TAITO USB Paddle & Trackball Controller Driver

Linux driver for the TAITO USB Paddle & Trackball Controller (USB ID 0ae4:0701).

The driver reports trackball and paddle movement as horizontal and vertical mouse-wheel events. It is primarily designed for RePlay OS, which can translate those events into mouse X/Y coordinates. On another system or emulator, configure the input mappings accordingly.

Analog Speed

Different games require different speed adjustments for optimal control. If you find that the trackball or paddle is not functioning as expected, try adjusting the sensitivity settings in your emulator or core options to achieve the desired responsiveness.

Requirements

• GNU Make and a C compiler
• Headers matching the target Linux kernel

On Debian-based distributions, the required packages can usually be installed with:

sudo apt install build-essential linux-headers-"$(uname -r)"

Build and Install

Build and install the module for the running kernel:

make -j"$(nproc)"
sudo make install
sudo modprobe taito_pt

The module is installed under /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/extra/. To reload it after rebuilding, first run sudo modprobe -r taito_pt, then load it again.

Build Options

Run make help for the complete target and override list. For example:

make modules
make KERNEL_RELEASE=6.12.0-rpi-2712 modules
make KDIR=/path/to/kernel/build modules
make DESTDIR=/tmp/taito-pt-package install

KERNEL_RELEASE defaults to the running kernel, and KDIR defaults to its build directory under /lib/modules/.

Uninstallation

Remove the installed module with:

sudo modprobe -r taito_pt
sudo make uninstall

Blacklist the Default HID Driver

By default, the controller is managed by the standard HID driver. To allow this custom driver to bind to the device, add the following parameter to the kernel command line. On Raspberry Pi systems, append it to the existing single line in cmdline.txt:

usbhid.quirks=0x0ae4:0x0701:0x0004

Reboot after changing the kernel command line.

License

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License version 2 only. See LICENSE for details.