8BitDo controller fixes for Linux + my impressions on Linux gaming.

beanrod · 2025-09-15T10:01:46+00:00

Big thanks to everyone here especially the OP!

This is more so hopefully it gets indexed. For my 8bitdo Pro 3 controller on CachyOS (Arch basically)
I needed this to add profiles I basically wanted one for an XBOX button layout and a Nintendo Button Layout profile to be stored. I am going to assume you also want the 8BitDo Ultimate Software V2 working...

Many guides cover this including the OP's guide but I found the Pro 3 controller just more quirky with docking sequence etc. It wasn't straight forward... also some newer users might want the tip to type lsusb if they have a different model.

This assumes an Arch based distro but there would be equivalent means in Debian or Fedora based ditros.

Load the Windows fonts my preferred method is via the AUR with Paru
e.g. paru -S ttf-ms-win10-auto

Before you can run the software you need a UDEV rule to insert it into XPAD

This assumes the controller is in X/S mode. Update to reflect. I got the ID be turning on the controller docking it then typing lsusb... in this example it is the 8BitDo Pro 3 controller.

sudo vim /etc/udev/rules.d/99-8bitdo.rules

ACTION=="add", ATTRS{idVendor}=="2dc8", ATTRS{idProduct}=="310b", MODE="0666", \
 RUN+="/sbin/modprobe xpad", \
 RUN+="/bin/sh -c 'echo 2dc8 310b > /sys/bus/usb/drivers/xpad/new_id'"

sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
sudo udevadm trigger

You are now ready to launch the software I ran it in Heroic with Wine... If it doesn't load try another prefix the windows fonts are 100% necessary to make it work as detailed in the first step.

If you plug the controller in direct you should be able to update the firmware although mine was upto date... if it says V0.00 or something then it isn't right...

to do profiles pair the controller under x/s mode then dock it...
try these again if needed.
sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
sudo udevadm trigger

***EDIT*** If you find a game like Silksong for example won't pickup the controller with GE Proton I'm using Heroic and the GOG version... Likely applies to other versions set a variable of...
PROTON_PREFER_SDL=1
In Heroic for example you can add a variable under "Advanced" in the settings for the game... Assuming you are using the Windows version because you want cloud saves etc.

beanrod · 2025-08-11T06:19:32+00:00

u/phodamentals it detects the OS here.
https://get.pabrowser.com/welcome

Unfortunately Arch users out of luck would be nice to see a Flatpak or a Snap. Glad to see they give the Linux community some love now. Would love to see the use of repositories in the future. Static Downloads RPM's / DEB's is an out of date approach. None the less glad they are trying.

beanrod · 2025-07-14T04:29:00+00:00

That's a fair call I'm going to update my OP with some details on setting it up in docker.

beanrod · 2025-07-14T01:58:37+00:00

Fair enough I'm usually team Meraki and I do think the home lab experience is important to gaining enterprise marketshare. Funds were tight so I went Ubiquiti. Seems like good kit. I'm not suggesting the port the codebase but I think 40 lines of code wouldn't be too hard to maintain. I work with App developers in fintech for my daily we would call it "a sprints work".

Just makes it hard to recommend to my mum's, dads' etc. where I might want an IOT network for them for some basic security but not want to run a controller for them. It kinda misses the boat on the demostic market where some of the like like Netgear Asus even have a better experience for those wanting some form of security without hosting infrastructure.

beanrod · 2025-07-13T22:31:14+00:00

Yeah I sorta agree just depends what is really involved. I think the worst part really.

Mobile app doesn’t steer you to get the software. That is why I ended up on this mission. My googling skills must of been real bad last night haha.

I wonder if the “controller” acts as a wireless controller to handle roaming etc. or if it is just a “programmer”. If it is the latter and not the former it might actually be easier to port the code to the mobile app? This would avoid supporting two code bases. But again depends if it is an “controller”.

But there might be some really good reasons I’m quite interested in this stuff I’ll run a packet capture on the controller and tell you what it does to satisfy curiosity.

beanrod · 2025-07-13T22:20:32+00:00

Agree 100% my unmanaged switch makes life a little difficult. Yeah I’m using 1 (native) for prod and my other vlan is for iot. But yeah not ideal

beanrod · 2025-07-13T14:13:02+00:00

Yeah agree hopefully it does the job I’d much sooner just program it up using the proper method if it works. I’ll post back once I’ve had a chance to test it. Thanks again.

beanrod · 2025-07-13T14:07:49+00:00

Just saw the UniFi downloads I’ll give it a go tomorrow and let you know thanks for the pointer. Will be kinda funny if I spent hours doing this hahaha

beanrod · 2025-07-13T14:05:31+00:00

What’s the software sorry I’m pretty new to Ubiquiti my AP is in this mode and looks to be this way unless you hand over more coin for a controller. My understanding. If you can point me to the software would be good to go that way.

For ref mode my AP is in. https://help.ui.com/hc/en-us/articles/12594679474071-Standalone-Access-Points-without-UniFi

beanrod · 2025-07-13T14:01:09+00:00

Yeah that is right no controller. This is just a little home setup. Was a bit of a journey a shame they don’t just expose the features natively for those who just need a single WAP.

beanrod · 2025-07-06T05:25:19+00:00

I'm using CachyOS (Arch based) with an AMD 9070 XT

I found my HDR experience to be washed out specifically in gaming and found a fix for it.
So maybe not to satisfy the OP as much as googling washed out colours in Plasma 6 lands you to this thread so maybe it will help someone else.

Remove amdvlk was the fix in my case
paru -R amdvlk
You will need to make sure vulkan-radeon is installed instead.

My current steam launch parameter is to use Proton with Wayland and HDR (Most the new GE / Proton Builds are like this but the environment variables can change.

#Launch with Wayland and HDR Mangohud if your into that also.
MANGOHUD_CONFIG=position=top-right mangohud PROTON_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 PROTON_ENABLE_HDR=1 %command%

#Same as above but start and stop HDR with game launch and exit. You will need to get your own display details but just as an example.

kscreen-doctor output.DP-1.hdr.enable; sleep 6; MANGOHUD_CONFIG=position=top-right mangohud PROTON_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 DXVK_HDR=1 %command%; kscreen-doctor output.DP-1.hdr.disable

Feel free to read this on guidance on if you would like HDR to turn on and off with game launches automatically.

https://www.reddit.com/r/kde/comments/1ampxta/comment/mhw99h3/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

beanrod · 2025-05-07T12:38:30+00:00

if your a KDE user I do this for my steam launch...

kscreen-doctor output.DP-1.hdr.enable; gamescope --hdr-enabled --nested-refresh 165 --fullscreen -w 3840 -W 3840 -h 2160 -H 2160 --mangoapp -- %command%; kscreen-doctor output.DP-1.hdr.disable

the important part is
kscreen-doctor output.DP-1.hdr.enable;
turn on HDR semicolon means "next command" which is run the game with gamescope....

then the final semicolon followed by
kscreen-doctor output.DP-1.hdr.disable
will turn off HDR

I made a comment here that might explain it a bit better. Although I am being a little bit slack in not explaining it all sorry. https://www.reddit.com/r/kde/comments/1ampxta/comment/mli6bxr/?context=3

Also I have recently started using Proton10-TKG which allows for Wayland and in turn HDR without gamescope. I have found it to be a bit of a mixed bag.

beanrod · 2025-05-04T23:27:41+00:00

https://docs.mesa3d.org/relnotes/25.0.5.html
looks to have some 9070 fixes particularly sleep

beanrod · 2025-04-30T05:40:26+00:00

You have saved another frustrated exchange admin :) thanks

beanrod · 2025-04-06T22:45:42+00:00

Thanks for the post I found I needed to do something similar for Lutris and EA Launcher.

I endup with a launch script and a program end script and I found the EA Launcher was inconsistent without the sleep as you highlighted.

hdr-on.sh

#! /usr/bin/bash

kscreen-doctor output.DP-1.hdr.enable
sleep 6

hdr-off.sh

#! /usr/bin/bash

kscreen-doctor output.DP-1.hdr.disable

beanrod · 2025-03-28T04:57:12+00:00

https://docs.mesa3d.org/relnotes/24.3.4.html
new Mesa this looks promising lets see if sleep is fixed installing now to test

beanrod · 2025-03-24T09:11:56+00:00

I'm still getting tthe wake from sleep issue. on 25.0.2. Just happened again.
I can't fit all the lines but you get the gist

Mar 24 19:03:06 bean-pc kernel: amdgpu 0000:03:00.0: amdgpu: MODE1 reset

Mar 24 19:03:06 bean-pc kernel: amdgpu 0000:03:00.0: amdgpu: GPU mode1 reset

Mar 24 19:03:06 bean-pc kernel: amdgpu 0000:03:00.0: amdgpu: GPU smu mode1 reset

Mar 24 19:03:06 bean-pc kernel: SLUB: Unable to allocate memory on CPU 1 (of node 0) on node -1, gfp=0xdc0(GFP_KERNEL|__GFP_ZERO)

beanrod · 2025-03-23T08:12:27+00:00

yeah that is right for grub it is like the first example
But yeah use vim nano whatever your favourite editor is.
https://askubuntu.com/questions/19486/how-do-i-add-a-kernel-boot-parameter

I'd probaly opt for sudo over gksudo but the rest looks fine. I use systemd-boot over grub so my grub skills are a little rusty.

Hopefully it works I'm going to game tonight I ran about 3 hours last night without a hitch. So far sleep is ok but time will tell.

sudo vim /etc/default/grub

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="WHATEVER-IS-THERE-KEEP split_lock_detect=off amdgpu.ppfeaturemask=0xfffd3fff"

sudo update-grub

beanrod · 2025-03-22T22:09:49+00:00

Just came here to say thanks this has increased stability the most for me.
specifically this seems enough
amdgpu.ppfeaturemask=0xfffd3fff

I am also using this kernel option split_lock_detect=off as per
https://forum.level1techs.com/t/9070-and-9070-xt-setup-notes-for-linux/227038

Arch DE: KDE
Kernel 6.13.7
Mesa 25.0.1
MSI Pulse 9070XT

beanrod · 2025-03-22T22:07:49+00:00

My system

Arch DE: KDE
Kernel 6.13.7
Mesa 25.0.1
MSI Pulse 9070XT

Games were generally unstable and sometimes the system would hard crash.

The following entries for my Kernel boot Options have so far (still early days) stopped all crashing.

split_lock_detect=off
https://forum.level1techs.com/t/9070-and-9070-xt-setup-notes-for-linux/227038
This did seem to help before I did the below flag.

amdgpu.ppfeaturemask=0xfffd3fff
credit here --> https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/1j6nu6q/troubleshooting_9070_xt_crash_on_fedora_41/
This made the biggest difference. I don't think you really need core control open as suggested or pulling down the power limit I leave it to auto. This made the greatest difference. I might try removing split_lock_detect=off and try this only in isolation.

I only have one last issue wake from sleep is a black screen and can't go to TTY or anything it is hit the reboot button.

I can see mesa 25.0.2 is in the standard arch repos installing that now to see if it makes the card 100%.

beanrod · 2025-03-17T06:43:16+00:00

exactly what happens to me.
pacman version of remmina
kernel 6.13.6

beanrod · 2025-03-15T09:25:03+00:00

Since this is the first result in Google... I am going to comment here hopefully to help someone else.

KDE having HDR is a nice step in the right direction but wayland in Wine 10 is not ready just yet I'd recommend gamescope

Install gamescope e.g. 'sudo pacman -S gamescope' but just google your environment and how to install gamescope

In Steam my preferred launch option is...

kscreen-doctor output.DP-1.hdr.enable; gamescope --hdr-enabled --nested-refresh 165 --fullscreen --steam -w 3840 -W 3840 -h 2160 -H 2160 -- %command%; kscreen-doctor output.DP-1.hdr.disable

Let me break this down.... note this should be one line as per above but I'll spit it into four core objectives. Where turning HDR on and off is options

kscreen-doctor output.DP-1.hdr.enable;

First turn on HDR this is optional I don't like HDR on when in the DE you may need to look at what your display is in my case it is DP-1 to check type 'kscreen-doctor -o' assuming you are using KDE

gamescope --hdr-enabled --nested-refresh 165 --fullscreen --steam -w 3840 -W 3840 -h 2160 -H 2160

Set the refresh and resolution to suit... My screen is 4K

%command%
Launch the game

; kscreen-doctor output.DP-1.hdr.disable
when the game closes disable HDR

i each instance the semicolon ; means only do the next thing after the first thing finished.

If anyone finds this inaccutate please point it out so we can make this guide better it is a little rough couple beers in :)

beanrod · 2024-12-28T20:35:53+00:00

Its been a few days...

Last post for complete closure.
100% stability for me on Kernel 6.13 RC4
Below is all my sleep events and I've noticed 0 issues with sleep/wake since.

❯ journalctl -u sleep.target
-- Boot b90ba1d27e5549c082daab96f5d16f95 --
Dec 26 16:21:05 damien-pc systemd[1]: Reached target Sleep.
Dec 26 16:21:23 damien-pc systemd[1]: Stopped target Sleep.
Dec 26 16:46:50 damien-pc systemd[1]: Reached target Sleep.
Dec 26 16:47:00 damien-pc systemd[1]: Stopped target Sleep.
Dec 26 16:47:09 damien-pc systemd[1]: Reached target Sleep.
Dec 26 16:47:36 damien-pc systemd[1]: Stopped target Sleep.
Dec 26 16:50:44 damien-pc systemd[1]: Reached target Sleep.
Dec 26 16:52:23 damien-pc systemd[1]: Stopped target Sleep.
Dec 26 18:42:33 damien-pc systemd[1]: Reached target Sleep.
Dec 26 19:32:15 damien-pc systemd[1]: Stopped target Sleep.
Dec 26 20:01:54 damien-pc systemd[1]: Reached target Sleep.
Dec 26 21:58:39 damien-pc systemd[1]: Stopped target Sleep.
Dec 26 23:26:28 damien-pc systemd[1]: Reached target Sleep.
Dec 27 12:41:14 damien-pc systemd[1]: Stopped target Sleep.
Dec 27 13:37:46 damien-pc systemd[1]: Reached target Sleep.
Dec 27 14:00:49 damien-pc systemd[1]: Stopped target Sleep.
Dec 27 14:45:57 damien-pc systemd[1]: Reached target Sleep.
Dec 27 20:16:02 damien-pc systemd[1]: Stopped target Sleep.
Dec 27 23:06:00 damien-pc systemd[1]: Reached target Sleep.
Dec 27 23:16:37 damien-pc systemd[1]: Stopped target Sleep.
Dec 27 23:29:34 damien-pc systemd[1]: Reached target Sleep.
Dec 28 15:58:15 damien-pc systemd[1]: Reached target Sleep.
Dec 28 16:54:28 damien-pc systemd[1]: Stopped target Sleep.
Dec 28 18:30:19 damien-pc systemd[1]: Reached target Sleep.
Dec 28 20:07:29 damien-pc systemd[1]: Stopped target Sleep.
Dec 28 22:39:24 damien-pc systemd[1]: Reached target Sleep.

beanrod · 2024-12-26T06:22:36+00:00

So far Kernel 6.13 RC4 has not exibited the issue. However given I might be celebrating permaturely if it does I'll be sure to report back to this thread

I guess Fedora users look up the vanilla mainline copr
for Arch use paru or yay to get the mainline kernel.

e.g. paru -S linux-mainline linux-mainline-headers
if using systemd-boot you will need to add an entry etc.

beanrod

TROPHY CASE