OS seems to see the controller and it looks like it connected through bluetooth. but steam doesn't see it. if I connect through usb then steam can see it and it works fine. any ideas?
Take a look at this
sadly, this didn't fix it.
did you try to connect your xbox controller before launching steam ?
Is Steam installed as Flatpak or .deb/APT Packages? Are Secure Boot and Fast Boot in BIOS disabled? Does Your System runs in Wayland or X11? You can check that with the Terminal Command echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE
if it helps, the controller is the xbox elite 2
I turned off secure boot. I don't see a fast boot option in my bios. I'v tried in both wayland and x11 sessions of zorin. I downloaded the "zorin " version of steam installer through the software store
Do You have maybe a different Controller what You could use to check if that would work? It could help to see if there is a common Issue with Controller Connection/Detection or if it is this specific Controller.