i was told to post this in here so here it is.

i am using a microsoft Sidewinder ForceFeedback Joystick to navigate. It has a wheel-like button for throttle adjust. Everything is working fine until i switch to physics mode. there is no chance to get the throttle working. all other buttons (secondary fire and so on) are working. I reassigned the the throttle key in the options menu without any positive result. yes, the "w"-Key is still working.
I am not absolutly sure if this is a bug or i am just to stupid to RTFM.

System is Linux with 2.6.5-mm1 kernel

well, since physics mode has no throttle, the z axis doesnt work for that. Physics mode has only thrust ahead, thrust behind, which requires a constant input. I use my z axis (throttle wheel) for roll, that way i can set a roll and dont have to keep a key pressed for it.

I'm not sure how many buttons the sidewinder has, but my logitech wingman attack 2 has 6, 4 on the stick and 2 on the base, i bound the top 4 buttons to speed up, speed down, primary/secondary fire, and then rebound my w-s / a-d keys to strafe up-down / left right. a combination i find works quite well.

and no, to the best of my knowledge this doesnt appear in the manual.

thank you very much. i will try it this evening.

by the way, the sidewinder has 8 buttons, 4 on the stick and 4 on the base.

You could go into your joystick control settings and change the throttle thing to accel, or whatever the other move forward thing is :P

You can do that humpy, but with the z axis set to accel, you are limited in your options, because it's a full ahead - off - full reverse switch. If you are flying in one direction and want to look another way without changing the course of the ship, you have to find the exact center of the Z-Axis to make sure there is no thrust input. Thats kinda hard to do in combat.