Microsoft Sidewinder X6 Special Keys not working

[Matthias Schrumpf]

I am using sidewinderd with my Microsoft Sidewinder X6 keyboard. No input is being detected from keys S1 through to S12.
The numpad only works when it's in regular mode. When it is switched to Special Key mode (yellow lighting), no input can be detected.
S13, the media keys and the turbo key work as expected.
The profile switcher and the special key switcher labeled [1|2] at least have an effect on the lights on the keyboard. No statement can be made about their functionality or that of the macro recording key.

Operating System: Arch Linux
KDE Plasma Version: 5.22.0
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.82.0
Qt Version: 5.15.2
Kernel Version: 5.12.9-arch1-1 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: X11

[Tolga Cakir]

Hi there,

sorry for the very late answer. Unfortunately, I was not able to reproduce your issue on my Arch Linux install w/ kernel 5.12.14-arch1-1 and SideWinder X6 keyboard.

The turbo key and the key switcher [1|2] are hardware internal, so they're expected to work without any driver support.

In contrast, S13 (in macro mode; when your numpad is orange) and profile switching (including LEDs 1, 2, 3) require driver support, so we have a mixed situation here. I suspect there is a configuration or permission error somewhere.

Please check the following:

1. Is the user in /etc/sidewinderd.conf correctly set as your desktop user?
2. Are the folders ~/.local/share/sidewinderd/profile_[1-3] existing, writable and owned by your desktop user?
3. Please stop sidewinderd service (sudo systemctl stop sidewinderd) and run it in the terminal instead. You will get debugging output.

Also please keep in mind, per default, S1 - S30 are not configured to do anything at all. You need to record macros first. E.g.:

1. For testing purposes, make sure you're on profile 1 (profile LED 1 lights up)
2. Press the recording key (LED next to it lights up)
3. Press S4 key (recording LED blinks now), you will get the message "Start Macro Recording on /dev/input/eventX" in terminal window
4. Press a few keys
5. Press recording key again (LED turns off)
6. Please check, if the file ~/.local/share/sidewinderd/profile_1/s4.xml has been created
7. Press S4 and make sure your macro plays back successfully

Thank you very much!

Cheers,
Tolga

[Matthias Schrumpf]

Hi Tolga,
thank you for your answer.

1. Is the user in `/etc/sidewinderd.conf` correctly set as your desktop user?

2. Are the folders `~/.local/share/sidewinderd/profile_[1-3]` existing, writable and owned by your desktop user?

3. Please stop sidewinderd service (`sudo systemctl stop sidewinderd`) and run it in the terminal instead. You will get debugging output.

The config has the correct user and the folders are where they are supposed to be, so everything seems to be fine there.
Stopping the service and simply putting sidewinderd into the terminal yielded the following:

sidewinderd: error while loading shared libraries: libtinyxml2.so.7: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

The command systemctl status sidewinderd yielded the foillowing:

sidewinderd.service - Support for Microsoft SideWinder X4 / X6 and Logitech G105 / G710+
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/sidewinderd.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
     Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Tue 2021-07-06 12:46:17 CEST; 10s ago
   Main PID: 50339 (code=exited, status=127)
        CPU: 558us

Jul 06 12:46:17 schratzinsel systemd[1]: Started Support for Microsoft SideWinder X4 / X6 and Logitech G105 / G710+.
Jul 06 12:46:17 schratzinsel sidewinderd[50339]: /usr/bin/sidewinderd: error while loading shared libraries: libtinyxml2.so.7: cannot open >
Jul 06 12:46:17 schratzinsel systemd[1]: sidewinderd.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=127/n/a
Jul 06 12:46:17 schratzinsel systemd[1]: sidewinderd.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

So I seem to be missing library libtinyxml2.so.7. I checked and I have tinyxml and tinyxml2 installed via my OS's package manager. I cannot find any other packages, installed or not installed, with a name that would fit more closely in the repositories. Do you have any idea what package I could be missing or what the real issue could be?

Thank you very much!

[Tolga Cakir]

I've seen this error before. It happens, whenever there is a new version of tinyxml2. You need to recompile / rebuild sidewinderd with a clean build directory in that case. We saw this issue in #18.