox or rackmount effects box the theremin might be plugged into, or a metal part of the speaker cabinet). If the powerglove doesn't have any conductive surfaces making contact with the hand it's on, it shouldn't affect the tone. If it does, it might affect the tone a little, like shifting a specific point in the air a certain distance from the pitch antenna that's normally a C note up to a C#, or down to a B. I can get this kind of pitch shift by touching the strings of the Chapman Stick, a guitar-like instrume nt I play, when the Stick is plugged into the amplifier. I've tried using an E-Bow with theremin and it had no effect on the tone whatsoever.
links:
http://www.stick.com/
http://www.there
http://www.moogmusic.com/
http://w
Bad Old Days (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Bad Old Days (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Bad Old Days (Score:2)
Re:Bad Old Days (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Bad Old Days (Score:2)
Nintendo had some shoddy peripherials... (Score:2)
Another controller that was absolute trash was the wireless controller. It would only work if you pointed the thing point-blank at the IR sensor that would sit by the Nintendo. If you were about 2-5 feet away (and pointed the controller right at the sensor), it would work about 90% of the time (which, mind you, is not good to have, considering that the other 10% of the time always seemed to come right when you were right over a pitfall in Mario or right in front of the boss...I get really pissed when I die thanks to a controller that wouldn't work when I needed it the most). Anything beyond 5 feet would fade in and out too frequently to ever want to mess with it.
I never tried the PowerGlove, but knowing the history of other Nintendo controllers, I'm glad I never had the displeasure to work with it either.
Re:Nintendo had some shoddy peripherials... (Score:1)
Re:Nintendo had some shoddy peripherials... (Score:2, Interesting)
Hindsight is always unfair (Score:4, Insightful)
Of course I'm sure consumers would have been happier if the crappier of the peripherials (such as the pads) had never gotten out of the labs but we can't forget that this was before the days of the internet (well at least as a popular communication medium). If they wanted to see how people would respond to an idea (wireless controllers) they had to make them and see how well they sold, I'm willing to bet that the profits from those shoddy peripherials went into the R&D of better versions which leads us to the 21st century and all the neat toys we have now.
In short, yesterdays peripherials may have been bulky and error prone but they paved the way for the light and near-perfect ones we have today. Just my $.02
Re:Bad Old Days (Score:2, Funny)
"The Wizard" (1989) with Fred Savage (Score:4, Funny)
Re:"The Wizard" (1989) with Fred Savage (Score:4, Informative)
Another odd thing I remember about that movie is a scene from the sub-plot where the dad and the older brother are on the road trying to find the kids. The dad stays up all night playing TMNT, and says something like "I can't stop now, I just got the scroll weapon!" Which is ludicrous for a couple of reasons. First, the scroll weapon is available reasonably early in the game (though I guess if he just sucks at the game he could be proud anyway). Second, I don't think the game ever actually referred to it as "the scroll weapon." I remember playing the game and wondering why everyone called it that. Probably came from Nintendo Power or something.
Ah, thinking about The Wizard brings back memories. Remember the third player in the final round? Okay, show of hands, who thought she had any chance at all of winning? Anyone? She was so obviously the fall guy (fall girl?) it was absurd.
Why don't they make heartwarming movies about exploiting autistic savants anymore? The Wizard, Rain Man... is that the end of the genre?
Re:"The Wizard" (1989) with Fred Savage (Score:2)
Don't look at me like that, I didn't really research all that hard.
Re:"The Wizard" (1989) with Fred Savage (Score:2)
Re:Bad Old Days (Score:2)
I've got an old book (i'm now hunting for now) which has C examples of not only ways to use it but also simple 3D worlds to navigate with it.
Very cool, can work with a bunch of games too... best part is once you are writing software for it you can adjust the response (to a point...)
This will be cool (Score:3, Interesting)
The Power Glove (Score:1)
Open source hand! (Score:1)
Re:Open source hand! (Score:2)
More information... (Score:4, Informative)
Wrong use! (Score:4, Interesting)
Applications for lazy people... (Score:5, Funny)
Or, make it wireless and use it as a remote for a TV. Imagine waving your hand to change the channel, volume, etc.
Connect it to your stereo in a similar fashion.
Use it to steer the lawnmower around the yard--just move your hand and fingers, while sipping daquiries from a lawnchair.
Think of the possibilities! It's almost like being a jedi!
Re:Applications for lazy people... (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Applications for lazy people... (Score:3, Funny)
"This is not the channel you're looking for...."
Re:Applications for lazy people... (Score:2, Funny)
Forgive me. It's late, and I'm drunk... But I could've sworn that said "It's almost like being a yeti!"
Re:Applications for lazy people... (Score:2, Interesting)
As a starting point for a gesture set, one could use the "finger alphabet" of the deaf (which would be the equivalent of speech recognition for those, and not any more arbitrary than any other set of gestures for all others).
Motion Macros anyone? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Motion Macros anyone? (Score:2)
Have you ever SEEN a Powerglove? Nobody's going to be typing with THAT on!
Re:Motion Macros anyone? (Score:2)
See it this way: Finally a valid exuse to type with one hand ;)
Re:Motion Macros anyone? (Score:2)
Thank goodness! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Thank goodness! (Score:1)
> I was beginning to think we wouldn't have any stories that invited obligatory porn comments today!
Yep... just add a joystick and all the wankers can be virtual wankers.
Wireless Mod? (Score:4, Interesting)
Just hack open a wireless Nintendo controller? And use the insides of it? Use batteries to power the glove?
Electronics on the compenent level isn't my type of thing, but I feel that it's possible. Is it?
About the Power Glove (Score:5, Funny)
TheFrood
Re:About the Power Glove (Score:2, Informative)
"The third nominee is the Power Glove. This was a device originally designed so players could have a hand free while playing Hot Slots, Bubble Bath Babes, and Peek-A-Boo Poker. The players demanded it immediately, so the designers didn't have time to work all of the bugs out before its release. In fact the designers based 98% of the Power Glove technology on one of their nephew's fifth grade science projects. The technology worked great as an automatic pet door, but as a game controller there were some problems. The Nintendo couldn't quite figure out what your hand was doing and most of the time the character you were supposed to be controlling would stagger off a cliff or just make faces at you and mock your Flash Gordon glove. This would continue for hours until you finally returned the damn glove to its appropriate place on the cat. This high tech hip device almost could have worked as a way to enhance the challenge of a game you've already beaten, but closing your eyes would basically have the same effect. And cost about a hundred dollars less. Of course, then you wouldn't bag as many chicks as the guys who had the Power Glove, would you?"
original author/hacker (Score:5, Informative)
Steve has a number of projects that the average lay-person could do, including a touch screen for computers (used the parallel port). He also has a crapload of funny stories about "one-up'ing" his neighbour in some of his older books.
Beware TPB
Lack of variety in input devices (Score:1)
Re:Lack of variety in input devices (Score:2)
Something you could blow into to make the NES work (for disabled people)
Exercise Bike mod (or was it a whole bike?)
Running Pad (PowerPad?)
Thing that you put your hands and and moved them around in mid air
Arcade style controllers
Shoulder mount gun thing (made by Nintendo)
There were all sorts of cool things, but alas, we are too 'safe' now in making of devices for gaming systems.
Re:Lack of variety in input devices (Score:2)
Shoulder mount gun thing (made by Nintendo)
---snip
This is one input device most windows users would love.
Re:Lack of variety in input devices (Score:1)
I think there was a connect four game too with its own accessory.
You are forgetting the best accessory of all!!! It was one of the first too.. Good old Rob the Robot - he came with that block stacking game...
Re:Lack of variety in input devices (Score:2)
wrong, wrong, wrong (Score:3, Informative)
The PS2 has less types of controllers, but it has some unusual ones like the vibrating neck massager for Rez.
Re:wrong, wrong, wrong (Score:2)
Virtua On is so awesome with the twin sticks...I could spend hours in the arcade dueling with my old friends...
Re:Lack of variety in input devices (Score:2)
translation... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:translation... (Score:3, Interesting)
Obviously, computers are quite incapable of filling in the blanks intelligently. Of course they can do a so-so job, but there will be flaws.
What will work is your own sign "language" of course. :)
Re:translation... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:translation... (Score:2)
I know that, I'm sorry if it came out this way. I didn't mean that to come out that way :). I know there are different grammar rules. In fact, you made my point better than I made. I thank you for that.
I'll just blame my non-englishness (heck, I'm dutch) and botch up some more context and comprehension :)
Re:translation... (Score:2)
http://www.crmdaily.com/perl/story/16164.html
Sounds like the device you are talking about...
Sweet! (Score:5, Interesting)
A tip for hax0rs: The power glove is very SMALL (even the large one). I completely dispensed with the original glove that came with it to make mine. I took the control pad off and put a simple belt clip on it. Next, i extended the hand part and the ultrasonic sounders away from the controller with some 15 conductor cable. Finally, I sewed the finger bend sensors onto the fingers of a golf glove that went on the right hand and had the fingertips cut out (the original power glove is a lefty device.) Anyway, the idea was to get rid of the bulky garbage of the powerglove in order to make a little dataglove that i could still type while wearing.
I still have it here. Heck, I still have the monitor with the velcro on it! I'm very excited to break it out again and fiddle with this.
~GoRK
PERFECT FOR MY MAME!!! (Score:2, Interesting)
You see, I'm building a mega-mame, and if I ever finish it I'll try to get a plug of it up on
Now I can add a powerglove! I dunno how I can get it to work with the games, but it'd be a heck of a cool menuing system selection device...
THANK YOU l33t KERNEL[MODULE] DEV'S YOU'RE MY HEROES!
Force Grip (Score:5, Funny)
Someone please port this to Windows so I can Force Grip the whole OS.
Re:Force Grip (Score:2)
You bastard! You stole my line :)
Re:Force Grip (Score:1)
- Chris
Gestures? (Score:2, Interesting)
It would sort of look like the video manipulation in Minority Report.
Linux is really chugging along now! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Linux is really chugging along now! (Score:2)
I can't wait. Die dead matlab processes, die!
Re:Linux is really chugging along now! (Score:2)
So, it's not that we are slow to get to new technology, it's just that it takes 9 years to update drivers
Re:Linux is really chugging along now! (Score:2)
I used to use one or two other handles, but it seemed that there were enough Dr. Who fans that the obvious ones were always taken on boards and BBS's.
Then in 1986, Trial of a Timelord came out. I really liked the Sabalom Glitz character (think I picked up the Sabalon spelling from the novelizations.) It was an obscure enough character that it wasn't used anywhere. Not like Master, K-9, or anything else - after all, he's only been in three episodes.
So, since about 1987, I've been using that for a handle. Glad someone gets it - it's kinda hard to explain to people sometimes.
What about ROB (Score:2, Funny)
Minority Report WM? (Score:2)
-Erwos
windows port (Score:1)
Minority report (Score:1)
Re:Minority report (Score:2)
small hand movements are much more likely.
Re: (Score:2)
wonderful.. (Score:5, Funny)
I can then proceed to mod people up by virtually scratching my balls.
Good slashdot posts inspire thought, and in the words of Maynard James Keenan, "Whenever I get an idea my balls itch."
naysayers (Score:1)
as for the folks who feel a need to say 'it's stupid' or 'it sucks' or 'it's useless' so what? the guy probably had a lot of fun writing the module. he's obviously a big geek -- check out his site -- who likes hacking a LOT, and has found some creative ways to put that energy to work.
i'm such a clueless newbie that i probably couldn't figure how to get it to work without major help from some people, and forget about writing such a thing, but that doesn't stop me from appreciating the energy and curiosity that go into a personal project.
i think it rocks, now flame away!
Johnny Pnemonic (Score:1)
Well, probably not, but it would be pretty damned cool to dial a phone call using virtual buttoms instead of real buttons. It would be just like pushing real buttons only virtual!
Hey... wait a minute... no, I guess playing Mike Tyson's Punchout and Rad Racer are still the only things the Power Gloves is useful for.
Force CHOKE!!! (Score:1)
Boredom at it's best... (Score:1, Flamebait)
Hey look! My Karma is Excellent! Oooh, I'm gonna need help to change that...
REND386 bitbanging (Score:1)
This is Great! (Score:2)
ttyl
Farrell
1780 wpm, 3 errors. (Score:2)
Real DataGloves (Score:4, Interesting)
Wow, that reads like a Flamebait.
What I'd really like to see is a cheap-in-volume 'glove pair' input device (say 100$ for the MS version and 30$ for the Logitech one, like mice or keyboards) that would stream the positions of the fingers and hands over a hot-pluggable USB connection. I have a bazillion applications for that sort of device, and even a good headstart on a way to produce one on my own for about 300$ per pair (and a whole lot of time I just don't have). I'm sure *someone* has already had similar thoughts....
For reference purposes, my (rather fluid) specifications are for a system that:
- spits out positions of the fingertips accurate to 1 cubic mm or so within a cubic meter in your 'work area' (ie: a volume sitting above a traditional keyboard's location at a desk)
- tethered or wireless, as the case may be (wireless is an extra cost, of course, but not THAT much extra - it's mainly the short battery life that sucks for this)
- 60 Hz or better refresh rate for each of the sensed positions
- serial or USB input stream, similar to a 2D mouse's, only with a LOT more coordinates
So, why should everyone have one of these? Well, I can't give away ALL my secrets, but people laughed at the mouse, didn't they? =) A 3D desktop metaphor requires a 3D interface device, and 'air mice' sort of suck. Wands are only good for limited applications
How would you like to type on a virtual keyboard, configured any way you want it to be, anywhere in space you chose to place it? How about a 20-DoF controller for videogames? Music synthesis with 20+ DoFs, each affecting a different component of the sound (left hand for timber and right for pitch, volume and sequencing)? Just as the mouse hardware drove the creation of a billion 2D applications, so will 3D 'glove' hardware drive a billion more.
But only, ONLY if it's CHEAP. If anyone knows an electrical engineer that wants to work on the hardware end of a project with me (I've got the hardware feasability, sample applications and reconstruction algorithms mostly worked out
God, that was a lot longer that I'd expected it to be. Must be the heat. =)
Re:Real DataGloves (Score:4, Interesting)
- tethered or wireless, as the case may be (wireless is an extra cost, of course, but not THAT much extra - it's mainly the short battery life that sucks for this)
- 60 Hz or better refresh rate for each of the sensed positions
- serial or USB input stream, similar to a 2D mouse's, only with a LOT more coordinates
Not to dampen your intentions, I think they are admirable, however I do have a couple of notes on this for you. A meter is a bit arbitrary, and will give you problems with limits and data bandwidth.
For example, most people work en an environment where reaching a meter above their keyboard is only done when they are about to impart excessive forces on the keyboard in frustration. Unless you are doing something that requires position sensitive gogles as well, you are probably going to be better off working with half a meter vertically.
On the other hand reaching out to each side is not particularly unusual, and will easily exceed one meter side to side for most people. A range of either a meter and a half, or two meters would be safer.
This resolution of 1 cubic mm is also going to be expensive. I would think that it would make much more sense to vector track the hands, perhaps with a palm sensor which would give rough estimates of direction and speed while moving, then provide more accurate positioning data once stopped relative to the earlier movement. A surgon using such a glove is going to consider one millimeter to be aufull sloppy if he has to make an incision. At the same time, when reaching out towards the ends of our reaches, we are less interested in that 1 mm sensitivity. With a little bit of thought, you could use this area as broader spectrum navigation. Similar to using edge detection to move from one virtual screen to another, if you cross the edge of the sensors range, your virtual working area changes. If you are doing distance surgury, reaching into some areas would activate instrument changes.
Also of note is that the fingertips are rarely more than 150 mm from the center of your palm. You could easily use different resolutions for different fingers as well. As an example, you could use a sensitivity of 1 mm for your thumb, and
For purposes of the calculations of bandwidth I will use the dimensions you have provided however. You are free to use whatever of the ideas I have noted to finetune these. (given the fact that the fingers on each hand are always close together, you could compress the information by giving one finger's position at 10 bits x, 10 bits y, 10 bits z, then offset the remaining fingers from that position with 7 bits per dimension.
In any case, if you give each dimension a seprate holder, the smallest number of bits you can send per sample is 300. (10 bits per direction, [2^10=1024] three dimensions per finger, 10 fingers) multiply this by 60 samples per second, and you are running 18kbps. Even if you ad overhead, such as a stop bit every dimension, and a start bit for every sample, the bandwidth requirements are not high. At least not by modern communications standards anyway. The problem is that we do not have that many devices that are both moving (which will cause wire and fibres to ultimately breakdown) and sensing their environment that use this kind of bandwidth.
I suspect that whatever solution you put together will be regularly susceptible to failure due the the multiple moving parts required to track the hands of the user. You might be able to find a way to do it with fingertip and palm sensors that wirelessly communicate with each other, or that each communicate with a base station of some sort. One example would be a two camera system working with florescent fingertips that the user would wear. Similar in effect to a motion capture system.
Oh, well, best of luck to you in your venture...
-Rusty
Re:Real DataGloves (Score:2)
A meter is a bit arbitrary, and will give you problems with limits and data bandwidth.
On the contrary, the bandwidth isn't an issue, as you demonstrated, but may be a bit limiting, if it was a cubic area (which it won't be, but that's beside the point).
The intention (not clearly stated in my original message) was to provide a box-like work area, with absolute precision greatest near the 'keyboard' area, and poorest overhead or off to the sides. Most people work with tools or whatever immediately in front of them. A sphere with a 1m radius, centered inside an 'enhanced' keyboard (fancy base station?) would easily meet the requirements for precision near the middle while preserving some sort of sensitivity (even if imprecise) at the extremes.
Also of note is that the fingertips are rarely more than 150 mm from the center of your palm...
My actual design calls for an absolute position and orientation of the hand body (local coordinate system), and relative coordinates for the fingertips from there. Like I said, LOTS of room for compression. With humans, the relative positions of the fingertips (to each other, the hand body and the other fingers) is what matters most. This data is much more important than absolute positions, since we have visual and tactil feedback mechanisms for dealing with absolutes.
With regard to your surgeon example, I must point out that this is intended to be a consumer product, not a medical one, hence the sub-100$ price tag. The same sort of technology could easily be scaled up in precision and accuracy, however, with a parallel increase in cost and complexity. Unfortunately, the reverse is not yet true: though medical-quality VR gloves do exist, there's no way to scale them down to viable consumer levels due to invasiveness, awkwardness, costs and the rest of it. Well, it's been tried, but you end up with junk like the PowerGlove. A new approach is needed! =]
Moving parts, bulky, heavy gloves and tethers are annoying at best and would kill the marketability, for sure. For it to be acceptable, it would need low-weight, small-size fingertip reflectors or sensors that won't make you look like a total fool. Ideally, it would be stitched into a thin Spandex or even fishnet glove, with plastic 'runners' that could look like fashion accessories.
I suspect that whatever solution you put together will be regularly susceptible to failure due the the multiple moving parts required to track the hands of the user. You might be able to find a way to do it with fingertip and palm sensors that wirelessly communicate with each other, or that each communicate with a base station of some sort. One example would be a two camera system working with florescent fingertips that the user would wear. Similar in effect to a motion capture system.
Ever used one of those? I have and it's about the stupidest looking thing on this Earth. Sorry, but unless you can just pull on a non-obtrusive glove and start hacking away, it's never going to fly.
My design (sorry, but I'm not giving the core details away just yet) has only a pair of thin wires running out to each fingertip. These can easily be woven into the glove material itself, run along flat sheets, like in disk drives, printers and the like, or even just use braided connection wire. The wrists (or backs of the hands, depending), will have the conditioning circuitry and will either run a tether or communicate wirelessly to a base station for connection to the PC. There's really not that much to go wrong, and if something does, it'll just be an easily-repairable open-circuit....
Oh, well, best of luck to you in your venture...
Thanks! I'll post to
The REAL Love Glove (Score:2)
Re:Real DataGloves (Score:2)
Re:Real DataGloves (Score:2)
Ironically, I'd just acquired some crucial components to make my glove thing a possibility a week before that movie came out. I was disgusted at the ludicrous gyrations and oversimplification of their tracking device
Yes, I'm ignoring your humour. Yes, I've been thinking about this for about ten years now. No, it won't look or work anything like the 'glove' in Minority Report.
Why? (Score:2)
Re:Real DataGloves (Score:2)
Sure. Each hand has 24 degrees of freedom, the elbow has 2, the shoulder has 5. That's 62 rotational/translational modes. Yeah, some of it is hard to specify (like making that Vulcan greeting geek-gesture), which is why I went with 10 DoF per side.
Think outside the box, man.
Re:Real DataGloves (Score:2)
http://www.shadow.org.uk/products/newhand.shtml
In any case, half of them are too tricky to use consciously, but that still leaves over 10 per hand. Two hands = 20+ DoF, easily. Add in shoulders and elbows, head and jaw and it just gets better.... =)
Re:Degrees of Freedom (Score:2)
1) hold fingers out straight
2) bend at 'middle' joint, trying to keep the 'final' (third) joint straight
3) once there, try to bend the final joint (should be easy enough, since that's the normal 'grip' position)
4) play with it a bit and you should be able to demonstrate some rudimentary control over those last joints
Okay, now for the thumb....
Hooboy.
The Middle2 they refer to is a 'tilting' motion, similar to the one you mentioned between fingers. Make a gesture like you're holding a guitar neck. Now hold on to the base of your thumb, HARD, and try to move the rest of your thumb over as if you were operating a click pen. Move back and forth and you'll notice that there's about a 10 or 15 degree rotation orthogonal to the primary bending direction. In this image [shadow.org.uk], there's a metal post through the middle joint of the thumb. That's the axis of rotation for this effect.
Keep in mind that, unlike the fingers, the thumb's base isn't fixed to the wrist, but has 2 DoF all of it's own.
So, we have one bend for the 'last' (distal) joint, one bend and a perpendicular tilt for the 'middle' (medial) joint, and two more rotational components for the 'base' (proximal): a roll to point your thumb, and a bend to open/close the whole thumb arrangement. That's 5 DoF. *phew*
Anyway, I'll reiterate: most of these DoFs are essentially useless for UI purposes. 10 per hand is plenty. The face has tons more, the shoulders have 5 each (vertical and horizontal translation, rotate out, rotate up and rotate the whole arm), etcetera. Humans have a ridiculously large number of ways to move. All I want is to tap into 16 or so of them at a time, rather than 2 or 6 continuous (mouse and SpaceOrb, respectively) or 108 discrete (keyboard) axes....
Of course, dancers, sculpters, musicians and so on will always want more, but they don't read SlashDot, do they?! =D
eBay (Score:2, Interesting)
DirectPad Pro Kernel Module. (Score:2)
Good, but crude instructions about using a gamepad in Linux can be found here [freelink.cx].
It is important that you load a few seperate modules.
parport
gamepad
joyconsole
I think that there is another one. If anyone has any questions, just ask, and I will post what I have in my rc.modules file when I get home and have access to my machine.
Re:DirectPad Pro Kernel Module. (Score:2)
My results... (Score:2)
Under 2.4, when compiling a kernel module, you aren't allowed to do a "-I/usr/src/linux/include" to include the sources - you need to have the 2.4 sources installed properly and change the Makefile to read "-I/lib/modules/`uname -r`/build/include" - then it will work OK (provided everything else is set up properly in regard to the sources) - plus, I had a problem with the last line in the pglove.c source (MODULE_LICENCE("GPL");), which was causing some kind of error - I just commented it out, not wanting to track it down, and knowing that it wasn't a crit piece for the source.
Once that was done, the rest went OK - I fired up the module, plugged in PG interface (that I had put together YEARS ago, and it was last used on a 486 back in 1994 with Rend386 in DOS), and started the raw reader (a.out - default gcc output bin).
It worked just great, as expected (well, I was actually expecting smoke - glad I didn't get any).
Anyhow, my kudos to the job this guy did - while I doubt it is going to "change the world" - it is a good hack, and I am glad to see it pulled off (as a homebrew VR part-time experimentor).
Yes (Score:2)
Better Linux applications... (Score:4, Funny)
10) Linux Litebrite support
9) Linux dishwasher drivers
8) My Little Pony Linux kit
7) Linux on the Atari 2600
6) Linux bubblegum
5) A Tux vibrator (worked for Hello Kitty)
4) Linux for your coffee makers
3) Linux for Windows (Oooooh, that oughta do it)
2) Your Mom
And the #1 Linux application is....
(drumroll)
1) Linux for the Strawberry Shortcake Muffin Maker!
Damn, people, you've been a serious news rut. Doncha wish you could mod more than -1s? Kinda like I wish I could mod the freakin editors.
GOOD NIGHT EVERYBODY! I'll be here 7-12 Monday through Friday! Don't forget to tip your waitress on the way out ^__^
Re:Just watch out for... (Score:2)
If I had mod points I would use them on this one
Re:The ultimate hack! (Score:2)