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Playstation 3/4 controller in Steam? [SOLVED]
numasan Aug 8, 2017
Hi all,

I have been using a PS3 controller in (Steam) games for a long time, and without any setup it worked perfect. Recently though, the controller is not found/recognized in my Steam games anymore, although it works inside the Big Picture UI, and in games outside of Steam. I think this change happened after a system/kernel update (Arch), but I'm not 100% sure that it is the cause.

I also have a PS4 controller, but it also isn't recognized by Steam games (had this issue before, though). If I use the controller setup in Steam and "enable" it, the controller is found in games but seen as a Xbox controller, although there are issues such as the D-pad doesn't work in some games, and in general it's unsatisfactory (Playstation buttons shown as ABXY, no rumble..)

Am I the only one experiencing these sudden problems with Playstation 3/4 controllers in Steam? I love the ergonomics of the controllers, and in general just so used to it, so I really hope I don't have to change controllers.. Also right now it doesn't make sense why it just stopped working.

Hope someone can help me?!
slaapliedje Aug 9, 2017
Uinput configuration? That was usually my issue when the controller would work in big picture mode, but not within the game itself.
What does this show?
ls -l /dev/uinput

Should look like this;
crw-rw----+ 1 root root 10, 223 Aug  7 02:39 /dev/uinput
andjons Aug 9, 2017
Quoting: numasanHi all,

I have been using a PS3 controller in (Steam) games for a long time, and without any setup it worked perfect. Recently though, the controller is not found/recognized in my Steam games anymore, although it works inside the Big Picture UI, and in games outside of Steam. I think this change happened after a system/kernel update (Arch), but I'm not 100% sure that it is the cause.

I also have a PS4 controller, but it also isn't recognized by Steam games (had this issue before, though). If I use the controller setup in Steam and "enable" it, the controller is found in games but seen as a Xbox controller, although there are issues such as the D-pad doesn't work in some games, and in general it's unsatisfactory (Playstation buttons shown as ABXY, no rumble..)

Am I the only one experiencing these sudden problems with Playstation 3/4 controllers in Steam? I love the ergonomics of the controllers, and in general just so used to it, so I really hope I don't have to change controllers.. Also right now it doesn't make sense why it just stopped working.

Hope someone can help me?!

Hi,

I had exactly the same issue a few days ago with my PS3 controller, wich has always worked without config, and couldn't figure out what I had done and also guessed it was because of a recent system update. I'm also on Arch. After last update (yesterday i think) it started working again and I still don't know why. So if you haven't already, try a system update!
numasan Aug 9, 2017
Quoting: andjonsHi,

I had exactly the same issue a few days ago with my PS3 controller, wich has always worked without config, and couldn't figure out what I had done and also guessed it was because of a recent system update. I'm also on Arch. After last update (yesterday i think) it started working again and I still don't know why. So if you haven't already, try a system update!

Hi andjons!

I found the answer, and yes it is because of the update to Linux 4.12 which has a lot of changes to the PS3/4 controller drivers: http://www.spinics.net/lists/linux-input/msg50044.html

I guess SDL has to be updated to these changes, and Steam as well? It is curious that the controller is working for you again - what is your kernel version? I've updated my system this morning, but there was no new kernel or SDL (latest kernel for me is 4.12.4-1)

Luckily I haven't cleared my package cache, so I downgraded to Linux 4.11.9-1 + nvidia-381.22-4 and now the controller works as expected again in games through Steam. I will of course follow the development, and hopefully Valve is (or will be) aware of this issue.
andjons Aug 9, 2017
My kernel version is 4.12.4-1 and checking the Pacman logs it was updated on 2017-08-04. I guess that's when the controller stopped working in Steam games, but I still have no idea what I did to make it work again. I'm still on that kernel version with Nvidia driver version 384.59.
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