steam stable and beta can handle only one wireless radio at a time:either the link or the one on the steam machine

[ardje]

• Steam beta and stable > 20 december 2016
• steamos (up to date by menu and apt-get) (with some minor repo's added)
• steam link beta and stable

(Sorry about the font, I have no idea why that happens as none of the text contains bold or header markup)
I've copied this from my post on: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/SteamClientBeta/discussions/0/154644705025553340
the main bug is main bug(3)

paste

So after the large udev change, I've sat down again and again. I hooked up my 4th controller that was just pristine in a box.
My original experience was this: since the 22 nov. update I turned on steam link with wireless controller, I selected my computer, and bam. Nothing. The controller was linked, as it takes the very long steam button press to turn off. But nothing else.
I took out my new controller. Next to the steam machine the first time powerup with a usb cable connect, steam beta refused to recognise it as a steam controller that needed to be upgraded. It was an ordinary joystick. So I tried adding it as a wireless controller, which led to tripple confirmation and searching popups.

BUG (1):

steam client cannot handle accidental multiple selects, which happens if a wired new steam controller is not correctly recognised and handled as one. It will add a new "add steam controller" thread for each click

As nothing really worked, I added it to the steam link, which worked!
It immediately wanted to update the firmware, and then it seemed finished. Odd, since it did not react anymore. So while turning off the link I walked upstairs to try a firmware upgrade again on the steam machine.
At which moment I just saw the "retrying firmware update as the radio signal is to bad" dissappear since I finally managed to turn off the steam controller.

BUG (2):

As soon as the firmware update started, the steam link screen updates stopped. This bug is actually an issue thanks to the main bug (as it will not pair through the link):

So the radio on the steam machine was to loud or something else was amiss....
I removed the radio from the steam machine.
And lo an behold: I could add-controller, pull the cable and then pair on the steam link.
Everything works!
I plug in the radio in the steam machine, and that does not work. So I reboot and it works again!
So I walk to my link, press steam+A and yes, I have connection to the link, connect the link to the steam machine, and nothing.
Disconnect the link, remove the radio from the steam machine and it works, while the steam controller has not disconnected from the link in all that time...
If I put back the radio in the steam machine, nothing, but the steam controller is connected.
If I then disconnect the link using the other one that is connected, the radio is accepted, and the steam controller that was already connected for over a minute was suddenly seen.
So I tried the same the other way around: I connected the link again, pulled the radio from the steam machine, and then the still not disconnected steamcontroller from the link immediately got recognised.

MAIN BUG (3):

Steam is only able to handle one radio at a time. If you add a new radio, like a steam link connection, it will ignore that one until the old radio disappears (pull the usb dongle, or disconnect the link). All the controllers connected to that new radio will not be able to do anything.
This worked before that dreaded udev change, so whatever refactoring was done to have that probably also borked this.

Please take a good look at this bug, as this has creeped into stable, and it is annoying, as I have to remove the radio from the steam machine when turning on the link. And I have to make sure the steam link is disconnected before I can use the steam machine locally.

Ignore Bug(1) and (2), I probably have to make seperate issues of them.

[ardje]

Hi guys,
The 2017-01-05 release seems to have fixed it.
I can have 2 radios active again. I can turn off the steam link from my steam machine and see the controller connected to the steam link disappear.
So this bug seems to be fixed with the 1483649853 beta release of jan 5 2017 18:41:05
I will switch to stable to check if the issue re-appears ;-).

[ardje]

Ok, switching to stable, restart steam-client, everything works.
Restart steam-machine and steam stable works as bad as reported: the controller on the link is ignored.
Restarting the steam client probably forgets to restart the steam controller daemon, which might be the reason why you guys missed the problem in the first case :-).
Now switching back to beta.
restart steam-client: The controller on the link is ignored until I pull the radio on the steam machine.
restart steam-machine: The controller on the link is ignored....
Why oh why did I switch back to stable and back... why :-( Somebody hit me.

[ardje]

http://steamcommunity.com/app/353380/discussions/0/142261027580701862/?tscn=1484044231#c142261027582841042
I am not the only one, but for now the only report is on linux.
I have to test the 9 jan beta...

[ardje]

9 january update did not work. Log out and log in did not work.
Anyway: if you can't reproduce but have an idea what it is and that it's important: if you have an ssh key and IPv6, I can arrange access to the steam machine.
As far as I understand now, the client is able to support multiple radios, as exhibited by my initial cheer. But a configuration or system thing somewhere is broken.
I already noticed it's not a seperate daemon.
So 5 jan release -> cheers, happy happy joy joy.
Switch to stable to test -> still works happy happy joy joy.
Reboot system -> doesn't work anymore.
The handling/driver is inside the steam, so it was not a seperate daemon.
Restarting the stable client should have borked immediately, unless something else changes after a reboot.
Temporary files/radio configuration that is reset after a reboot? But why is the issue not fixed by switching back to unstable?

[ardje]

With steam link beta 606 and steam beta 1489101908 (2017-03-09), steamos on beta, the problem has changed:
The steam controller on the link now behaves as a mouse without buttons...
I can move the big picture mouse cursor (big picture has no mouse cursor with the steam controller) when connected and nothing else really has a function.
If I then remove the RF-dongle from the steam machine, I get the message that a steam controller has been recognised... The steam controller has not been turned off, or reconnected. The moment I unplug it, the controllers connected to the link are recognised..

[ardje]

"The steam controller on the link now behaves as a mouse without buttons..."
I can now say it behaves as a mouse with buttons: left, right button, and that's it.

[ardje]

http://steamcommunity.com/app/353380/discussions/0/133261124633366572
At least one other reporter.

[ardje]

Hi guys,
The update of 2017-05-08 seems to have fixed it.
I will do some more thorough testing later today, update with findings and then close?
As a real nerd/programmer I would love to know what exactly was the bug though...
Anyway test story so far.
I turned on steam link with sc1, connected to steam machine and sc1 was "immediately" recognized (about 5s. at most to switch from mouse mode to controller mode). Then I went to the machine, turned on sc2, and there they were... both happily mentioned in the controller overview..
Turned off steam link through sc2, and sc1 disappeared.

[ardje]

Ok, I did some "more testing". Basically the same :-). I can use both controllers, there is no radio lock-out anymore. I still want some feedback on the internals though. Kisak: you can whisper it to me on freenode ;-).
Closing as I don't see what else I can test.
Thanks guys!