I'm at a loss, can anyone help

[Dunravin]

Hello.

I am an Arch newbie, I have a TrackIR 5 device I have been attempting to get working on linux.

So far I've tried installing linuxtrack as per the instructions but I fail when I get to testing for dependencies as all the dependencies are old and I don't know how to deal with that at my current level or experience.

I have also tried to build linuxtrack from source from this repo and several of the forks but once again I'm getting very lost and have failed.
I've also tried adding linuxtrack from the Aur repositories, there's two versions both out of date and neither work.

I was chatting with some guys on the LUG Star Citizen discord and one suggested Opentrack might be a solution. I can get Opentrack to install but from there I have no idea how to add the necessary things to access the TrackIR hardware as a source or get any output.

I make out from the linuxtrack info that something is needed from TrackIR which is extracted with Wine.

So I guess the main question is persevere with linuxtrack which I know will address the hardware or go the opentrack route which is an unknown as to whether it will accept TrackIR 5 camera input.

I am completely lost, if anyone would be willing to help me I'd be eternally grateful. Some hand holding may be rquired.

Many thanks D.

[Peace-art-cloud]

You're not the only one, pal. I am at my wit's end trying to figure this stuff out to get my TrackIR working. Nothing seems straight forward. I follow one instruction but then it don't work, I try another that works a bit but then don't. then there's no explanation on how to bridge a gap. I've sat here for hours trying to figure this out just to get my Track Ir 5 working. the instructions seem to have gaps, like trying to cross a bridge but then there is no bridge.

It feels like a test: If you're stupid no Linux for you and they just watch us to see how stupid we are. "Use that bridge, kid, yea I know you don't see a bridge, you gotta figure out how to build that bridge to get across. There's some wood over there."

Yes I am total noob too, and the issue is no doubt on our end, but experienced Linux users doesn't seem to understand it may not be obviously clear to us noobies.

Sorry, not meaning to insult anyone, just frustrated,

[fwfa123]

Compiled from several threads on the issue tracker...here are the steps I took to get it running on my distro.
All the highlighted code below is to be copied and entered into your own linux terminal

mkdir -p $HOME/Code

cd $HOME/Code/

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386

cat /etc/os-release
Make a note of your distribution name:
Look for the line with either UBUNTU_CODENAME or VERSION_CODENAME. If both are present, use the name after UBUNTU_CODENAME.
*****info for the above if you need to know https://gitlab.winehq.org/wine/wine/-/wikis/Debian-Ubuntu

sudo mkdir -pm755 /etc/apt/keyrings

sudo wget -O /etc/apt/keyrings/winehq-archive.key https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/winehq.key

My distro is MX Linux 23.3 = Bookworm Debian 12
sudo wget -NP /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/debian/dists/bookworm/winehq-bookworm.sources

sudo apt update

'sudo apt install --install-recommends -y winehq-devel wine-devel-dev git checkinstall build-essential automake bison gawk flex gcc-multilib g++-multilib gobjc gobjc++ libmxml-dev libssl-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev libcwiid-dev libopencv-dev libv4l-dev libqt5opengl5-dev libqt5webkit5-dev libqt5x11extras5-dev qttools5-dev qttools5-dev-tools nsis`
*****For me in the list above the libopencv-dev was a deal killer but my distro already had some opencv libraries so I moved on as I believe it has to do with face tracking support and I would not be using that with my trackir. I also added qt6-dev and qt6-dev-tools to the list as some of the linuxtrack repositories are moving towards qt6 and I added it just in case.

Choose a repo to try...I ran through the list below one repo at a time...downloading and then working through each of the steps shown below all the way until the last step where you run the gui "$HOME/linuxtrack/bin/ltr_gui" if at that point I received an error I backed up to this point and downloaded and tried the next repo. I did this 4 times in my tries and the 4th one worked.
git clone https://github.com/exuvo/linuxtrack.git Failed
git clone https://github.com/rfvizarra/linuxtrack Failed
git clone https://github.com/BarronKane/linuxtrack-qt6 Failed
git clone https://github.com/RavenX8/linuxtrack

cd linuxtrack/

******DEPENDING on which linuxtrack repo you choose you may need to add the following
modify the file ltr_srv_master.cpp and adding #include <pthread.h> as first line. The file is located in the $Home/Code/linuxtrack/src/ folder if you used the steps above
******Once modified or confirmed continue with the below

aclocal

autoupdate

autoconf

automake

./configure --prefix=$HOME/linuxtrack --with-wine-libs=-L/opt/wine-devel/bin

make -j

sudo make install

sudo cp $HOME/linuxtrack/share/linuxtrack/99-TIR.rules /lib/udev/rules.d

reboot

Plug in your Trackir device and enter this in your terminal
$HOME/linuxtrack/bin/ltr_gui
If you have your device plugged in it should say it found device # and launch the gui

[immakyle]

How are you able to have games recognize the head tracking? On steam (through proton), or otherwise? I've only had luck with the built-in X-plane plugin.

[fwfa123]

@immakyle Sorry...nothing yet. I just got this working but I have not had luck with wine or proton at this time. I will update if I get it working in a game under one of these systems

[fwfa123]

@immakyle Some good news, I was able to get Linuxtrack up and running in Falcon 4 using the builtin #HOME/linuxtrack/share/linuxtrack/linuxtrack-wine.exe included when you install Linuxtrack.

I had a lot of back and forth steps trying to figure it out so hopefully the steps below help out..

Install the Trackir firmware, if you have not already. Steps to complete this are shown below.

Launch the ltr gui
$HOME/linuxtrack/bin/ltr_gui

Select the Misc. tab
Click on the Install TrackIR firmware

Here you can download and allow it to install it for you but I went with my install of trackir in wine. I had installed it earlier in wine to see if I could get that to work...nope. So for me I selected "Extract from unpacked" most people will probably use "Extract from installer".

Install the wine bridge app

Now I was not able to use the button on this page to "Install Linuxtrack-Wine support..." so I had to install the support manually.
At this point you should use wine to run this program "#HOME/linuxtrack/share/linuxtrack/linuxtrack-wine.exe" inside of the wine prefix where you have the game installed that you want to use with Linuxtrack. For me this is simple as I use Lutris to run and manage all of my windows games.

In Lutris you select your game from inside the app(Lutris) and then at the bottom of the apps(Lutris) page click the right arrow and select "Run EXE Inside Wine Prefix"

Select the linuxtrack-wine.exe from the directory #HOME/linuxtrack/share/linuxtrack/. Let the installer run and select okay or finish.

Place the missing TIRViews.dll.
Now here is where I did have to have trackir installed in either a windows install, VM windows install, or a wine install of it. For some reason when the firmware is extracted this dll was not being copied over so I had to find a copy of it manually and then track the simlink back to where it was pointing from my wine prefix.

I found the dll in my trackir install directory "C:\Program Files (x86)\NaturalPoint\TrackIR5" again this could be in your trackir install in wine as i had done as a test earlier or in a windows install.
Copy the TIRViews.dll and paste it in the #HOME/.config/linuxtrack/tir_firmware/ folder. You may have to open this folder as root to paste but I was able to open and paste without being root.

That was it...for me I launched my Falcon4 in Lutris and my trackir turned on automatically and was ready to go... I had to check use track ir in my controller advanced settings under Falcon4 BMS.

If you need to update the game profile list, as some need this profile to run, use
~/linuxtrack/bin/ltr_extractor --update

I hope this helps some one and I plan on testing proton in steam soon

[immakyle]

@immakyle Some good news, I was able to get Linuxtrack up and running in Falcon 4 using the builtin #HOME/linuxtrack/share/linuxtrack/linuxtrack-wine.exe included when you install Linuxtrack.

I had a lot of back and forth steps trying to figure it out so hopefully the steps below help out..

Thank you so much for the detailed walkthrough, and I appreciate you getting back to me. These steps are very similar to another post I had found during my initial experimentation with getting linuxtrack working. IIRC they were using protontricks to install the wine-bridge inside game prefix, which seemed to work as expected, but perhaps it was also missing TIRViews.dll. I'll have to give this a try with Lutris over the weekend. Thanks again, this helps a lot!

[fwfa123]

@immakyle You are welcome, I will have to give protontricks a whirl to see what happens.

One other quick thing I wanted to post that may be helpful was another little jewel that @uglyDwarf built in to linuxtrack
Linuxtrack to antimicrox to Joystick/Mouse/Keyboard

Some uses where I apply it is… Janes Longbow2 running in PCEM. Janes Longbow2 has a 3D cockpit mode where the view can be controlled by joystick or the number keypad. I use antimicrox to translate my linuxtrack server output to the Number keypad. You can adjust the speed of your head movement in the longbow ca.ini file.

Another example is running Mechwarrior 2 in dosbox. Mechwarrior 2 uses your mouse to control your torso view and targeting reticle. So I have antimicrox pass the Pitch and Yaw axis to the Mouse and then I can use head tracking in MECH2.

If you do not have antimicrox you can probably install it through your distros software repository. Most of them have this built in to theirs so it is a quick and easy install. Info https://antimicrox.github.io/

Check to see if your user is in the plugdev group.
Run groups in the terminal
groups
If you do not see the plugdev group in the list add your user to that group
sudo usermod -a -G groupname username
Replace the username listed in the command with your user name

Setup the input with these terminal commands. Run one at a time

modprobe uinput
sudo chgrp plugdev /dev/uinput
sudo chmod 660 /dev/uinput

Launch linuxtrack before running the server below.
~/linuxtrack/bin/ltr_gui

Joystick emulation mode:

~/linuxtrack/bin/ltr_pipe --output-file=/dev/uinput --format-uinput-abs
Leave this terminal open

Launch antimicrox...or if you already had it open you should see that it now sees your Linuxtrack as a Joystick. The axis are seen by antimicrox as follows.

• Axis 1 = Yaw
• Axis 2 = Pitch
• Axis 3 = Roll
• Axis 4 =  Move left/right
• Axis 5 Move up/down
• Axis 6 Move backwards/forwards

From here you can start to edit what each axis does.

[immakyle]

@fwfa123 I finally had an opportunity to try out your steps to get linuxtrack working... I honestly can't thank you enough. This is going to significantly improve the small bit of gaming I get to do these days. Also works with proton/steam using the same wine bridge method.

I noticed NaturalPoint has been releasing new firmware in recent months after a long period of no releases (after version 5.4.2). Many have chimed in over the years on their forum requesting a driver that works on linux. Can't say they will do it, but I'm hopeful with the recent releases.

Things to note (for anyone else who comes across this thread):
Distro: Arch (qt4, qtwebkit, openssl-1.0 are available in AUR and nsis, mxml from official repos). Was all I needed to run universal package. Follow build instructions from earlier in this thread to build a working fork from source.

1. I needed to use both a working fork (for a functional wine bridge known as linuxtrack-wine.exe) and the universal package (for an error-free firmware install) to get linuxtrack running properly. Best forks as of the time of writing: RavenX8 and marengohue.

Firmware is installed in .config/linuxtrack. Both forks have issues with installing firmware error-free. "Extract from installer" button resulted in an extraction error, and "Extract from unpacked" worked using my wine prefix (.wine) but resulted in errors in gamedata.txt. I used latest available version of TrackIR firmware (5.5.3). I tested on Arma 3. While the sensor would turn on during game start... there was no input, signaling that wine bridge functioned but something was wrong with the firmware. Took a look at gamedata.txt and noticed "((null))" next to Arma 3 and various other titles. I don't know why this happens but the issue is present on both forks. So, I instead used the universal package to install firmware without problems. Although, even with the universal package...I couldn't use "Extract from installer". I needed to download TrackIR software from the website and use wine to run it. That installs it to the default prefix (.wine). Then use "Extract from unpacked" on .wine directory.

2. I also needed to use the linuxtrack universal package to extract mfc42u.dll from VC6RedistSetup_deu.exe. That dll file is necessary and supposed to be attainable through the "Install Linuxtrack-Wine support..." button, which prompts to download Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 Redistributable package. That button doesn't work on either fork. At times I've also had the download fail using the universal package. If the download fails the workaround for universal package is to search the download link in web browser manually. Once you download the file, then use "Extract from installer" on VC6RedistSetup_deu.exe. Worked for me and it placed mfc42u.dll in ~/.config/linuxtrack/tir_firmware.

3. Since the "Install Linuxtrack-Wine support..." button doesn't work, I needed to manually install the wine bridge/linuxtrack-wine.exe (from linuxtrack fork, not universal package) into the proton prefix. As stated earlier in the thread, you can use Lutris for this. You can also do it in your terminal by using "export WINEPREFIX=/home/username/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/app ID/pfx". The app ID for your desired game can be found by right-clicking game title in steam library, properties, updates. Then use wine to run linuxtrack-wine.exe. A pop up will appear, click through it. When it's complete you'll see Linuxtrack in Program Files (x86) in the proton prefix.

4. Lastly, to update your gamelist.txt you can use ltr_extractor --update. Again, I needed to use the binary provided in the universal package for this otherwise certain titles would be listed as "((null))" and fail to receive input.

[fwfa123]

@immakyle This is some great info..I never was able to get around to the proton side of things. My test was going to be for ARMA3 when I got there. But it appears you solved the issue for me before I got started. Well documented, Thanks again!

[Dunravin]

@fwfa123 Sorry for the late reply. I have been rather busy but finally got around to tinkering with getting the TrackIR working again.

Thanks for all your input and help, it's really appreciated.

I got through the steps to compile with the RavenX8 repo but ended up with no ltr-gui.
I suspect this is because I need qt installed. I have tried again with qt5 and qt6 installed from the arch repositories but no luck.

I am currently building qt4 from an AUR repository and will try to compile linuxtrack again once that's finished. qt3 threw errors so I pray that's not the version I need if in fact my issue is with qt not being present. (Still very wet behind the ears in the linux world)

[EDIT]
qt6-tools qt5-tools got me the gui. Not sure which, don't care. The gui works and TrackIR is tracking!

I was still missing linuxtrack-wine.exe

To get that I checked I had the wine development files

whereis winegcc
whereis wineg++

and install nsis from an Arch AUR repo as per /Code/linuxtrack/src/wine_bridge/README.wine

then edit the linuxtrack configure command

./configure --prefix=$HOME/linuxtrack --with-wine-libs=-L/opt/wine-devel/bin --enable-wine-plugin

and continue with the make as per your instructions.

I have yet to attempt to get tracking working in my steam games but I suspect protontricks will be the way to install the TrackIR stuff to the game prefixes. Will update this post when success.

[Dunravin]

Update -

./ltr_extractor --update did connect and download the sig file but when I check the gamedata.txt file elite dangerous is ((null))

Had to manually copy in TIRView.dll and the other dll, that one I had to download because I could not get the GUI extractor to process VC6RedistSetup_deu.exe. I put them in the game folder where I believe they ought to be but no success getting tracking in Elite although it works fine in the ltr_gui.

[immakyle]

Update -

./ltr_extractor --update did connect and download the sig file but when I check the gamedata.txt file elite dangerous is ((null))

Had to manually copy in TIRView.dll and the other dll, that one I had to download because I could not get the GUI extractor to process VC6RedistSetup_deu.exe. I put them in the game folder where I believe they ought to be but no success getting tracking in Elite although it works fine in the ltr_gui.

You're nearly there. The ((null)) entries are the issue and happens when you use the linuxtrack forks to update gamedata.txt. If you're still on Arch, I recommend gathering as many dependencies as possible (qt4, qtwebkit, openssl-1.0 are available in AUR and nsis, mxml from official repos) to run universal package for installing the firmware and updating games list.

Either that, or since Elite is kind of an older title, redo the install and just don't use ltr_extractor --update. Look at the initial gamedata.txt and see if Elite is there. If so, should work. Only need to update the gamelist for new TrackIR supported titles, in which case you should get the universal package working anyway.

[fwfa123]

@immakyle Glad to hear you are having some success and thank you for publishing your path to getting it running in Arch.
@Dunravin Thank you for the continued responses as they are helping me also.
One thing that has helped me when I could not get a particular game to run is that I will go to the wine environment of the game I am trying to run and under the linuxtrack install folder there are a couple of programs there that you can launch to test the linuxtrack interface without launching the game. Sorry, I am not in front of my PC wthat has linuxtrack, but I believe it is called Tester64.exe . I have found that once I launch that in the environment and it works. I go back to the game and it will then work. Not sure why but it works.

Also, I have had NO luck running inside of proton (Steam). If you guys have any hints or a quick breakdown I would appreciate it. I did install Arch to try and run that route but for some reason QT4 would not compile through AUR. Are you guys running straight Arch and building from the ground up or a Distro such as Manjaro?

[immakyle]

@fwfa123 I'm using straight Arch.

I forgot to mention that I've also had issues with compiling qt4 from the latest 2 commits (pkgver 37 & 38). Last one that works for me is pkgver 36 here. Up top you'll see that you can download the tar.gz.

Extract it:
tar xvf Downloads/aur-5a6bb417c40abec944b564b7c39bae86f4b8884b.tar.gz -C Downloads/

Build & install:
cd Downloads/aur-5a6bb417c40abec944b564b7c39bae86f4b8884b
makepkg -si

Once you have qt4 and the other dependencies I've mentioned in previous post you'll be able to run the universal package. In my experience you need to use it for everything except installing the wine bridge (linuxtrack-wine.exe), which you can do using a working fork. Below I've posted screenshots showing what appears in my directories after completing all the steps. Note the file paths and symlinks. The example directory in the screenshot "1250410" is the app ID for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 on Steam. Also to clarify, don't worry about the dll or exe files you see in .config/linuxtrack. Those are copies/backups of the files we're using. I don't want to lose them in case they become unavailable in the future. As long as the dll files are in tir_firmware and symlinked in the proton prefix, you're good.

I might be able to document my steps with a list of commands, one by one, but I need more time to write that out.