All Controllers Break After Disconnecting (Steps & Proof)

[Fibbitts]

Since one of the recent Steam updates, any controller disconnected while in game will not reconnect to the game. The Deck UI can be navigated using the reconnected controller, however the game will not accept any input. This is a painstaking issue and completely breaks the seamlessness of the deck. Here are several threads of people having the same exact issue.

Steps to reproduce:
1. Connect your controller, and use it to start a game.
2. Once in the game, turn off your wireless controller, then turn it back on.
3. Only the Deck UI will accept input, and the game will not until its restarted. This was tested on Xbox and Dualsence controllers, but should happen on all controllers.

Here are links to other threads of people experiencing the same issue:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1675200/discussions/0/3757725715253275352/
https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/10q32xn/this_controller_disconnect_bug_ingame_is_becoming/
https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/10cy78u/controllers_not_reconnected_after_being/
https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/10o8k46/reconnecting_controller/
https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/10mk569/controller_not_working_in_game_after_waking_the/

I'm honestly scared whenever an update comes out because of how many things break, and I'm on the stable channel. I really hope the experience becomes smoother in the future, I've heard things about controller layouts not saving and getting overwritten, and half of the on screen keyboard is janked as well :(

[CodeWeavers #9]

Baba G.님이 먼저 게시:

Black Ops 3 zombies 100% of the time will have controller disconnect during round 9-15, requiring game to be restarted. This does not seem to be linked to time, as leaving the game on round 1 for an hour still results in controller disconnecting during these rounds. This would be no issue if controller could be reconnected. Also did I mention this is using only the steam deck with its built in controller, undocked with no paired devices and bluetooth turned off?

Controller hotplug works for the game according to my testing, but indeed it's very weird that it drops the built-in one for you. Does it prompt you about the controller being disconnected? Anything happens when you click "ok" on screen?

Can you provide log created with `PROTON_LOG=+hid,+dinput,+input %command%` from a game session where you had a disconnect? The STEAM and ... buttons still bring up the overlay even when this happens, right?

[Baba G.]

CodeWeavers #9님이 먼저 게시:

Baba G.님이 먼저 게시:

Black Ops 3 zombies 100% of the time will have controller disconnect during round 9-15, requiring game to be restarted. This does not seem to be linked to time, as leaving the game on round 1 for an hour still results in controller disconnecting during these rounds. This would be no issue if controller could be reconnected. Also did I mention this is using only the steam deck with its built in controller, undocked with no paired devices and bluetooth turned off?

Controller hotplug works for the game according to my testing, but indeed it's very weird that it drops the built-in one for you. Does it prompt you about the controller being disconnected? Anything happens when you click "ok" on screen?

Can you provide log created with `PROTON_LOG=+hid,+dinput,+input %command%` from a game session where you had a disconnect? The STEAM and ... buttons still bring up the overlay even when this happens, right?

Ok holy crap this created a 3.5gb logfile. So I gotta find a way to parse that or find somewhere to upload. I know what time the event happened at least, which was 1:33pm. I will post again with either a URL to share the logfile or I might be able to parse roughly when it happened... I hope lol.

To answer your questions:
1. It does not prompt me which controller disconnected.
2. After hitting ok the game changes the UI to display Keyboard and mouse icons as opposed to the A or B button icons. I have taken screenshots. Also worth mentioning after connecting a bluetooth keyboard that will work after the event. The steam deck touch pads to not work, just the touch screen.
3. The STEAM and ... buttons do indeed work. And within the steam deck UI, all controls work as intended.

[Baba G.]

Fibbitts님이 먼저 게시:

Baba G.님이 먼저 게시:

This is still an issue.

Black Ops 3 zombies 100% of the time will have controller disconnect during round 9-15, requiring game to be restarted. This does not seem to be linked to time, as leaving the game on round 1 for an hour still results in controller disconnecting during these rounds. This would be no issue if controller could be reconnected. Also did I mention this is using only the steam deck with its built in controller, undocked with no paired devices and bluetooth turned off?

Looking at system log, only entry that appears is hrtimer interrupt

Feb 28 17:37:28 Stek-MB wireplumber[1196]: <WpSiStandardLink:0x5604165b7980> 2 of 2 PipeWire links failed to activate
Feb 28 17:52:04 Stek-MB kernel: hrtimer: interrupt took 23320 ns
Feb 28 17:54:01 Stek-MB systemd-logind[900]: Power key pressed short.

I have a protondb log but I am not sure what I am looking for. Here is the header:

Proton: 1675326504 proton-7.0-6e
SteamGameId: 311210
Command: ['/home/deck/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Call of Duty Black Ops III/BlackOps3.exe']
Options: {'forcelgadd'}
depot: 0.20230222.42118
pressure-vessel: 0.20230220.0 scout
scripts: 0.20230220.0
soldier: 0.20230222.42118 soldier 0.20230222.42118
Kernel: Linux 5.13.0-valve36-1-neptune #1 SMP PREEMPT Mon, 19 Dec 2022 23:39:41 +0000 x86_64
System WINEDLLOVERRIDES: dxgi=n

@austinp_valve If you can point me in the right direction here I will gladly get you some logs or more information. Currently this game is unplayable.

I think this has some weird glitch to how Steam is prioritizing the controllers when they reconnect. When you reconnect the controller and it doesn’t work, try to open the quick access menu and put your controller under the Steam Deck, then return to your game. Then, go back and move it back up, and return to your game again. Returning to the game in between is key. Does it work again if you do this, or am I just lucky?

This still needs to be addressed, though. Was never an issue.

I know what you are talking about and I was having the same issue with a bluetooth Xbox controller. Since I am just using the built in controls now the deck UI does not give me the option to switch to a different controller.

[Baba G.]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2943297032

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2943297095

[Baba G.]

CodeWeavers #9님이 먼저 게시:

Baba G.님이 먼저 게시:

Black Ops 3 zombies 100% of the time will have controller disconnect during round 9-15, requiring game to be restarted. This does not seem to be linked to time, as leaving the game on round 1 for an hour still results in controller disconnecting during these rounds. This would be no issue if controller could be reconnected. Also did I mention this is using only the steam deck with its built in controller, undocked with no paired devices and bluetooth turned off?

Controller hotplug works for the game according to my testing, but indeed it's very weird that it drops the built-in one for you. Does it prompt you about the controller being disconnected? Anything happens when you click "ok" on screen?

Can you provide log created with `PROTON_LOG=+hid,+dinput,+input %command%` from a game session where you had a disconnect? The STEAM and ... buttons still bring up the overlay even when this happens, right?

https://mega.nz/file/3uJDzBbI#A3PBqNpXgNq1zdrR9UuA6KQGnB-yaLNsVFL05NJK3oE

[Baba G.]

Doesn't seem to be a steam issue. Problem goes away when playing in offline mode. This isn't a fix in the slightest as offline mode means no progression.

Maybe I should just try re-imaging my deck to see if there will be a change

[Baba G.]

Fixed after reinstalling os with recovery tool. There are no longer the random disconnects, and I can now reconnect controllers without issue.

Factory reset option within steam deck software does not fix this problem. Has to be full reinstall

[Baba G.]

Problem comes back.

There are others experiencing this issue too:
https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/zzey1k/controller_disconnects_while_playing_black_ops_3/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

[Fibbitts]

Baba G.님이 먼저 게시:

Problem comes back.

There are others experiencing this issue too:
https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/zzey1k/controller_disconnects_while_playing_black_ops_3/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

Yep, as soon as it updates it breaks again. Shame since it used to work perfectly fine.

[Y|yukichigai]

Been running into this problem myself as of today, or at least similar. What appears to be happening in my case is that the Deck decides it's going to reorder the controllers in the middle of the game running for some reason. I have no idea what triggers this or why, but it at least seems to only happen once. If you're playing a game which allows you to select a different controller input (e.g. RetroArch) you can compensate since it only seems to happen once per gaming session, but that's not going to apply to most games.

Oh, and the re-reorder is switched back when you exit the game, so you can't even leave your settings changed to compensate. Very annoying.

[Fibbitts]

Y|yukichigai님이 먼저 게시:

Been running into this problem myself as of today, or at least similar. What appears to be happening in my case is that the Deck decides it's going to reorder the controllers in the middle of the game running for some reason. I have no idea what triggers this or why, but it at least seems to only happen once. If you're playing a game which allows you to select a different controller input (e.g. RetroArch) you can compensate since it only seems to happen once per gaming session, but that's not going to apply to most games.

Oh, and the re-reorder is switched back when you exit the game, so you can't even leave your settings changed to compensate. Very annoying.

That’s exactly what’s happening. I sincerely hope Valve sees this and implements a fix, it’s been an issue for almost a half a year now.

[CodeWeavers #9]

We've tried hard but we were unable to get a repro over here. I don't think the issue that Baba G. is hitting is the controller reordering problem. Looking a the log:

1847.389:0138:013c:fixme:steamclient:Steam_BGetCallback HACK: Steam overlay activated, disabling all input events.
1851.387:0138:01d8:err:xinput:hid_update_thread_proc update thread exited unexpectedly, ret 4294967297
1851.387:0060:0070:trace:hid:read_cancel_routine cancel 0000000000D641F0 IRP on device 0000000003DD0060
1880.089:0138:013c:fixme:steamclient:Steam_BGetCallback HACK: Steam overlay deactivated, enabling all input events.

Looks like there's an Steam overlay activation and 4s later the xinput thread that's responsible for translating hid -> xinput dies. 9 seconds after that the overlay is closed.

Baba G, can you try with Proton 8.0, preferably experimental and see if you still hit the issue? If yes can you explain exactly what's going on on your screen? Is overlay somehow getting activated?

[Snail]

This issue is still happening

[Janet T9001]

I knew it was something Castle in the sky didn't have this issue before. I got the Steam Deck in hopes to get away from the downs of PC gaming that PC gamers I've talked to like to keep quiet about.

[Fibbitts]

I’ve had luck by re-ordering the controllers after I reconnect them. You can access the quick access menu by pressing Guide+A on the c on controller