NVIDIA Finally Working On A Linux Driver For Their 2017 SHIELD Controller

NVIDIA launched their SHIELD "Thunderstrike" gaming controller back in 2017 and now in 2023 they are working to upstream their HID driver support for it.

NVIDIA recently published "hid-shield" driver patches for supporting NVIDIA SHIELD peripherals with the mainline Linux kernel and initially focused on supporting the Thunderstrike SHIELD 2017 controller. This HID driver gets haptics working on the controller along with additional functionality like being able to query the serial number, hardware information, firmware information, etc.

This HID driver gets haptics working on the controller along with additional functionality like being able to query the serial number, hardware information, firmware information, etc.

It's a bit strange to take them so long to work on this SHIELD HID driver for it to be submitted for review/upstreaming but it's out now on the kernel mailing list for those interested.