Updated HID Drivers in Linux 4.19 Kernel Support Wiimote Instruments for Rock Band and Guitar Hero

It would appear that a “Wiimote” driver has existed in the Linux kernel for the Nintendo Wii remote since 2011, but being an unofficial hardware driver, it hasn’t exactly worked with some of the devices that can interface with the Wiimite such as the instruments for Rock Band and Guitar Hero. Well, guess what? Now it does, thanks to some development in that regards on the Linux 4.19 kernel.

Even though the Nintendo Wii is discontinued for several years now, a Linux developer has gotten the guitar and drum kits for Guitar Hero and Rock Band to work with the Wiimote while attached to Linux. The method is based on some never-mainlined patches from a few years ago, but the patches have been updated to work with the latest kernel / HID interfaces.

The driver for this update to the Wiimote HID driver is just around 500 lines of code, and it will be going into the mainline kernel as part of the Linux 4.19 HID subsystem pull request. So, owners of a Wiimote and instrumental peripherals for Rock Band and / or Guitar Hero, prepare to rock out with your CLI out?

As an additional related news, the Linux 4.19 kernel now has support for the Microsoft Surface Dial and Dell Totem devices. The needed improvements were developed by Red Hat, although user-space components still need a bit of polishing for these newer types of input devices to properly function.

Amongst the HID development for Linux 4.19 includes a handful of Wacom driver fixes, low voltage handling in the i2c-hid driver, palm rejection support, and some other enhancements. Some of the ID additions are for devices such as the touchpads on the HP X2 10-n000nd, and the Toshiba Click Mini L9W.

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