Confused on Steam Play and Proton? Be sure to check out our guide.
We do often include affiliate links to earn us some pennies. See more here.
tagline-image
Jorge Castro from Ubuntu poked me recently (see the G+ comments there for confirmation) to let us know that Ubuntu 15.10 has already been patched for the Steam Controller, and 14.04+ others will have a patch back-ported this week.

It's really great to see them work this out so quickly, as by the time the official release date hits for the Steam Controller, we shouldn't have to face any of the issues the early adopters have.

Alan Pope from Ubuntu mentioned they had access to the hardware, so it's great to see them get in on it early. It would have been a nuisance to have to deal with this after the release, so kudos to the Ubuntu team.

For those not aware, you needed to do a little tweak to get it working correctly on Ubuntu, but this will be a thing of the past! Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
0 Likes
About the author -
author picture
I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly checked on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. You can also follow my personal adventures on Bluesky.
See more from me
The comments on this article are closed.
All posts need to follow our rules. For users logged in: please hit the Report Flag icon on any post that breaks the rules or contains illegal / harmful content. Guest readers can email us for any issues.
8 comments

pd12 Oct 21, 2015
Yay for FOSS philosophies =)
Hope it was Valve sending them free controllers
Nanobang Oct 21, 2015
View PC info
  • Supporter
Will the effect of this patch be limited to the tweak we early adopters already had to fiddle with to get the controller working on Ubuntu? (Jorge: you're our hero.) Or will there be other benefits such as having access to other heretofore unknown functions, or (IwishIwishIwish) being able to use the controller on the desktop itself?
jorge Oct 21, 2015
@picoboom The fixed package just does what the workaround details except it does it correctly. The controller should be working on the desktop (I haven't tried it myself on the desktop session yet).
Purple Library Guy Oct 21, 2015
Good to hear. With a little luck that fix will propagate over to Mint soon as well! (I'm sort of assuming the original problem would also have existed on Mint)
tuubi Oct 21, 2015
View PC info
  • Supporter Plus
With a little luck that fix will propagate over to Mint soon as well! (I'm sort of assuming the original problem would also have existed on Mint)
Mint 17 builds on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, which means Mint will get the update as soon as it appears in Trusty's repositories.
t3g Oct 21, 2015
If Canonical is adding things to the kernel, you should ask them to patch in the latest xpad driver from https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steamos_kernel/blob/brewmaster-3.18/drivers/input/joystick/xpad.c which adds support for the newer Xbox One controllers that ship with consoles and what you buy in stores.

As of right now, it does not get detected and forces us to use a DKMS package from https://launchpad.net/~mdeslaur/+archive/ubuntu/steamos which adds support from the SteamOS kernel.


Last edited by t3g on 21 October 2015 at 6:50 pm UTC
Guest Oct 21, 2015
what kind of issue does this fix? Because I got mine today and it works *great* in Big Picture but no game seems to listen to it at all. Completely not working. It also only seems to work as a mouse when you have steam running. Did the controller work at all without this fix for you? Or is this fix about solving the fact that no game can use the controller?
Guest Oct 21, 2015
Well Portal 2 works excellent with the controllers buttons in game and all but all other games are totally not working at all. Is this really it? Because the user experience kind of sucks. Big Picture just freezes when returning from a game that did not know of the controller and then you cant even use the controller until you restart Steam. It's kind of totally broken.
While you're here, please consider supporting GamingOnLinux on:

Reward Tiers: Patreon. Plain Donations: PayPal.

This ensures all of our main content remains totally free for everyone! Patreon supporters can also remove all adverts and sponsors! Supporting us helps bring good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!

You can find even more ways to support us on this dedicated page any time. If you already are, thank you!
The comments on this article are closed.