Xbox Wireless Controller and Bluetooth on RPi4

[Hortus Nanum]

Hi all,

I am running Steam Link on a Raspberry 4 and beside occasional connection losses it works like a charm.
Currently I am using an old XBox360 (wired) Controller I bought for my PC a couple of years back. But the cable is barely long enough for my couch/TV setup, so I bought me a new XBox Wireless Controller (the new one for the XBox Series X/S) and was hoping, that I can connect it via Bluetooth.
When I try to pair it to the RPi4, it shows up as "XBox Wireless Controller 4416". The device can be paired, but there seems to be a connection issue (indicated by a red X in front of the device). When I try to connect the controller, it says: "Connection Failed: No usable services on this device".
Of course it doesn't show up in the controller menu on Steam Link either.
When I try to connect it via USB, the Steam Link application crashes.

Does anybody have a hint on how to get this controller running? As it was advertised as supporting Bluetooth, I was expecting that it should speak some standard profile for Bluetooth controllers ... but it seems that I was outsmarted by Microsoft again ...

Many thanks for your help!

[Arcangel2P]

This also happens on the Steam Link device.
If connected with a cable, the device freezes.

I've tried the controller (with cable) on Samsung TV steam app ant it works.

[DaFunkShun]

You need to install xow on your raspberry pi for the xbone controller.
If you want to pair it using BT then disable ERTM of your Pi's NT adapter

[Hortus Nanum]

Originally posted by DaFunkShun:

You need to install xow on your raspberry pi for the xbone controller.
If you want to pair it using BT then disable ERTM of your Pi's NT adapter

I already tried xboxdrv as described here: https://pimylifeup.com/xbox-controllers-raspberry-pi/. That included disabling ERTM, but it didn't work. For a moment it seemed like the controller would connect to Bluetooth, but then it showed a communication error again.

As far as I understand xow is a driver for the Xbox wireless dongle and not for a Bluetooth connection? Currently I have the controller only, without the wireless dongle because I thought it would connect with Bluetooth.

So I would need xow and the wireless adapter? No way to connect to the RPI with Bluetooth?

[Arcangel2P]

Last night it worked for me in my Steam Link (there was a new beta firmware update for the Link) with cable.

[_I_]

can be a bad cable
if the xbone controller loses usb power it will turn off (even if it has good batteries)

[Arcangel2P]

Originally posted by _I_:

can be a bad cable
if the xbone controller loses usb power it will turn off (even if it has good batteries)

I worked because Steam released a new beta version wich added support for the gamepad, but only in cable mode, but still no bluetooth.

[Packetdancer]

The wireless version of the Xbox Series X controller has some sort of behavior that the Linux Bluetooth stack does not like; upon connecting, after bonding, the controller will suddenly either just stop responding (and the connection will time out), or the controller will send a 'please disconnect' command. Since it works fine on macOS, it doesn't appear to be some sort of DRM or anything; it's most likely that just something in the way Linux wants to talk to it is something the controller firmware isn't inclined to deal with (or treats as an error).

This will affect anything built atop Linux—including the Steam Link, and obviously the Pi as well—until the issue is patched in Linux itself.

I have no doubt the Valve folks are actively looking at the issue; I suspect other folks are as well, since it can be reproduced on literally any Linux box I've tried, period.

Meanwhile, the wired mode works fine at a system level, so just the Steam Link software needed to be updated to recognize the actual device.

(Though really, the update was for the SDL library on which the Steam Link software—and a whole mess of games out there—is built, and which slouken is *also* the lead developer on. So that commit fixed not just wired mode for the controller on Steam Link, but on anything else built atop SDL.)

[_I_]

the link does not send a signal to turn off wireless xbone controllers
tried with vanilla, x, s and elite controllers

when the link turns off after using an xbone controller, it waits about 30sec ignoring any signal from the xbone controller to turn it back on

i have had no problems pairing xbone controllers using the links bt mneu
go to the link bt menu (using another controller or k/m)
hold the ))) and xbox buttons for a few seconds til the xbox button flashes
and pair with the link
(similar steps as pairing ds4, hold share + ps)

even removing from bt menu does not turn off the xbone controllers

it will turn off ds3/ds4 and x360 wireless using ms dongle

* i do not have a ms xbone dongle to try with the link

[Hortus Nanum]

Hi Folks,

now I got it running. I additionally to the Xbox Series X Wireless Controller I bought me a Xbox One Wireless Adapter for Win10.
Then I installed xow on my Raspberry Pi 4 like described on https://github.com/medusalix/xow :

> sudo apt-get install cabextract libusb-1.0-0-dev
> git clone https://github.com/medusalix/xow.git
> cd xow/
> make BUILD=RELEASE
> sudo make install
> sudo systemctl enable xow

After rebooting I was able to pair the controller to the dongle and it showed up in the Steam Link Application as "XInput Controller". All buttons are working except for the share button. But as I don't have any friends anyways, I don't need to share anything and can keep all my screenshots to myself. ;-)

So actually Bluetooth didn't work at all with this controller (neither on Linux nor on Win10), but it works with the additional USB dongle. Thanks Microsoft for advertising Bluetooth and stealing many hours of my life.

Many thanks to DaFunkShun for pushing me into the right direction.