Sony Provides Early Linux Support For The PS5 DualSense Edge Controller

Sony recently announced the DualSense Edge wireless controller for the PlayStation 5 as an "ultra-customizable controller". This $199 USD controller isn't even available for sale until the end of January while already Sony has contributed initial support to their "hid-playstation" open-source Linux kernel driver for supporting the DualSense Edge.

It's wonderful seeing a hardware vendor provide pre-launch support for a new controller on Linux considering often times they go unsupported when needing non HID spec compliant changes and then are left up to the reverse-engineering community to support. Phoronix readers will recall that back in 2021, Sony published an official Linux driver for their PlayStation 5 DualSense controllers. That hid-playstation driver was mainlined last year and continues to be maintained by Sony's Roderick Collenbrander, a longtime Linux/open-source developer.

Sony picture of the upcoming DualSense Edge controller for the PlayStation 5.

Roderick Colenbrander this month sent out a patch adding initial support for the DualSense Edge controller with so far just adding the new device IDs. That basic support patch is now queued in the HID subsystem's "for-next" branch ahead of the Linux 6.2 merge window opening in December.

Roderick does note that just having the device IDs in place will yield the DualSense Edge controller working to the level of the DualSense controller, there isn't yet support for the various new features around reprogrammable buttons and other customizations. Hopefully follow-up patches will come in the weeks ahead to get the DualSense Edge controller support in good shape in time for the Linux 6.2 cycle.

Also queued in the HID PlayStation driver for Linux 6.2 separately is updated DualSense rumble mode that works with newer device firmware if desiring a "classic" rumble mode like with earlier PlayStation controllers.

It's great seeing the timely Sony DualSense Edge controller Linux patches coming to the kernel along with their other controller work, which presumably is for ensuring controller support on the likes of Chrome OS, Android, etc.