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After updating to Ubuntu 18.10 today I noticed that a lot of games were either crashing to the desktop, not detecting my Steam Controller at all or detecting it as a second player.

With the Linux Kernel version 4.18, a driver is now included for the Steam Controller named "hid_steam" which seems to currently be conflicting with how Steam and plenty of games handle the Steam Controller resulting in behaviour we don't want.

For now, it seems you will need to blacklist that "hid_steam" module from loading if you want to continue using the Steam Controller as normal.

You can test it yourself, using this terminal command to see if it fixes it:

sudo modprobe -r hid_steam

That was only temporary though, a reboot quickly made it break once again (but it works for now). To have it permanently stay, you can do this:

sudo bash -c "echo 'blacklist hid_steam' > /etc/modprobe.d/sc.conf"

I did also run this command so the above was correctly detected:

sudo update-initramfs -u

Once you reboot, that will then make it stick.

Hopefully this situation will get sorted out, because that's really not ideal right now. For newer users especially, it's not a good look. I've opened a bug report with the Ubuntu team.

Update: As noted in our comments, there is a Kernel patch available if you wish to patch it manually yourself if you're confident doing that sort of thing. Hopefully the Ubuntu maintainers can pull it in for everyone.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Hardware, HOWTO
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22 comments
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Liam Dawe Oct 18, 2018
Quoting: Oli
QuoteThen reboot.

Seems a bit redundant. The first commands handles this session The second and third handle future sessions. Just run all three once and get on with your life.
Sure, meant more as in when you reboot it will be fine. Did a slight reword to make it clearer.
Dunc Oct 18, 2018
Huh. That might explain a few things...
Linas Oct 18, 2018
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Quoting: slaapliedjeHmm, I have been running 4.18 on Debian Sid for a long time now and haven't had an issue. It has ran about the same as it always has. Wonder if they already blacklist it. Will have to check.
The module is not built in Debian kernels. Just checked.
slaapliedje Oct 18, 2018
Quoting: Linas
Quoting: slaapliedjeHmm, I have been running 4.18 on Debian Sid for a long time now and haven't had an issue. It has ran about the same as it always has. Wonder if they already blacklist it. Will have to check.
The module is not built in Debian kernels. Just checked.

Well that explains that!
fedotix Oct 21, 2018
Does Anyone tried the steam controller with The Fedora distribution ?
Because i manage to buy an Asus ROG portable with Steam + controller + fedora.

Any advice ?


Last edited by fedotix on 21 October 2018 at 7:44 pm UTC
Linas Oct 22, 2018
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Quoting: fedotixDoes Anyone tried the steam controller with The Fedora distribution?
Not a Fedora user myself, but it should work just fine. Take a look here:
https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Steam_under_Linux#Fedora
https://negativo17.org/steam/
fedotix Nov 2, 2018
Steam is not actually working with fedora ..."core dumped" : nightmare ...
I installed ubuntu ... and steam is working well.
jens Nov 2, 2018
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Everything fine here on Fedora 29 (and last week on 28) with Steam and the Steam Controller.
I'm using Steam from https://negativo17.org/steam/
slaapliedje Nov 3, 2018
Quoting: jensEverything fine here on Fedora 29 (and last week on 28) with Steam and the Steam Controller.
I'm using Steam from https://negativo17.org/steam/
Curious, I thought Steam was in Fedora's repo, any reason to use an outside one? (I have a strong hatred for using third party repositories, which is why I tend to stick to Debian because they package about everything under the sun!)
jens Nov 3, 2018
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Quoting: slaapliedje
Quoting: jensEverything fine here on Fedora 29 (and last week on 28) with Steam and the Steam Controller.
I'm using Steam from https://negativo17.org/steam/
Curious, I thought Steam was in Fedora's repo, any reason to use an outside one? (I have a strong hatred for using third party repositories, which is why I tend to stick to Debian because they package about everything under the sun!)

As far as I know Steam is included in rpmfusion, but not directly in Fedora, though I somehow prefer the repositories from negativo17.
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