Sony Adds DualShock 4 Controller Support To Their Newer Linux PlayStation Driver

Going back eight years to Linux 3.15 there has been Sony DualShock 4 controller support using the "hid-sony" driver thanks to work from the open-source community. But now Sony is adding DualShock 4 controller support to their newer "hid-playstation" driver that they started for PlayStation 5 controller support and are now extending it backwards for the PS4 controller.

On Christmas Eve 2020, Sony published an official Linux driver for the PlayStation 5 DualSense controllers. There was talk back then of possibly extending that hid-playstation driver to supporting other PlayStation controllers with that official Sony driver.

Following Sony recently posting initial support for the PS5 DualSense controller, they have extended hid-playstation to support the Sony DualShock 4 controller. For now the DualShock 4 controller support also remains within the hid-sony driver, but we'll see if that is eventually dropped once the hid-playstation driver support proves superior.

The DualShock 4 controller support with that newer driver has USB and Bluetooth connectivity working, supporting the touchpad / battery / rumble / accelerometer / gyroscope / LED brightness / lightbar, and dongle support. This DualShock 4 support appears to be in good shape for its introduction in the hid-playstation driver.

The support is merged into HID's for-next branch to be introduced then with the Linux 6.2 kernel.