Sony Now "Officially" Maintaining The Linux PlayStation Input Driver, But Leads To Interesting Problem

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Sony Now "Officially" Maintaining The Linux PlayStation Input Driver, But Leads To Interesting Problem

It turns out Sony is now maintaining the mainline Linux kernel's hid-sony input driver in an "official capacity now across various devices." This hid-sony driver is what traditionally has supported the various PlayStation controllers and other input devices for their hardware. But their newfound "official" support for this open-source input driver could lead to interesting predicaments...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Sony-HID-Official-But-Clones

[theriddick]

Maybe if the driver detects a copycat device it can just give a subtle warning to the user and leave it at that?

[Sonadow]

The PS3 has been EOL-ed, so there should be little issue with accepting that patch.

Of course, they have a perfectly good reason to block the patch if it were about knockoff or non-licensed PS4 controllers.

Also, for the record, don't buy knockoff controllers; they cause more problems than their low prices are worth. I have three 'compatible' PS3 controllers which all had issues with powering up / down the console. They do successfully get the console to cold boot, but always have problems being detected by the console after the boot process finishes. And on the shutdown side of things, they do manage to get the console to shutdown, but then the controllers themselves usually do not know how to shutdown with the console and end up just draining their batteries flat.

Just get an original controller or a licensed third-party controller already.

[M@GOid]

The PS3 has been EOL-ed, so there should be little issue with accepting that patch.

Of course, they have a perfectly good reason to block the patch if it were about knockoff or non-licensed PS4 controllers.

Also, for the record, don't buy knockoff controllers; they cause more problems than their low prices are worth. I have three 'compatible' PS3 controllers which all had issues with powering up / down the console. They do successfully get the console to cold boot, but always have problems being detected by the console after the boot process finishes. And on the shutdown side of things, they do manage to get the console to shutdown, but then the controllers themselves usually do not know how to shutdown with the console and end up just draining their batteries flat.

Just get an original controller or a licensed third-party controller already.

Exactly. Even since I got my first original gamepad I had never locked back at knockoffs. Also, if you can, also avoid the current Logitech gamepad offerings. While they actually offer good game compatibility, their ergonomics are atrocious compared to what Sony and MS offer. I know because own them all.

[sabian2008]

On the other side, for PC gaming, my wired knock-off DS2 controller has more than ten years and is still working great. It also survived an accidental fall from a 7th floor. The plastic is very hard and besides that, it just works. Of course I don't mind with does it turn on my console? or something like that.

[wizard69]

I look at it this way cloning somebody else’s ID’s should be reason enough to keep a driver out of the kernel. Frankly this is even more important outside of gaming.

on the flip side Sony should embrace third party controllers with enough information so that they can be implemented without interfering with Sony hardware or using their drivers.

I can see both sides of the discussion here but if I was Sony I’d be most reluctant to mod my driver for crap hardware.

[ElectricPrism]

To me this is where Gentoo and source-based-distros shines.

Throw the DIFF in the right directory and that 2-dosen lines of code will be compiled in automatically on package upgrades.

Then it makes it a whole lot less relevant what the politics are.

Throw those patches online on a sort of "Patch Manager" in addition to the "Package Manager" and you could get some sweet combos.

[elatllat]

At least there was a next day response, unlike the 4 month old parkmode_disable_ss_quirk I want merged.

[ssokolow]

I look at it this way cloning somebody else’s ID’s should be reason enough to keep a driver out of the kernel. Frankly this is even more important outside of gaming.

on the flip side Sony should embrace third party controllers with enough information so that they can be implemented without interfering with Sony hardware or using their drivers.

I can see both sides of the discussion here but if I was Sony I’d be most reluctant to mod my driver for crap hardware.

I haven't kept track of things with Sony specifically, but there's precedent for it being acceptable for companies to replicate the minimum necessary to attain hardware compatibility. If Sony is using an ID check as an attempt to artificially cripple non-OEM hardware, then it's justifiable to clone their IDs.

(Since XInput is for XBox 360 controllers and Microsoft provides the driver, wouldn't it be necessary to clone Microsoft's IDs to make an XInput-compatible controller?)

[tildearrow]

I wonder whether perhaps the next PlayStation cloud gaming device (or even the PlayStation 5) will be Linux-based. :O