Linux Mint, xbox 360 wired controller specifically.

I installed xboxdrv, it gave me four devices named "Xbox 360 Wireless Receiver" (4 axes, 17 buttons) visible in jstest. One of them (corresponding to the controller light) is active, reacts to input, every button and stick work in jstest...

But not in games. The best result I got was the left stick working in Stardew Valley in windowed mode outside the window.


edit: yay typo in title

I own the wired Xbox 360 one and all i can say is that with xboxdrv it works properly. Just plug and play. Shovel Knight even recognizes it and plays properly.

I'm running Ubuntu Mate and I have the xbox360 wireless controller working perfectly using the xboxdrv.

Linux supports more or less any controller through modules. I played a GameBoy game just yesterday using a PlayStation 2 controller, connected by a weird 3$ adapter from Asia. Worked flawlessly.

Are you sure you need xboxdrv? I would think that the kernel driver would pick up the controller automatically. In fact, if you wish to use xboxdrv you may need to take measures to keep it from doing that.

My experience is some games don't like the kernel driver and some games don't like xboxdrv. I just try both and hope one works.

And some just don't work properly with either. Issues like constant rumbling or axis stuck in a certain direction.

It's a pain.

Shovel Knight is pretty plug and play for me with xpad.ko. I'm not sure why Stardew Valley or Hyper Light Drifter would not work for you if that does. I don't have them so I can't check them out either.

Last year I wrote a related post about the complexities involved. I'm not sure if and how the situation has changed, but I haven't found much use for xboxdrv recently - I've mostly just used it with games that are not designed to be played with a controller, because it can produce keyboard and mouse events. And then some that needed triggers as buttons. I find this has been less of a problem in recent years, although I'm not sure what has changed. Perhaps there's some magic in libSDL. Hmm, I haven't had that.

Did you try using the default driver (xpad)?

If you're playing Shovel Knight and jstest works, then it's a compatibility issue with the other two games. Incidentally, Hyper Light Drifter is a GameMaker game, which is known to have gamepad issues*. Should those persist even with xpad, you can either try the SteamOS version of xpad or you can install a program to bind the gamepad buttons to keyboard keys (there's a few, qjoypad and antimicro among them).

*Arch Wiki mentions problems with wireless Xbox pads specifically, but in my own experience, wired non-Xbox pads don't work either - off the top of my head, Risk of Rain and Super Crate Box do not work with my Logitech F310.

Take a look at /dev/input/event*. Do those files exist, and if so, can you read any of them (probably event0) with cat? If you can read the file with cat, try pressing buttons on the controller; if this produces output, then the interface is working.

There are actually two gamepad interfaces on Linux: The older /dev/input/js* and the newer /dev/input/event*. It is possible that your system might only support the older one and the game expects the newer one.

You might need to add your user to the "input" group.

Also, as a workaround, you can install qjoypad and use it to map controller buttons to keyboard keys; I have been able to play through Guacamelee (a game that pretty much requires a gamepad to be playable) this way.

Bioshock Infinite does that with the kernel driver. The first time i launched the game the controller rumbled right off the side of my desk before i figured out what the hell the noise was. :D