Linux 6.1 To Have Working Support For Xbox Elite Paddles, Expanded Controller Support

A number of improvements to the XPad input driver are slated to be included with the upcoming Linux 6.1 kernel to better handle the Microsoft Xbox controllers and other derivative designs.

First up, Linux 6.1 should bring working support for Xbox One Elite paddles. The paddle buttons with Linux 6.1 should now be working for the Xbox Elite as well as the Xbox Elite Series 2 controllers with various firmware revisions. Though some of the earliest firmware revisions are untested as of yet, so there still may be some quirks to address. The code also corrects handling for the Xbox Elite 1 controller and now properly suppresses paddle inputs when using a custom profile slot.

More details on this Xbox One Elite paddles support via this commit now part of the Linux input subsystem's "next" branch ahead of the Linux 6.1 merge window.

Another patch to the XPad driver with input's next branch adds more supported controllers to the driver with the necessary IDs. The newly-added devices for the XPad driver include:

- Wooting One
- Wooting One (Legacy)
- Wooting Two
- Wooting Two (Legacy)
- Wooting Lekker
- Wooting Two HE
- Wooting 60HE (AVR)
- Wooting 60HE (ARM)
- Hori Fighting Commander ONE
- Bigben Interactive DAIJA Arcade Stick
- Hori Fighting Commander ONE (Xbox 360/PC Mode)
- OneXPlayer Gamepad
- 8BitDo Pro 2 Wired Controller fox Xbox

Also queued into input-next is a patch for the XPad driver to avoid breaking the Microsoft Xbox 360 wireless controller support after system suspend.

The Linux 6.1 merge window opens up next month while the stable kernel release will be out around the end of the calendar year.