I am new to Steam and linux gaming and want to get a better understanding on how steam uses game controllers. I can see my physical controller under /dev/input/js0 and a second device under /dev/input/event*. Once I start the steam client I see new devices being created under js1 and a new event*. I assume these new devices are being used as a virtual controller and allow all the fancy remapping of keys via steam input.

Are most steam users using the virtual controller to navigate big picture mode and play games?

I would love to hear the technical details on how this all works between games and big picture mode.

  • Qweedo420BEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    One thing you could do to check if your system is registering those inputs is with evtest, run it in your terminal and check if the DS4 controller is emitting events correctly, then check if the virtual controller created by Steam also emits those inputs

    • Crafty_Future4829OPBEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      In the container, I see the following devices under dev/input for the ps4 contoller: jso, event2, event3 and event4. I ran jstest on js0 and that seemed fine. Does Steam even use that device?

      Also, ran evtest on event4 which seemed to be the actual controller. There was a lot of scrolling on the screen, but the button presses appear to be working.

      I did not see js1 or event17 which appeared on my host when I ran Steam directly on the host.

      The container is not able to create the virtual devices which is probably my issue.

      Do you think Steam uses evdev api to create the virtual event device?

      Would Steam use a different api to create the js1 virtual controller?

      I am going look at the info you provided earlier and see if I can manually create the virtual devices in the container.

      Any suggestions on manually creating the virtual devices?

      Thanks for all the help!