Thrustmaster T128 (Xbox version) not recognized, but it does work when linux reboots after Windows.

[hielkea]

Hi, I’m using a Thrustmaster T128 (xbox version). I’m using Bazzite 43 which now includes the hid-tmff2 drivers.
The T128 isn’t working when I plug it in when booted in Bazzite. Also blacklisting xpad doesn’t help.
But the T128 does work if I first boot into Windows and than reboot into Bazzite.

I found when booted after windows, the T128 gets a different productid and productname than when I replug it.

This is the output of dmesg when I reboot into Bazzite after Windows:

[ 5.403645] usb 1-4.4: new full-speed USB device number 6 using xhci_hcd
[ 5.593110] usb 1-4.4: New USB device found, idVendor=044f, idProduct=b696, bcdDevice= 1.00
[ 5.593113] usb 1-4.4: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[ 5.593115] usb 1-4.4: Product: Thrustmaster Advance Racer
[ 5.593116] usb 1-4.4: Manufacturer: Thrustmaster
[ 5.599023] input: Thrustmaster Thrustmaster Advance Racer as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb1/1-4/1-4.4/1-4.4:1.0/0003:044F:B696.0002/input/input3
[ 5.599082] hid-generic 0003:044F:B696.0002: input,hidraw1: USB HID v1.00 Joystick [Thrustmaster Thrustmaster Advance Racer] on usb-0000:00:14.0-4.4/input0
[ 11.837291] tmff2 0003:044F:B696.0002: input,hidraw1: USB HID v1.00 Joystick [Thrustmaster Thrustmaster Advance Racer] on usb-0000:00:14.0-4.4/input0
[ 11.869967] tmff2 0003:044F:B696.0002: force feedback for T248

Note that it gets productname ‘Thrustmaster Advance Racer’ and idProduct=b696, and the driver initializes. In this case I can use oversteer and any game with force feedback.

Now, when I disconnect the T128 and plug it back in, this is the output of dmesg -w:

[ 834.376233] usb 1-4.4: new full-speed USB device number 13 using xhci_hcd
[ 834.566038] usb 1-4.4: New USB device found, idVendor=044f, idProduct=b69c, bcdDevice= 1.01
[ 834.566054] usb 1-4.4: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[ 834.566061] usb 1-4.4: Product: Thrustmaster T128X GIP Racing Wheel
[ 834.566066] usb 1-4.4: Manufacturer: Thrustmaster
[ 834.566071] usb 1-4.4: SerialNumber: 0000351F920CE173
[ 834.572111] input: Generic X-Box pad as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb1/1-4/1-4.4/1-4.4:1.0/input/input53
[ 836.306033] input: Microsoft X-Box 360 pad 1 as /devices/virtual/input/input54

In this case it gets productname Thrustmaster T128X GIP Racing Wheel and idProduct=b69c. Because xpad was still installed it gets recognized as an xbox 360 controller. Forcefeedback of oversteer isn’t working

If xpad is blacklisted and after a reboot, when I now plug it in, this is the output of dmesg -w:

[ 73.887089] usb 1-4.4: new full-speed USB device number 12 using xhci_hcd
[ 74.077064] usb 1-4.4: New USB device found, idVendor=044f, idProduct=b69c, bcdDevice= 1.01
[ 74.077080] usb 1-4.4: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[ 74.077087] usb 1-4.4: Product: Thrustmaster T128X GIP Racing Wheel
[ 74.077092] usb 1-4.4: Manufacturer: Thrustmaster
[ 74.077097] usb 1-4.4: SerialNumber: 0000351F920CE173

The same productname as last time, only I think it doesn’t load any driver. Also, xpad blacklist is definitely working in this case, because my xbox controllers aren’t working.

My theory is that the T128 has two modes. A PC mode and a Xbox mode: I think after booting from Windows it is in PC mode and recognized as ‘Thrustmaster Advance Racer.’ Everything works now.
When I disconnect it and plug it back it might be in Xbox mode and recognized as ‘Thrustmaster T128X GIP Racing Wheel.’ Hid-tmff2 doesn’t seem to pick it up, even when xpad is disabled.

Reading another issue: #171 It seems that the the driver used to force the T128 in Pc mode, because in this situation it was recognized as Thrustmaster Advance Racer in Oversteer. But somehow this doesn’t happen for me even after disabling xpad.

This situation seems quite similar: #158 Only the T248 does have a button to force it into PC mode, which the T128 lacks.

I hope there’s some solution to force the T128 back in PC mode, or another way to solve this situation.

Thanx in advance for the help!

[Kimplul]

Hi, thanks for the report. Your theory is close, several Thrustmaster wheels have this weird two-stage system where the wheel first shows up as a 'generic' wheel, which requires a separate driver to inform each wheel that it is, in fact, a T128 (in this case). This responsibility is with the hid-tminit driver, which is a dependency of this driver. Technically speaking, the Xbox version of the T128 shows up as a raw USB device, so the usb-tminit driver should take care of forcing the T128 into its proper mode, but that doesn't seem to be happening.

I'm not too familiar with Bazzite, but does running sudo modprobe usb-tminit-new report any errors? That's the name of the kernel module that should be getting loaded when the wheel is connected, but apparently it isn't.

[hielkea]

You're correct, it does give an error:
modprobe: FATAL: Module usb-tminit-new not found in directory /lib/modules/6.17.7-ba14.fc43.x86_64

Is there any way to fix this?

[Kimplul]

Installing the driver according to the instructions in the README would be the straightforward answer, but Bazzite is immutable IIUC which complicates things. On SteamOS, you can temporarily make the read-only partition read-write and install things that way, at least until the next system update. I'm not aware of anything like that for Bazzite at the moment. If you find something, please do correct me.

Presumably this is something that should be reported to Bazzite as well, seems like the maintainers might not have realized that this driver has dependencies and needs usb-tminit-new and hid-tminit-new or something along those lines.

[hielkea]

Thanx for the quick reply. I just reported it to Bazzite