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Ubuntu 17.10 and problems with Steam Controller
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Mountain Man Nov 6, 2017
Edit: It seems that disabling "Generic controller support" is the solution. Go into Big Picture Mode, click the gear icon in the upper right corner, and then look for Steam Controller settings.

Original post follows:

----------

Putting this here in case anybody does a random internet search and wants some information about this problem. It seems that the Ubuntu 17.10 update broke the Steam Controller. In my case, the Controller would work correctly on the desktop, in Big Picture Mode, and in some games like XCOM 2 and Rogue Legacy, but not in other games like Mad Max, Shadow of Mordor, and Dying Light even though it seemed to load the correct profile based on what I could tell from the haptic feedback -- the games in question simply didn't recognize the controller. Rolling back to Kubuntu 16.04.3 LTS resolved the issue, and now my Steam Controller is 100% functional again.

Here's the thread I started on the Steam Forums where a couple other people confirmed the issue:

http://steamcommunity.com/app/353370/discussions/0/1480982971174005978/

And a thread I stumbled across on the Ubuntu forums describing the same problem:

https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2375973

Hopefully it gets fixed and I can go back to 17.10, but I guess sticking with a long-term service release isn't so bad.
Arehandoro Nov 8, 2017
Funny enough, I stumbled upon this post searching for this same issue. Though I'm on Debian unstable. I don't exactly know when this started to happen but noticed it yesterday after doing some full-upgrade, that changed few dependencies, to get few new nvidia packages and gnome updates. Since Ubuntu 17.10 has changed to gnome, could the latest version of any its packages be the culprit?

Will try to check what upgrades were left out in the process and see if I can find something.
Mountain Man Nov 9, 2017
I'm actually running Kubuntu which uses KDE, so it seems the problem is not tied to any one desktop environment.
Arehandoro Nov 9, 2017
Quoting: Mountain ManI'm actually running Kubuntu which uses KDE, so it seems the problem is not tied to any one desktop environment.

Oh I see, hopefully it's fixed by Saturday cause have some mates coming over and would love to play with the steam controllers instead of reinstalling other os from scratch haha.
Arehandoro Nov 9, 2017
I'm at work and can't test this yet, although I might have an idea why this happened to me and maybe potential Ubuntu users.

I recently updated the kernel to 4.13, which is the same that Ubuntu 17.10 uses, and probably that's the moment my Steam Controller started misbehaving. Last night thought of it, tried to start the PC with kernel 4.12.2 but failed. First I thought this could be due to the full-upgrade and the newly installed nvidia packages from it so didn't try this further, was very late and didn't want to continue, but now I'm thinking that the combination of these two could be the cause of the problem.

I will try to downgrade the kernel tonight and post here the results.
Redface Nov 9, 2017
I just tried Mad Max vulkan beta on Ubuntu 17.10 and kernel 4.13 and my steam controller worked. I only walked a around a bit so didnt check all actions.

Do you have the steam-devices package installed? It contains the udev rules for the steam and other controllers.
Arehandoro Nov 10, 2017
Quoting: RedfaceI just tried Mad Max vulkan beta on Ubuntu 17.10 and kernel 4.13 and my steam controller worked. I only walked a around a bit so didnt check all actions.

Do you have the steam-devices package installed? It contains the udev rules for the steam and other controllers.

Yeah, and also checked the udev rules and are still there (both in /etc/udev/rules.d/ and in /usr/lib/udev/rules.d) although I only could find two rules, one from the sc controller app and the other from the steam controller itself... I would have thought there were more.

The udev rule looked like this:

Quote# This rule is needed for basic functionality of the controller in Steam and keyboard/mouse emulation
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="28de", MODE="0666"

# This rule is necessary for gamepad emulation; make sure you replace 'pgriffais' with a group that the user that runs Steam belongs to
KERNEL=="uinput", MODE="0660", GROUP="pgriffais", OPTIONS+="static_node=uinput"

# Valve HID devices over USB hidraw
KERNEL=="hidraw*", ATTRS{idVendor}=="28de", MODE="0666"

# Valve HID devices over bluetooth hidraw
KERNEL=="hidraw*", KERNELS=="*28DE:*", MODE="0666"

# DualShock 4 over USB hidraw
KERNEL=="hidraw*", ATTRS{idVendor}=="054c", ATTRS{idProduct}=="05c4", MODE="0666"

# DualShock 4 wireless adapter over USB hidraw
KERNEL=="hidraw*", ATTRS{idVendor}=="054c", ATTRS{idProduct}=="0ba0", MODE="0666"

# DualShock 4 Slim over USB hidraw
KERNEL=="hidraw*", ATTRS{idVendor}=="054c", ATTRS{idProduct}=="09cc", MODE="0666"

# DualShock 4 over bluetooth hidraw
KERNEL=="hidraw*", KERNELS=="*054C:05C4*", MODE="0666"

# DualShock 4 Slim over bluetooth hidraw
KERNEL=="hidraw*", KERNELS=="*054C:09CC*", MODE="0666"

And it had rw_r_r permissions and user and group ownership were for root, in case that's wrong.

I have also bumped into this https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/5169 right now but not very sure whether that could be the problem, would have to check tonight again.

I tried with kernel 4.12 and 4.9 and didn't fix it (would have been too much luck haha)

EDIT: Worth saying that this is driving me bonkers just because of Rocket League and my mates coming over on the weekend, the other games that I usually play so far work as usual xD
Redface Nov 10, 2017
I only have it at /lib/udev/rules.d/99-steam-controller-perms.rules

and it looks like this:

more /lib/udev/rules.d/99-steam-controller-perms.rules
# Valve USB devices
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="28de", MODE="0666"
# Steam Controller udev write access
KERNEL=="uinput", SUBSYSTEM=="misc", TAG+="uaccess"

# Valve HID devices over USB hidraw
KERNEL=="hidraw*", ATTRS{idVendor}=="28de", MODE="0666"

# Valve HID devices over bluetooth hidraw
KERNEL=="hidraw*", KERNELS=="*28DE:*", MODE="0666"

# DualShock 4 over USB hidraw
KERNEL=="hidraw*", ATTRS{idVendor}=="054c", ATTRS{idProduct}=="05c4", MODE="0666
"

# DualShock 4 wireless adapter over USB hidraw
KERNEL=="hidraw*", ATTRS{idVendor}=="054c", ATTRS{idProduct}=="0ba0", MODE="0666
"

# DualShock 4 Slim over USB hidraw
KERNEL=="hidraw*", ATTRS{idVendor}=="054c", ATTRS{idProduct}=="09cc", MODE="0666
"

# DualShock 4 over bluetooth hidraw
KERNEL=="hidraw*", KERNELS=="*054C:05C4*", MODE="0666"

# DualShock 4 Slim over bluetooth hidraw
KERNEL=="hidraw*", KERNELS=="*054C:09CC*", MODE="0666"

with these permissions:

ls -l /lib/udev/rules.d/99-steam-controller-perms.rules
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 901 Nov 24  2016 /lib/udev/rules.d/99-steam-controller-perms.rules

I just checked Rocket League and Dying Lights and my steam controller worked in both
drlamb Nov 10, 2017
Same issue here. Running the latest kernel with AMD_Staging stuff and the latest MESA/LLVM, but I doubt that has anything to do with it. Hasn't worked since day one on 17.10. Frustrating.

Edit: I just realized my udev rules had preceding #s due to the way I copied them. I'll need to retest once I get home from work but I imagine it will work now. I'm an idiot sometimes.
Arehandoro Nov 11, 2017
Quoting: RedfaceI only have it at /lib/udev/rules.d/99-steam-controller-perms.rules

and it looks like this:

more /lib/udev/rules.d/99-steam-controller-perms.rules
# Valve USB devices
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="28de", MODE="0666"
# Steam Controller udev write access
KERNEL=="uinput", SUBSYSTEM=="misc", TAG+="uaccess"

# Valve HID devices over USB hidraw
KERNEL=="hidraw*", ATTRS{idVendor}=="28de", MODE="0666"

# Valve HID devices over bluetooth hidraw
KERNEL=="hidraw*", KERNELS=="*28DE:*", MODE="0666"

# DualShock 4 over USB hidraw
KERNEL=="hidraw*", ATTRS{idVendor}=="054c", ATTRS{idProduct}=="05c4", MODE="0666
"

# DualShock 4 wireless adapter over USB hidraw
KERNEL=="hidraw*", ATTRS{idVendor}=="054c", ATTRS{idProduct}=="0ba0", MODE="0666
"

# DualShock 4 Slim over USB hidraw
KERNEL=="hidraw*", ATTRS{idVendor}=="054c", ATTRS{idProduct}=="09cc", MODE="0666
"

# DualShock 4 over bluetooth hidraw
KERNEL=="hidraw*", KERNELS=="*054C:05C4*", MODE="0666"

# DualShock 4 Slim over bluetooth hidraw
KERNEL=="hidraw*", KERNELS=="*054C:09CC*", MODE="0666"

with these permissions:

ls -l /lib/udev/rules.d/99-steam-controller-perms.rules
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 901 Nov 24  2016 /lib/udev/rules.d/99-steam-controller-perms.rules

I just checked Rocket League and Dying Lights and my steam controller worked in both

I have removed the rules from the other entries and left only one as you have it, copying also the info just in case I had a typo but still same issue :/

Thanks for your help though :)

EDIT: Changed back to "Opt out of Steam Betas" and the controller started working on all the games now. As usual, I should have started from the most basic thing xD I hope this also can fix the issue to everyone else.
Mountain Man Nov 12, 2017
Quoting: RedfaceI only have it at /lib/udev/rules.d/99-steam-controller-perms.rules

and it looks like this:

more /lib/udev/rules.d/99-steam-controller-perms.rules
# Valve USB devices
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="28de", MODE="0666"
# Steam Controller udev write access
KERNEL=="uinput", SUBSYSTEM=="misc", TAG+="uaccess"

# Valve HID devices over USB hidraw
KERNEL=="hidraw*", ATTRS{idVendor}=="28de", MODE="0666"

# Valve HID devices over bluetooth hidraw
KERNEL=="hidraw*", KERNELS=="*28DE:*", MODE="0666"

# DualShock 4 over USB hidraw
KERNEL=="hidraw*", ATTRS{idVendor}=="054c", ATTRS{idProduct}=="05c4", MODE="0666
"

# DualShock 4 wireless adapter over USB hidraw
KERNEL=="hidraw*", ATTRS{idVendor}=="054c", ATTRS{idProduct}=="0ba0", MODE="0666
"

# DualShock 4 Slim over USB hidraw
KERNEL=="hidraw*", ATTRS{idVendor}=="054c", ATTRS{idProduct}=="09cc", MODE="0666
"

# DualShock 4 over bluetooth hidraw
KERNEL=="hidraw*", KERNELS=="*054C:05C4*", MODE="0666"

# DualShock 4 Slim over bluetooth hidraw
KERNEL=="hidraw*", KERNELS=="*054C:09CC*", MODE="0666"

with these permissions:

ls -l /lib/udev/rules.d/99-steam-controller-perms.rules
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 901 Nov 24  2016 /lib/udev/rules.d/99-steam-controller-perms.rules

I just checked Rocket League and Dying Lights and my steam controller worked in both
No luck. I did a fresh install of Kubuntu 17.10, created the udev rules, and exact same behavior as before: game doesn't detect the Steam Controller even though the correct profile is loaded. I'm not opted into the Steam beta.
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