Bug#525705: libsdl1.2debian-all: Detecting too many buttons for joystick

[Justin Pasher]

Package: libsdl1.2debian-all
Version: 1.2.13-4+b1
Severity: normal


When I upgraded the libsdl1.2debian-all package from stable (1.2.13-2) to
testing (1.2.13-4+b1), the joystick detection appears to have been broken
(at least for my gamepad). It detects way too many buttons, and it randomly
changes how many buttons it detects. When I run the testjoystick program
from the original libsdl source tree, it demonstrates the problem. Because
the number of buttons is constantly changing, any program that depends on
SDL joystick input (such as Mednafen or ZSNES) will not be able to
consistantly use the joystick because the keycodes change upon each
execution.

Additionally, when "rolling" from one direction to another on the digital
pad (for example, rolling from pressing left to pressing down), the input
does not properly change from generating the keycode for "left" to the
keycode for "down". This makes things like controlling a character in a
game not work smoothly, since you have to let go of the direction pad
completely to press a new direction. However, this could just be a side
effect caused by the incorrect button detection.

Here are the testjoystick results when running the stable branch
package (1.2.13-2)

[jpasher at marvin ~/SDL-1.2.13/test]$ ./testjoystick
There are 1 joysticks attached
Joystick 0: Logitech Logitech Cordless RumblePad 2
       axes: 6
      balls: 0
       hats: 0
    buttons: 12
------------------------------

Here are the testjoystick results when running the testing branch
package (1.2.13-4+b1)

[jpasher at marvin ~/SDL-1.2.13/test]$ ./testjoystick
There are 1 joysticks attached
Joystick 0: Logitech Logitech Cordless RumblePad 2
       axes: 4
      balls: 0
       hats: 1
    buttons: 106
[jpasher at marvin ~/SDL-1.2.13/test]$ ./testjoystick
There are 1 joysticks attached
Joystick 0: Logitech Logitech Cordless RumblePad 2
       axes: 4
      balls: 0
       hats: 1
    buttons: 103
[jpasher at marvin ~/SDL-1.2.13/test]$ ./testjoystick
There are 1 joysticks attached
Joystick 0: Logitech Logitech Cordless RumblePad 2
       axes: 4
      balls: 0
       hats: 1
    buttons: 102
------------------------------


-- System Information:
Debian Release: squeeze/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (750, 'testing'), (700, 'stable'), (600, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.26-2-686-bigmem (SMP w/1 CPU core)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages libsdl1.2debian-all depends on:
ii  libaa1                     1.4p5-38      ascii art library
ii  libartsc0                  1.5.9-2+b1    aRts sound system C support librar
ii  libasound2                 1.0.19-1      shared library for ALSA applicatio
ii  libaudio2                  1.9.1-5       Network Audio System - shared libr
ii  libc6                      2.9-4         GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  libcaca0                   0.99.beta16-1 colour ASCII art library
ii  libdirectfb-1.2-0          1.2.7-2       direct frame buffer graphics - sha
ii  libesd0                    0.2.41-3      Enlightened Sound Daemon - Shared 
ii  libpulse0                  0.9.14-2      PulseAudio client libraries
ii  libsvga1                   1:1.4.3-27    console SVGA display libraries
ii  libxt6                     1:1.0.5-3     X11 toolkit intrinsics library

libsdl1.2debian-all recommends no packages.

libsdl1.2debian-all suggests no packages.

-- no debconf information