Walkera helicopters on Linux, part 2

In part one we built a kernel module and put it somewhere in the filesystem. In this part, we’re going to tell the inputattach utility what to do with it.

I assume you followed the directions in part 1, as you will need the build-essentials and the debian-helper, devscripts and fakeroot packages to be able to build a new inputattach utility.

First, get the source code for inputattach:
$ apt-get source inputattach

Also, download the patch file. You may cut and paste it from http://www.mail-archive.com/ … /msg00276.html, but you can also download inputattach-123-zhenhua.patch.
then go to the subdirectory that contains the code, and type
$ patch < ../inputattach-123-zhenhua.patch

Please note that this patch also contains a “define” statement for the SERIO_ZHENHUA constant. This should normally not be necessary, but as we compiled a half-baked kernel in part 1, we need this. This is bad coding practice, don’t run your nuclear reactor on this (even though the GPL permits you to do that).

Anyway, now change the Debian Release number:

EMAIL=your.mail@address.invalid dch -D UNRELEASED -n

Change the last version number to a “0” to be safe. This forces dpkg to upgrade your inputattach utility, should an upgrade be available. Also, we change the target distribution to UNRELEASED, as we won’t put this file on the internet.

Now build the package:

debian/rules build && fakeroot debian/rules binary

We have our software ready now; you only need to install it with

$ sudo dpkg -i ../inputattach_1.23-0ubuntu2.0_i386.deb

You are now ready for step 3, profit the Heli-X helicopter simulator.