Linux Kernel 4.18 + steam controller causes problems for various game (f.i.Rocket League)

[fosspill]

Your system information

• Steam client version (build number or date): Steam Play Beta
• Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): Antergos
• Opted into Steam client beta?: [Yes/No] Yes
• Have you checked for system updates?: [Yes/No] Yes

Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:

Let's take Rocket League as a specific example as that's where I cannot find a workaround for it:

Expected result: Start Rocket League, start steam controller (in either order), play the game with the steam controller.

Actual result: Steam controller can only control secondary player, as it somehow seems to see the controller as multiple devices and gets confused. (I believe this can also be seen in Sega Megadrive as the steam controller had to be explicitly chosen, even with no other controllers plugged in.)

Steps for reproducing this issue:

1. Upgrade to kernel 4.18
2. Play Rocket League
3. Be unable to control your car

Notes:

Other controllers works fine. Xbox 360 and PS4 controllers through steam is not causing any issues.

Workaround:

Downgrade to kernel 4.17

I realize this might not be the correct place to report this, but as it's very much related to the steam for linux product I couldn't think of a better place.

[kisak-valve]

Possibly hid-steam related.

[fosspill]

Indeed, other controllers works fine, including xbox 360 and the dualshock controllers :)

This is about the steam controller though

[nstgc]

I have not had this problem with the Steam Controller. I have others, but not this one. Are there other games for which this is a problem? I'd rather not install a game just to test a single bug.

I'm on Arch by the way.

[fosspill]

So far Rocket League is the game that we've had 100% reproduction on all systems tested on (4 so far).
I have however seen other games (sega megadrive, for instance) show the steam controller as multiple controllers, where I had to manually pick the correct one for it to work.

Note: Downgrading to 4.17 fixes the issue.
Using sc-controller also works around the issue.

[aqxa1]

You can also just blacklist the hid_steam module (how you do this may vary from distro to distro) if you need 4.18.x.

[fosspill]

Hm, alright. But, if this is a hid_steam error, where do we properly report it to get it fixed?

[aldrik]

I've also been having this issue since performing a system update. Blacklisting hid_steam does indeed get the controller working correctly again in Rocket League.

[jpotier]

Blacklisting hid_steam does not fix the problem for me.

My problem is that the steam controller is considered to be a mouse/keyboard by Rocket League.

[aldrik]

Side note of blacklisting hid_steam, when also when connected using a cable you get some debug frame data displayed.

@jpotier that's a different issue. Sounds like it could be user permissions:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/353370/discussions/0/490123197956024380/

[jpotier]

Unfortunately, those are properly set on my system :(

[ghost]

Same here on 4.18, I couldn't get my Steam controller to work unless I blacklisted the new driver in
/etc/modprobe.d/steam_hid_blacklist.conf:

blacklist hid_steam

You can test if this worked with lsmod | grep steam -- if it's empty, the hid_steam driver is not loaded.
Rocket league works just fine in steam-native on Arch, no debug data, no issues with invites or parties.

In addition, I also had to edit my /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/70-steam-input.rules to change all instances of MODE="0660" to MODE="0666", and add MODE="0666" to the first KERNEL=="uinput" line where it's missing. 70-steam-input.rules.patch.txt

Once the driver was blacklisted & these changes were made, my controller finally worked.

[Jibodeah]

Hollow Knight is also affected. The game crashes when a Steam Controller is connected. Works when the hid_steam module is removed from the kernel.

[diegogangl]

I'm having this issue with Hollow Knight too. Removing the module from the kernel and changing the udev rules haven't fixed it for me. I'm running 4.18.9.
Setting /dev/uinput permissions to 666 doesn't work either.

[zakora]

Also had this problem for both Rocket League and Hollow Knight.
Keeping my udev as is (see below), not changing the permissions, and just issuing sudo modprobe -r hid_steam before launching the games make them work with a Steam Controller for me.

System info:

• Fedora 28
• Gnome 3.28.2 using X.org

/etc/udev/rules.d/99-steam-controller.rules content:

# 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
KERNEL=="uinput", MODE="0660", GROUP="input", OPTIONS+="static_node=uinput"
# DualShock 4 wired
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="054c", ATTRS{idProduct}=="05c4", MODE="0666"
# DualShock 4 wireless adapter
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="054c", ATTRS{idProduct}=="0ba0", MODE="0666"
# DualShock 4 slim wired
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="054c", ATTRS{idProduct}=="09cc", MODE="0666"
# 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 bluetooth hidraw
KERNEL=="hidraw*", KERNELS=="*054C:05C4*", MODE="0666"
# DualShock 4 Slim over bluetooth hidraw
KERNEL=="hidraw*", KERNELS=="*054C:09CC*", MODE="0666"

[rodrigorc]

Hi! I'm the original writer of the hid-steam Linux driver. I'm sorry you are having issues with it.

I have written a patch that should fix all your problems with this driver. You can get it here. It would be great if some of you can test it and give feedback.

If you want to try it but you don't know how to patch and compile a kernel driver, just drop me a few lines and I will gladly give you instructions.

[zakora]

Hi @rodrigorc , and thanks for your work on hid-steam!

I tried your patch but without success. This was the first time I tinkered with the linux kernel so I am by no mean an expert. Maybe I just didn't apply the patch correctly.

Here is a small write up of the steps I did, in case this helps.

System info:

• Fedora 28
• kernel 4.18.13-200.fc28.x86_64

Steps (mostly followed the Arch wiki):

• dnf install flex bison: install flex and bison (needed for kernel module compilation)
• download and extract source kernel 4.18.13 (matching the version I am currently running) from kernel.org
• got the patch from your link, saved it as hid-steam.c.patch
• patch linux-4.18.13/drivers/hid/hid-steam.c hid-steam.c.patch: apply the patch
• cd linux-4.18.13
• make clean
• make mrproper
• cp /usr/lib/modules/4.18.13-200.fc28.x86_64/build/Module.symvers ./
• cp /usr/lib/modules/4.18.13-200.fc28.x86_64/build/.config ./
• make oldconfig
• make EXTRAVERSION=-200.fc28.x86_64 modules_prepare
• make M=drivers/hid
• xz drivers/hid/hid-steam.ko
• sudo cp drivers/hid/hid-steam.ko.xz /usr/lib/modules/4.18.13-200.fc28.x86_64/updates/
• reboot the OS, Hollow Knight still crashes on launch when the Steam Controller is on

Things I tried but failed:

• instead of placing the new compiled module in updates/, replacing the hid-steam module directly in /usr/lib/modules/4.18.13-200.fc28.x86_64/kernel/drivers/hid: no change
• updating initrams, according to this thread in Fedora it can be done using dracut --regenerate-all --force. After doing this, if the Steam Controller is on during boot then the OS fails to start; if the Steam Controller is off during boot then the OS start, but as soon as the Steam Controller is switched on then the OS freezes.

[rodrigorc]

Hi, @zakora! First of all, you should not use the stock kernel sources when compiling a module for your system, you should instead use the sources provided by your distribution. That may work with Arch, that uses a vanilla kernel, but not so much for Fedora, that has a lot of patches. My advice is to do as follows: 1. Download, extract and patch the kernel as you did, but do not enter that directory (no `cd linux-4.18.13`). 2. Create a new directory in your HOME and enter it: $ mkdir steamdrv; cd steamdrv 3. Copy the patched hid-steam.c from the patched kernel source, and hid-ids.h: $ cp .../linux-4.18.13/drivers/hid/{hid-steam.c,hid-ids.h} . 3. Create a one line `Makefile` in this directory: $ echo 'obj-m += hid-steam.o' > Makefile 4. Compile the module using the Fedora kernel headers: $ make -C /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build M=$(pwd) Now, in order to test it easily without compromising your installation the easiest way is to unload the stock module and load your patched one, running these commands as root: # modprobe -r hid-steam # insmod hid-steam.ko Note that `insmod` does not look for the module in the system directories but in the current one, so you'll load the one you just compiled. It it work, great! let us know. If it fails or hangs your computer, can you attach a `dmesg` output? Thanks!

[zakora]

Thanks for detailed instructions @rodrigorc , it works now!

Some changes that I did:

• $UNAME is not defined on my system, so for step 4 I did instead:

make -C /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build M=$(pwd)

• this make command failed due to missing hid-ids.h, so I did: cp ../linux-4.18.13/drivers/hid/hid-ids.h . (where . is the steamdrv directory).

Confirmed to work for me on both Rocket League and Hollow Knight using a Steam Controller.

[rodrigorc]

You are right on both corrections, @zakora, I'll edit the above instructions, in case anybody else wants to test it.

Thank you so much for testing it! I will add this success test to the LKML thread.

[saintdev]

@rodrigorc Just wanted to say this fixed the issue I was having with hid-steam and Rocket League as well!

[nanonyme]

Has anyone created a ticket on hid-steam against kernel bugzilla?

[rodrigorc]

Has anyone created a ticket on hid-steam against kernel bugzilla?

@nanonyme Well, there is one ticket now.

[rodrigorc]

It looks like this patch has been back ported to Linux 4.19.

[DocMAX]

Big problem here. Steam does not detect the internal steam controller anymore.
On load somehow /dev/hidraw2 get's lost and i have to add with:
echo "3-3:1.2" > /sys/bus/usb/drivers/usbhid/bind
I have no clue why this is happening.. :-( I'm on vanilla Arch Linux here.