JoyToggle 🕹️

A clean GNOME app for Linux that lets you enable or disable joysticks, throttles, rudder pedals and gamepads without unplugging them.

Built for sim pilots — if you fly with a full HOTAS setup (Virpil, Thrustmaster, CH Products, etc.) you know the pain of non-sim games hijacking your controllers and breaking your layout. JoyToggle solves that.

Features

• Detect all joystick/gamepad devices automatically
• Enable or disable individual devices with a single toggle
• Disable All / Enable All with one password prompt
• Device state persists across reboots via systemd
• Hides irrelevant devices (media keys, mice) automatically
• Manual hide/restore for any device
• Expandable rows show USB path, vendor ID, device path
• Follows system dark/light theme
• Works on Wayland and X11

Requirements

• Linux (tested on Arch, should work on any systemd distro)
• Python 3.8+
• GTK4 + libadwaita
• python-gobject
• polkit (for privilege escalation)
• systemd (for boot persistence)

Installation

Arch Linux (recommended)

git clone https://github.com/Mirkko/joytoggle.git
cd joytoggle
chmod +x install.sh
./install.sh

Other distros

Install dependencies first:

# Ubuntu / Debian
sudo apt install python3 python3-gi gir1.2-gtk-4.0 gir1.2-adw-1 libadwaita-1-dev

# Fedora
sudo dnf install python3 python3-gobject gtk4 libadwaita

# Arch
sudo pacman -S python python-gobject gtk4 libadwaita

Then run the install script:

chmod +x install.sh
./install.sh

Usage

Launch JoyToggle from your app launcher (Super key → search "JoyToggle" or "joystick").

Or run from terminal:

python3 /usr/lib/joytoggle/app.py

Toggling a device requires your password once per session. After authenticating, further toggles in the same session won't prompt again.

Hiding a device — expand a row with the chevron (▾) and click "Hide this device". Hidden devices move to the Hidden Devices section. Auto-hidden devices (media keys, mice) are filtered out automatically.

Boot persistence — your last-known state is restored automatically at boot via a systemd service. If all your controllers are disabled when you shut down, they'll be disabled when you boot up.

Uninstall

chmod +x uninstall.sh
./uninstall.sh

How it works

JoyToggle uses Linux's USB driver bind/unbind mechanism (/sys/bus/usb/drivers/usbhid/) to enable and disable devices at the kernel level — no unplugging required. This works on both X11 and Wayland since it operates below the display server.

Privilege escalation is handled by polkit — the same mechanism GNOME uses for software installation. JoyToggle never runs as root itself.

Device support

JoyToggle detects any device Linux exposes as a joystick (EV_ABS input events). Auto-detected types:

Type	Detected by name
Joystick	joystick, stick, alpha, constellation, warbrd
Throttle	throttle, mongoose, vmax
Rudder Pedals	pedal, rudder, torq
Gamepad	gamepad, xbox, playstation, dualshock
Steering Wheel	wheel, steering

Tested with:

• Virpil VPC Constellation ALPHA-L / ALPHA-R
• Virpil VPC MongoosT / VMAX throttles
• Virpil VPC ACE-TORQ / Rudder pedals
• Xbox controllers
• Generic USB HID joysticks

Contributing

Pull requests welcome. If your device isn't detected correctly, open an issue with the output of:

python3 scanner.py

Credits

This project was built with AI assistance (Claude by Anthropic) for code generation, with direction, testing, and debugging by the author. All code has been tested on real hardware — Virpil HOTAS setup on Arch Linux.

License

GPL v3.