Linux Patch Updated For Rumble Support On Latest Microsoft Xbox Controllers

Last year I wrote about a Google engineer working on rumble support for the latest Microsoft controllers in conjunction with Microsoft's Xbox team. That patch seemed to have fallen through the woodwork but has been updated and sent out in "v2" form this week for allowing Linux gamers to enjoy rumble functionality with these latest Microsoft controllers.

As explained in the prior article, the issue amounts to a firmware update in 2021 that changed the Xbox One Wireless Controller product ID and HID descriptor. Microsoft's Xbox team then raised to the Google engineer,Siarhei Vishniakou, rumble should also work for the Xbox Elite Series 2 controller. These controllers with both the old and new firmware versions should be supported by this new "hid-microsoft" Linux driver patch.

The Xbox controller combinations with tested rumble support now on Linux include:

The tested controllers are:

1. 'wireless controller for xbox one', model 1708
2. 'xbox wireless controller', model 1914. This is also sometimes referred to as 'xbox series S|X'.
3. 'elite series 2', model 1797.

The tested configurations are:
1. model 1708, pid 0x02fd (old firmware)
2. model 1708, pid 0x0b20 (new firmware)
3. model 1914, pid 0x0b13
4. model 1797, pid 0x0b05 (old firmware)
5. model 1797, pid 0x0b22 (new firmware)

Google for their part is working on the gaming controller improvements from their Chrome OS user interests.

The revised Linux driver patch can be found here and hopefully this time it will make it for the next kernel series (v6.4).