Hi guys.
Just started looking at using Linux on my main pc. I don’t use it too often these days but I like to play around with my pc.
I tried Fedora and it seems fine. I chose Fedora 41 as I wanted to have working Nvidia drivers and secure boot. Got that working but then I tried to use my wireless Xbox series X controller and had no luck getting it working. I tried to install xone but was getting errors.
I’ve tried Ubuntu is the past but just wasn’t to my liking. Linux mint was ok but didn’t like the available desktop environments.
I know Nobara is available, but I’d prefer to have something minimal and be able to configure everything myself to my liking.
I’m not so fussed about which distro. Can anyone recommend something that works with: Nvidia drivers Secure boot xone (or something else)
I like the gnome desktop environment.
Thanks. ☮️❤️
Fedora 41 works with nvidia and secure boot. For your controller take a look at Xpadneo works fine with the wireless controller ☺️
Hi, I’m hijacking this thread to answer your other questions. Xpadneo is the correct answer, it will work with any desktop environment (xorg or Wayland) and all reasonable distros. It’s also the driver used by the steam deck, so go with that. But I suggest you read the troubleshooting section for two things: fixing input latency (if you experience it) and secure boot (more on that later).
I use both KDE and GNOME (on different computers, for different reasons), but in general I suggest you use KDE.
Now I will explain secure boot:
You can use third party drivers with secure boot on any distro that supports secure boot. Here’s how it works. Secure boot means that the bios checks that the kernel and requires that the kernel checks that all kernel drivers are signed with a key that it recognizes.
Now, either using a second bootloader (like redhat’s shim) signed by Microsoft, or either directly getting Microsoft’s signature, you get secure boot support on distros like Fedora or Ubuntu. So your kernel and all your included drivers are signed by Fedora with a key they got from Microsoft.
Other drivers (like Nvidia’s and this) aren’t signed, so secure boot will not accept those. But, secure but supports MOKs (machine owner keys), which are keys for signing drivers that you manage yourself and you installed on your bios, and secure boot will accept drivers signed with those.
Now, external drivers can be installed using two systems: akmod (used mostly by Fedora and redhat derivatives) and dkms (used by anyone else). These two are not in conflict and will work on the same system at the same time, it’s just preference. The Nvidia drivers you installed used akmod, xpadneo uses dkms.
Both these systems support setting up a key for signing, you should then register that key on your bios. When you installed your Nvidia drivers a little interface made by Fedora for those drivers helped you to set up your key for akmods, and now you can use any akmod driver with secure boot. You could always do it manually and you can do it on any distro, Fedora just adds the graphical interface.
To use xpadneo you need to do basically the same thing but for dkms, and you need to do it manually, it’s very easy, the troubleshooting section should direct you here for instructions, you will recognize some of the steps of registering the key.
If you feel a little adventurous, you can find which key akmod uses, and set dkms to use the same, so you don’t need to register another one.
Also, I strongly discourage this, but you can technically remove Microsoft’s key and sign everything with your own key if you really hate Microsoft. Please please please don’t do it, you will screw up and break your system badly, and it’s also a lot of work. Places like datacenters and such do this. Because they want total control on what goes on those machines. Also they don’t sign stuff on the machine themselves, but they sign on a more secure one and then deploy the signed stuff.
Looks like xpadneo is Bluetooth only at the moment. I enrolled the mok for akmod. I’ll look at doing it for dkms too as xone uses that too.
Why do you suggest KDE?
SteamOS is compatible with fuckloads of gamepads and gaming peripherals from JoyCons (+ Gyros) to Airpods (Mode switching etc). It might not be best for the custom hardware though.
Short: xone driver fork
Long:
I use Xbox controllers for years on Linux. And my current one is Xbox One S controller with the official Microsoft dongle (not Bluetooth, but the proprietary connection). Linux does not support this driver, but there is a community driver: https://github.com/medusalix/xone And for whatever reason the newest Linux Kernel 6.11 and upwards broke this driver. That means this driver does not work on Linux Kernel 6.11 or newer, until it is patched. And I believe Fedora 41 ships with 6.11. But wait! There is an alternative fork that fixed the driver: https://github.com/dlundqvist/xone You only need to install this one.
Why is it that complicated in Linux? That’s because the Microsoft driver and dongle are proprietary and do not provide an official driver for Linux. Look it this way instead being complicated: It still works, because of the awesome community! Some people prefer using the Bluetooth connection. I personally don’t like Bluetooth in general for any device. So cannot assist with that.
EDIT: Alternative way with xpadneo. Apparently this works too with the official wireless dongle from Microsoft: https://beehaw.org/comment/4056781 The installation might be more involved.
My Xbox One wireless adapter works great on Debian, with xpadneo
Bazzite, perhaps? I don’t have the dongle but all of my controllers have worked with it out of the box and I have a couple weird ones. It’s gaming focused so you might have some luck with it.
Also as others have said: xone.