Buttons do not work after latest update

[JPQed]

All of the buttons on the Steam Deck no longer function. Only the volume, power, and touchscreen work in any situation. When going to settings > controller it says there is no controller detected. I am pretty confident it has to do with the update since I reinstalled SteamOS and did not install the update and everything seems perfectly fine now. This seems like a pretty rare bug so I hope the devs at least become aware that some people have this issue.

[Dennis]

I have the exact same problem. Right after the update the controller stopped working maybe once a day after waking up from sleep mode. Going to sleep and waking up again fixed it.
A day later the chance of the controller going missing increased to 50% and another day later it *always* went missing after sleep mode. I reinstalled the OS via the recovery image and it got better, but quickly deteriorated again.
I also noticed that the little 3-note chime that plays when the deck wakes up doesn't play when the controller goes missing. If the chime plays when waking up, the controller will work, too. Somehow the chime and the controller seem to be related.

I filed a support request but haven't heard anything from that yet. Is there a way to downgrade to a previous SteamOS build?

[JPQed]

You can sort of downgrade. You can't choose a specific build to my knowledge but you can follow these steps: https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/1B71-EDF2-EB6D-2BB3

Once that's complete you can choose reinstall SteamOS. Buttons work 100% of the time when I do this.

[JPQed]

Just reread that you already tried reinstalling SteamOS so I'm not sure if my solution will actually work for you. Sorry about that.

[Dennis]

I just re-imaged my deck again. During the initial setup it installed OS build 20220425.2 and after the very first sleep the controller was already missing again. Looks like I don't have any way to go back to an OS build that doesn't cause me problems. :(

[Dennis]

Would be great if anyone from Valve could chime in on this.

Maybe the journalctl output around sleeping / waking up gives a clue what goes wrong with the USB device of the controller. I didn't spot any obvious error messages, but maybe a SteamOS dev would notice some missing messages or stuff happening in the wrong order. Might be a race condition?

Or is this a hardware fault, affecting the power delivery to the USB device and I have to RMA my deck? I just want to know what my next steps should be.

[Dennis]

Now the controller didn't even work in the boot selector of the BIOS anymore, meaning that I couldn't boot the recovery disk. Took me five power cycles until the controller finally worked again.

I guess that means that my issue probably isn't a SteamOS bug but something more serious. Great...

[Dennis]

When I reinstall SteamOS instead of reimaging the deck I end up with an OS build from February. My controller problems persist though. Looks like in my case it really is a hardware defect. I've asked Steam Support for an RMA.

[MatteBlakk]

I managed to find a fix. Here's my story...

I got the Steam Deck yesterday. Buttons worked fine. Ran the update. Buttons no worky. Found the suggestion to use recovery image so I downloaded it, created a USB boot key from it using the Rufus Utility, Then booted in bios mode... but the buttons don't work so I couldn't access the menu options

Here's how I got around it. You need either a USB hub or a keyboard that has USB inputs on it.

Connected the usb boot key, to a wired keyboard and connect a wired mouse to the keyboard (or all to a USB hub), then connect this to the steam deck via a USB-A to USB-C adapter. You can now boot in bios mode, see the USB recovery image and control the mouse and keyboard to access the correct options.

I then chose to 'Reinstall Steam OS' from the desktop options I was presented with...

and hey-presto it works, I can use the Steam Deck controls again

[JPQed]

Yea that's what worked for me. I just really hope someone at Valve is aware of this issue and is looking into it. Clearly a software bug and not hardware. Was looking forward to testing out the new variable FPS option too

[JPQed]

Okay just checked my support ticket and had this message

"We are investigating this issue further. As soon as we have more information, we will update your ticket.

Steam Support
Drew"

So that's at least a good sign