I think the easier route to solve the problem with joysticks is to find an older kernel image for your distro… If i understand correctly, you'll have to download and manually install the following packages:

• http://packages.ubuntu.com/hardy-updates/linux-image-generic
• http://packages.ubuntu.com/hardy-updates/linux-image-2.6.24-22-generic
• http://packages.ubuntu.com/hardy-updates/linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.24-22-generic

I might have forgotten some dependencies… it's quite hard to guess them all as i don't know all the details e.g. you might have an nvidia card and installing an older kernel image would then require another version of the nvidia kernel module (a.k.a. video card driver).

To manually install:

1. switch to root by executing sudo -i in a terminal.
2. change directory to where you've downloaded the .deb files [corresponding to your cpu architecture]
3. execute dpkg -i <your .deb files separated by a space> (w/o the <> of course)

You'll have to reboot. When your machine is booting, at one point, you'll have 2 seconds to press Esc in order to access the [grub] boot menu. Press Esc!

The menu you'll get in will allow you to boot using the 2.6.24 kernel image.

See if that does the trick. You may want to use jstest /dev/input/js0 to see if your joystick works.

If it does not, you might have to update your kernel joystick module (e.g. xpad) to add the VendorID and DeviceID. See how i've added my Rock Band 1 Drum Set to xpad.