Trouble Shooting USB Jogging with an Xbox Controller

I've been having some issues in getting a wired Xbox360 controller working with LinuxCNC and could use some words of wisdom.
I've set up the controller in the Pncconf wizard:
 

I've ran the configuration in LinuxCNC but pressing the relevant controllers yields no result. However the meter does show the expected signals:
 

Any suggestions on what I am missing?

is the machine homed?

I haven't added limit switches yet, that's further down the line.

Pncconf probably didn't get updated to set up unhomed joint jogging for the joystick.
So it must be homed before jogging works.
You don't need limit switches to home.

Is there a way to disable that requirement?

Sure. Can you post your config files.
You could also home an axis/the machine and try the joystick to see if that is actually the problem.

I have an XBOX controller working with my 3 axis cnc, have been using it for a year now. The only issue I have is that the Y axis is reversed. Pulling the left hand joystick back moves the table forward, which has cost me a few end mills. 

I've tried using Jscal and Jstest-gtk to reverse the direction of that axis and it does show up as moving correctly in Jstest but still moves the same way in linuxCNC. Any ideas?