How to bind keyboard controls to controller on Linux

Controller support for Linux games is excellent, thanks to Steam and the Linux kernel. However, not every video game available on the Linux platform brings controller support. Some games require a keyboard and mouse, and that’s a bummer if you prefer a gamepad.

Introducing AntiMicroX, a simple program that allows you to bind any keyboard/mouse control to a gamepad button. Here’s how to use it.

Installing AntiMicroX on Linux

There are quite a few ways to install the AntiMicroX application on Linux. Currently, the app is supported on Ubuntu and Debian via a downloadable DEB package, Arch Linux via the AUR, and Flatpak and AppImage. In this section of the guide, we will focus on all installation methods.

To start the installation of AntiMicroX on your Linux PC, open up a terminal window. Once the terminal window is open on your Linux PC and ready to use, follow the command-line installation instructions outlined below that corresponds with the Linux distribution you currently use.

Ubuntu

On Ubuntu, the AntiMicroX app is installable via a downloadable DEB package. To get your hands on the latest DEB, open up a terminal window and use the following wget downloader command below.

wget https://github.com/AntiMicroX/antimicrox/releases/download/3.1.3/antimicrox-3.1.3-amd64.deb -O ~/Downloads/antimicrox-3.1.3-amd64.deb

Once the downloading process is complete, use the CD command to move the terminal session into the “Downloads” directory, where the DEB package was saved to.

cd ~/Downloads

Finally, install AntiMicroX on your Ubuntu Linux PC using the Apt command below.

sudo apt install ./antimicrox-3.1.3-amd64.deb

Debian

As there is a DEB package available, AntiMicroX will work on Debian. To get the app set up, you must download the latest version of the package using the wget command.

wget https://github.com/AntiMicroX/antimicrox/releases/download/3.1.3/antimicrox-3.1.3-amd64.deb -O ~/Downloads/antimicrox-3.1.3-amd64.deb

The download will take a couple of seconds to complete. When it does, use the CD command to move your terminal session into the “Downloads” directory to begin the installation.

cd ~/Downloads

Once inside the “Downloads” directory, the installation can begin. Using the dpkg, get the latest version of AntiMicroX working on Debian.

sudo dpkg -i antimicrox-3.1.3-amd64.deb

During the installation of the AntiMicroX DEB package, some errors may have occurred. To fix this, execute the command below.

sudo apt-get install -f

Arch Linux

AntiMicroX is available on Arch Linux via the AUR. To start the installation of the app on your system, get the Trizen AUR helper working. Trizen makes building AUR apps much more comfortable.

sudo pacman -S git base-devel 

git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/trizen.git 

cd trizen 

makepkg -sri

With the Trizen AUR helper taken care of, AntiMicroX is ready to be installed on your Linux PC. Using the trizen -S command below, get the app working.

trizen -S antimicrox

Flatpak

AntiMicroX is in the Flathub app store as a Flatpak. To get it working, start by enabling the Flatpak runtime. To set up the runtime, follow this guide on the subject.

After setting up the Flatpak runtime on your system, you will be able to install AntiMicroX on your Linux PC with the two commands below.

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo 

flatpak install flathub io.github.antimicrox.antimicrox

AppImage

AntiMicroX is available as an AppImage. To get it working, create a new “AppImages” folder, download it with wget, and start it with the execution command.

mkdir -p ~/AppImages/

cd ~/AppImages/

wget https://github.com/AntiMicroX/antimicrox/releases/download/3.1.3/AntiMicroX-x86_64.AppImage

chmod +x AntiMicroX-x86_64.AppImage

./AntiMicroX-x86_64.AppImage

Bind keyboard controls to controller with AntiMicroX

To use AntiMicroX to bind controls, follow the step-by-step instructions below.

Step 1: Open up AntiMicroX on your Linux PC by searching for it in the app menu. Once the app is open, plug in your gaming controller and allow the app to detect it.

Step 2: When AntiMicroX detects your controller, you will see every button on your detected gaming controller shown. These buttons say, “[NO KEY]” to show that no keys are assigned yet.

To assign a key, look through the list of mappable buttons in AntiMicroX, and click on one. Once you click on an unmapped button, a keyboard diagram will appear.

Select one of the keys on the keyboard to map it to the button. Or, if you’d like to map a mouse movement/button to the controller, select the “Mouse” tab, and choose one of those options.

Step 3: Once all of the keys are bound in AntiMicroX, find the “Save As” button, and select it. Selecting this button will allow you to save your configuration to a file that can be accessed later.