Linux 7.3 To Fix Longstanding Gap In The Native Driver For Original Steam Controller

For those with one of the original Valve Steam Controllers from a decade ago and looking to make use of it with the native HID Linux driver outside of the Steam client or SDL, an important addition is coming with the Linux 7.3 kernel release later in the year.

The Linux kernel has long had the hid-steam driver for supporting the Steam Controller outside of user-space solutions like the Steam client or SDL library. But the Steam HID driver has lacked support for sensor events, which are data inputs triggered by physical hardware components like the controller's accelerometers, gyroscope, touch grips, and more. These sensor events can be used for triggering in-game actions or toggling other behavior without necessarily pressing physical buttons.

Ahead of the Linux 7.3 merge window, a patch is added to the HID subsystem's "next" branch for supporting sensor events with the original Steam Controller. Vicki Pfau who authored this patch elaborated in the commit message:

"Sensor support was added for the Steam Deck previously, but Steam Controller sensor events were never added. This adds that missing support, bringing Steam Controller support much closer to feature parity with things like SDL and Steam itself."

Some 200 lines of code get that feature now supported for the Steam HID driver with the upcoming Linux 7.3 cycle and as stated closer to feature parity with the original Steam Controller support in Steam/SDL.

In addition, a number of other Steam HID driver patches have been merged to HID's for-next code with other minor improvements for this driver.