PS5 controller use with Steamdeck

Erasmus@lemmy.world to Steam Deck@sopuli.xyz – 20 points –

Hello all - new Steamdeck owner here. I also own a PS5 and had been wanting to stream to my deck.

I learned about Chiaki4deck and did the install this weekend and was up and running playing games within a few minutes. However, I am still having a few issues getting the Touchpad on my PS5 controller to work right.

The controller works fine with that one exception.

I have a few games that really utilize the pad - is there something that can be done on the Deck side help with compatibility?

Edit: just resolved the issue thanks to @PlasticExistence@lemmy.world: the firmware on the controller I was trying to use had not been updated. Once I did the issue resolved itself.

Thanks all for the suggestions and help

16

Make sure your controller's firmware is updated. I've seen a fair number of complaints about getting a DualSense working outside of a PS5 where the owner never updated the controller.

That was it! The controller I was using needed a firmware update. I tried that and when I took it back to my SteamDeck, voila!

I use a PS5 controller paired wirelessly with my deck. I think the touchpad just worked for me with no extra settings (apart from picking a steam input configuration that supports it) but in practice I almost never use it for gaming.

Not sure what chiaki4deck is but I don’t believe it’s necessary for PS5 controller support.

Update: i may have installed something for gyro support at some point but it wasn’t chiaki4deck

Might have more to do with chiaki not completely being PS5 ready?

The DS5 definitely works, games like Forbidden West and Rift Apart even have adaptive triggers working when played in proton.

Does that work via chiaki, btw?

I haven’t tried Forbidden West but can load it up later and see if it works compared to some of the others.

I've never been able to get my PS5 controller working properly on my main PC, which is an Arch system. So, when I got my Steam Deck I just went with an Xbox controller. It's not a solution to your specific issue, but I haven't had any issues with this setup.

I’m running DualSense on Arch without issues. It even uses the touch pad for mouse movements when not in-game (Steam).

Make sure to check the docs if you aren’t using Gnome: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Gamepad.

My only complaint is the atrocious battery life, but that’s not a Linux issue.

I'm on Plasma, my issue has always been getting the Bluetooth to function properly. bluez-util just won't sync with it consistently.

Had the same issue on newer versions of bluez-utils. Downgrading it to 5.6x fixed my issues.

I don't have a PS5, so I can't offer great advice.

The chiaki webpage has a section on controller troubleshooting, but it's only talking about using a DS4 and not a DS5. Still probably worth checking out though.

Thanks for the link I will dig into this tonight and see what all it says.