Simagic Alpha and EVO wheel bases on Linux
Simagic direct drive bases on Linux, with their rotation, force feedback and base settings.
- Wheel base
- Simagic
- Driver
- simagic-ff, built with DKMS
- Tested on hardware
- Not yet
Untested on real hardware. These models work in SimRig's tests on simulated devices; nobody has tried them on the real thing yet.
Have one? Try it and tell how it went: about 15 minutes, and it moves your model to tested for everyone.
Models
| Type | Models |
|---|---|
| Wheel bases | Alpha Mini, Alpha, Alpha U, EVO Sport, EVO, EVO Pro |
| Pedals | Pedals plugged into the base |
Driver
The EVO bases, and the Alpha bases on firmware v159 or newer, need simagic-ff, an open source kernel driver by Oleg Makarenko and contributors. SimRig builds it with DKMS only for those bases.
An Alpha on a firmware older than v159 works with the kernel’s own driver: force feedback, but no settings. Use Simagic’s software to change them, or update the firmware.
What you can set
- Rotation, from 90° to 2520°, and force feedback strength.
- The natural damper, friction and inertia, and the strength of the games’ friction, inertia, spring and damper effects.
- The base’s settings: feedback detail, force feedback filter, natural centering, the ring light, slew rate limit, center damper, wheel speed limit, end stop angle and strength.
- Test force feedback, to check the base before opening a game.
Settings are re-applied at every plug-in. Rotation is not: games set it as they start.
Limits
- Rotation changes only with the wheel near the center (within half the new rotation), or the base would lose force feedback until it is plugged in again: SimRig says so.
- Centering is set in Simagic’s software, not in SimRig yet.
- Pedal sets, shifters and handbrakes on their own USB are not supported yet.
Set it up
- Install SimRig from the package for your distribution (Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE, Arch and others).
- Open SimRig, plug the device in and choose Add device. A known model is recognized by itself; a USB shifter or handbrake that no plugin knows is set up by moving it.
- If the device needs a driver, SimRig installs it: it asks for your password once and says why. With Secure Boot on, it may ask for one restart to enroll the drivers' signing key.
- The device appears on the rig and moves live. Its settings apply at once; Save as default keeps them for every time it is plugged in.
From then on the device works in every game, with SimRig closed. If it works in SimRig but not in a game, SimRig checks why (access, kernel driver, Steam Input) and says how to fix it: see the FAQ.