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.
oddly enough it works fine with my old xbox One S controller. It's the Elite 2 that steam won't see. I've never had this problem on my windows desktop.
Well, it's both Microsoft. So, that's no wonder. But when it works with the older Controller, maybe there is some lack Hardware Support for this. Or the Steam Linux Client doesn't support it now. There would be the Question what it is ... You could try it with a newer Kernel if You want ...