USB wireless gamepad - connection seems to drop briefly

Hardware Support
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Hi, I'm using Gamesir T4 pro gamepads which connect to a wireless USB dongle. These worked perfectly on Mint, but I had other problems, so I switched to Zorin in the last year.

Zorin's working great for my purposes, but now I have trouble with the gamepads! They connect fine and I can map the buttons (for example, in SNES9x), but when I'm playing a game, the connection seems to drop for a few seconds then comes back. So if I'm walking forward, the character will keep walking forward even if I'm not pressing a button, and then after a few seconds I can regain control).

Does anyone have any suggestions? Again, these seemed to work great on Mint, so not sure why they'd suddenly have issues on Zorin. Anything I can check? Thanks in advance!

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It's frustrating isn't it?

When it happened to me, my character would keep on walking with me horrified - right off a cliff.
Sigh... it happened a lot. Drove me crazy. But - I found the issue was not the controls, but Unity game engine. Solving it was as easy as switching which proton version I launched with for that title - in the case of the Unity built titles - Proton 7 worked the best.

It is possible that in your case, it is a low level input issue - Which Mint version were you on, which kernel - what is your Graphics card and which driver?
These are worth checking for the software side of things explicitly in Zorin OS.

1 Like
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Did You checked if there is maybe Driver needed what could be already included in Mint?

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Thanks for the message and commiserating!

I was on Mint 22.1 Ubuntu/mainline, but I forget which kernel. My graphics card is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 OEM. Let me know if you need any further system info!

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Not sure how to check. It "just worked" in Mint and while it's not fully working yet in Zorin, it does connect/is detected by my system. When I run lsusb, I see this entry: Microsoft Corp. Xbox360 Controller

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You can take o Look in the Additional Drivers Tab in software & Updates or on the Manufacturers Website if there are any Instructions or Drivers for Linux.

Another Thing: Does Your System run in Wayland or X11? You can check that in Settings>About. when it runs in Wayland, I would suggest - because of Your Graphics Card, too - to switch to X11/Xorg.

To do that, go to the Login Screen (not the Lock Screen). simply reboot for this. On the Login Screen, click on Your Profile so that the Password Field appears. When it is appeared, You should see a Gear Icon in the bottom right Corner. Click on it and choose the Option ''Zorin Desktop on Xorg'' and then log in.

2 Likes
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Yes, Mint is Xorg, not Wayland.

In your BIOS settings, can you ensure that Secure Boot is disabled.
Then you can install a higher kernel...

Don't forget to check if it is a Unity built game and your proton version...

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You are using Zorin lite? Then you are on XOrg by default.

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Nope, I'm using Core.

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Thanks! Yeah, secure boot is disabled. I remember doing that before I started installing Linux distros.

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Thanks for the suggestions! No additional drivers and I am on X11.

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Please change your forum's profile to Zorin core so that we can give the best advice for your system.

2 Likes
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sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tuxinvader/jammy-mainline

sudo apt update && sudo apt install linux-generic-6.12

Reboot
Check you are on 6.12:

uname -r

If you are - test gamepad...

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Thanks. I followed these steps and I'm on the updated kernel, however my screen resolution changed and I can only select 800x600. :frowning: I still seem to be using the correct Nvidia proprietary driver.

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Ah, but if the Nvidia driver was not installed using DKMS (Dynamic Kernel Module Support) this can happen. Easily fixed.

sudo apt remove --purge '^nvidia-.*'

Then install using dkms (replace 550, which i just threw on there, with the number of your preferred driver version, like 565 or 575 or 580...)

sudo apt install nvidia-driver-550 nvidia-dkms-550

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Thank you again!

Unfortunately, that didn't go very well. I had the same results. I'm guessing having an older graphics card is the culprit. For now, I've reverted the changes (kids, always use Timeshift before making a change!) and the resolution is fixed. I'm on the earlier kernel as a result. I'll try to test this again another day, but I didn't want to mess with things further.

Thanks again for everyone's help! I appreciate it.

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What card do you have and which driver are you using?

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Nvidia 660 OEM and it was using version 470 of the proprietary driver (the latest supported version that was available)

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Ah; and when you ran

sudo apt install nvidia-driver-470 nvidia-dkms-470

did the terminal output show it successfully installed or did it relay any errors?

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Sorry for my delayed response! I believe the terminal showed success, but I can't remember since I undid the changes, apologies.

Just an update, though: I plugged the two wireless receivers into a powered USB hub at the front of my computer and that seems to help a great deal. I played a game (SNES rom) for a few minutes and didn't note any connection drops like I did before. If anything changes, I'll post again, but it's a reminder to check the simple things to rule some stuff out!

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