Can't get controllers to work in most games on Bazzite and Steam (SOLVED)
Greetings all. I'm having a terrible time getting my various controllers to work with various games in Bazzite. I've got two desktops, one with an Nvidia gpu and one with an AMD gpu, and they both have similar issues. For controllers, I've got Xbox One and Series controllers, PS5 controllers, and an 8bitdo Ultimate 2C.
On the AMD machine, I can get some controllers to work on some games, but not on others. On the Nvidia machine, I can't get the controllers to work on anything except No Man's Sky. Interestingly, all of my controllers work fine out-of-the box in CachyOS and Windows. The problems are only happening on Bazzite. This makes me think the issue has something to do with some config differences between Bazzite and CachyOS, but I wouldn't know where to start. Some observations: Steam recognizes all of the controllers just fine. In Steam Settings -> Controller -> Test Device Inputs, Steam sees all of the button presses and stick movements. And in Big Picture mode, I'm able to control Steam's GUI. Wired versus wireless controller connections makes no difference. I use the USB wireless dongles for the Xbox and 8bitdo controllers, and Bluetooth for the PS5 controller. Steam sees all of the controllers without a problem, but the games do not. On the AMD machine I'm able to get the Xbox and PS5 controllers to work with Clair Obscur, for example, but not the 8bitdo controller. On the Nvidia machine, however, I cann't get any controller to work with Clair Obscur. So the issues are not consistent between machines. Steam Input enabled or disabled makes no difference. On some games, when I start them up, I'll sometimes see the controller button glyphs on screen rather than keyboard/mouse glyphs. This suggests the games see that there is a controller connected, but nothing works. Different versions of proton (stable, experimental, GE, Cachy) don't make a difference. I'm really at a loss here!
On the AMD machine, I can get some controllers to work on some games, but not on others. On the Nvidia machine, I can't get the controllers to work on anything except No Man's Sky. Interestingly, all of my controllers work fine out-of-the box in CachyOS and Windows. The problems are only happening on Bazzite. This makes me think the issue has something to do with some config differences between Bazzite and CachyOS, but I wouldn't know where to start. Some observations: Steam recognizes all of the controllers just fine. In Steam Settings -> Controller -> Test Device Inputs, Steam sees all of the button presses and stick movements. And in Big Picture mode, I'm able to control Steam's GUI. Wired versus wireless controller connections makes no difference. I use the USB wireless dongles for the Xbox and 8bitdo controllers, and Bluetooth for the PS5 controller. Steam sees all of the controllers without a problem, but the games do not. On the AMD machine I'm able to get the Xbox and PS5 controllers to work with Clair Obscur, for example, but not the 8bitdo controller. On the Nvidia machine, however, I cann't get any controller to work with Clair Obscur. So the issues are not consistent between machines. Steam Input enabled or disabled makes no difference. On some games, when I start them up, I'll sometimes see the controller button glyphs on screen rather than keyboard/mouse glyphs. This suggests the games see that there is a controller connected, but nothing works. Different versions of proton (stable, experimental, GE, Cachy) don't make a difference. I'm really at a loss here!
Solution:Jump to solution
UPDATE: I may have found a solution. Referencing the CachyOS guide to gaming, I looked at the environment variables they use by default. One variable, when added to my Steam launch options, seems to be making my controllers work:
PROTON_PREFER_SDL=1
Note that this variable only works with Proton versions that specifically support it. The GE and Cachy versions support it, but the standard versions of Proton do not at this time. For anyone reading this in the future, you can use the ProtonUp-Qt utility to install other versions of Proton, such as the ones I mentioned....
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Solution
UPDATE: I may have found a solution. Referencing the CachyOS guide to gaming, I looked at the environment variables they use by default. One variable, when added to my Steam launch options, seems to be making my controllers work:
PROTON_PREFER_SDL=1
Note that this variable only works with Proton versions that specifically support it. The GE and Cachy versions support it, but the standard versions of Proton do not at this time. For anyone reading this in the future, you can use the ProtonUp-Qt utility to install other versions of Proton, such as the ones I mentioned.