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Update: A new Steam Beta Client should fix gamepad input in Big Picture Mode, thanks to Valve for the quick response.

The latest Steam Client update has left beta, bringing the Bluetooth Low Energy mode to everyone with the Steam Controller amongst other things. It also, sadly, broke other gamepad support in Big Picture mode.

There's this bug report on Valve's GitHub, which has been open since May 9th. That only mentions PS3 controllers, but there's other bug reports open for other gamepads. I've tested it myself, with the Steam Controller working as normal and all other gamepads are broken on Linux in Big Picture Mode.

This comes with a side effect, since this update is now stable, it's also broken everything but the SC in SteamOS as well.

It's not all doom and gloom and this update also pulls in some nice fixes, like these with the overlay:

  • Fixed an issue which caused the web browser to stop working in certain games
  • Fixed screenshots for games built with Unreal Engine 4 in OpenGL mode 
  • Fixed some OpenGL API errors triggered by the Steam In-Game Overlay
  • Fixed a crash in some Vulkan apps when hiding the overlay or resizing windows

It also adds in Switch Pro Controller support, although I don't have one to test, I imagine that doesn't work for us due to the mentioned issues.

As for Linux-specific bugs, they fixed these:

  • Fixed a bug where trying to re-add old Steam Library folders to the client would fail with an error about the filesystem not being mounted with execute permissions
  • Fixed a common cause of games getting stuck when bringing up the overlay 
  • Fixed a problem where trying to resize the client window would sometimes snap back to the original size
  • Fixed incorrect/rainbow colors when streaming from the desktop of a machine running recent Mesa
  • Fixed low resolution in Big Picture mode due to incorrect video memory detection on Mesa

See the full changelog here.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Steam
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TheSHEEEP May 18, 2018
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QuoteFixed a common cause of games getting stuck when bringing up the overlay
Finally!
This has been bugging since years and caused me to practically never use the Steam overlay on Linux - despite how much I love using it on Windows.

Since I basically never use gamepads, anyway, this update is all win for me ;)
KuJo May 18, 2018
QuoteFixed incorrect/rainbow colors when streaming from the desktop of a machine running recent Mesa
Cool! Then I can start a new attempt with my Steam Link. I had that problem too. Using Mesa & Padoka ppa, too.

Here a photo (not of me), on which you can see how my screen looked like.


Found here: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/5434

I had tried several games from my library. I've had this effect in all the games except Mini Metro. It was absolutely unplayable.


Last edited by KuJo on 18 May 2018 at 9:21 am UTC
Lintux May 18, 2018
Yep, Confirm that my Xbox360 Controller on SteamOS does not work anymore..... In Game all ok but Big Picture didnt..
Arnvidr May 18, 2018
Haven't confirmed this today, but after update yesterday, had some serious lag in a game that worked just fine the day before. If it's just as bad today, I'll have to try and downgrade.
Creak May 18, 2018
Since recently, when a friend starts to chat with me, the Steam pop-up window minimize my game to show the pop-up. It's quite annoying, especially in the middle of a Dota game.

I don't know if it's since a recent release of Steam (do you have the problem?), or if it's since I updated to Fedora 28 (do you have Fedora 28, and the problem?)


Last edited by Creak on 18 May 2018 at 12:24 pm UTC
TurtleShark May 18, 2018
Quoting: CreakSince recently, when a friend starts to chat with me, the Steam pop-up window minimize my game to show the pop-up. It's quite annoying, especially in the middle of a Dota game.

I don't know if it's since a recent release of Steam (do you have the problem?), or if it's since I updated to Fedora 28 (do you have Fedora 28, and the problem?)

Creak, I have experienced this frequently on Gnome3 on past steam releases (I had this issue back in October). It also happens to my fiancee on Budgie. Might be something not playing well with the window manager and focusing. I haven't experience this since using bspwm...or all my friends message me on discord and I just haven't been messaged via steam on my new setup yet...
nox May 18, 2018
[quote=TurtleShark]
Quoting: CreakCreak, I have experienced this frequently on Gnome3 on past steam releases (I had this issue back in October). It also happens to my fiancee on Budgie. Might be something not playing well with the window manager and focusing. I haven't experience this since using bspwm...or all my friends message me on discord and I just haven't been messaged via steam on my new setup yet...
On KDE this isn't really an issue either. And if it was you could just adjust the window options for steam and block it from taking focus completely.
Creak May 18, 2018
Thx!
I don't intend to change DE/WM at the moment, but it's good to know that it might be linked to a GNOME/GTK 3 issue.
Liam Dawe May 18, 2018
Quoting: CreakSince recently, when a friend starts to chat with me, the Steam pop-up window minimize my game to show the pop-up. It's quite annoying, especially in the middle of a Dota game.

I don't know if it's since a recent release of Steam (do you have the problem?), or if it's since I updated to Fedora 28 (do you have Fedora 28, and the problem?)
Steam > Settings > Friends > Set "flash window when i receive a message" to never

I think that fixed it for me, damn annoying though I agree.
Creak May 18, 2018
Excellent! Thanks Liam!

Wow.. Steam needs to restart when changing this simple setting...
Valve really needs to improve Steam **a lot**.
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