I'm sure most of you here have heard about Cemu's woes over the last few days. The AppImage and Ubuntu zip assets of Cemu 2.6 on the official GitHub was "compromised by a pro-Russian threat actor".

Clearly this news isn't good at all, even if it is a smaller batch who might be affected, but the interesting point to me is how RetroDECK has remained separate from this issue because of how it is run:

https://gardinerbryant.com/the-cemu-security-psa-and-why-retrodecks/

After a long shipping process (and an even longer wait) I finally got my new Steam Controller (2026), only to find that... it sucks!?

It drops inputs in Steam Big Picture Mode (or rather, Bazzite's gaming mode). And when it's not dropping inputs, it's doubling them!

The puck is ~15ft (4.5m) away from me, on top of the TV stand with direct line of sight to me and it reports having a bad and unstable connection. To make matters worse, the input issues seem to happen regardless of whether it's a wireless or wired connection...

Finally, the pairing process is straight up laughable. Connect the controller to your puck to try to pair it, and it prompts you on screen to confirm? How am I supposed to agree to pair it if my controller isn't paired in the first place??

Am I the only one having a terrible experience with this controller so far? This was supposed to be an easy win for Valve...

I sure hope they have some kind of emergency patch in the works for this thing because right now I'm on the verge of asking for a refund.

The controller is un-bricked! All thanks to this user: https://redlib.catsarch.com/r/SteamController/comments/1tc3ua9/arrived_today_wont_connect_update_failed_bricked/

Symptoms:

• The firmware update failed.
• Turning on the controller causes the LED to flash red.
• The device takes charge from both the Puck and USB.
• Can't connect wirelessly to the Puck.
• When connected using a USB cable, the device shows up as "Valve Software Steam Controller Bootloader" in lsusb's output.

How to fix:

1. Start Steam in developer mode by using the -dev argument.

2. Open Settings -> Developer

3. Under Hardware Updates, press the Update all devices now button.

Steam will go through the usual firmware update steps and flashes all connected devices. This failed for me one more time, then worked fine once I switched to a proper USB C-to-C cable.

4. You might need to flash the Puck too, then pair it with the controller.

Original post:

The controller worked fine until I started Steam. It showed the firmware update popup, I did as instructed, the puck was updated fine, but the controller failed. Now the LED flashes red when I turn it on, it doesn't react to button inputs, doesn't connect wirelessly, isn't recognised as a controller when connected through USB, and shows up only as "Valve Software Steam Controller Bootloader".

I think it's reasonable to assume that the firmware is cooked. Naturally I'm opening a support ticket with Valve, but I'm wondering if anyone has any idea on how to resolve it without waiting, potentially for months, for a replacement.

From the Emudeck discord:

@everyone Hey everyone, apologies for the ping but since this is deemed as critical to the security of people's devices here, I will have to. Cemu (The Wii U emulator) was recently compromised by a malicious attacker using a known developers account, this compromise took place from May 6th to May 12th, and introduces malware that is known to steal passwords, SSH keys, GitHub tokens, and likely more they are not fully aware of at this moment. We recommend anybody who is on Linux or SteamOS to go into the EmuDeck app, Manage Emulators tab, Cemu, and click Reinstall/Update, and make sure the hash of the AppImage (Located in Home/Applications, right click Cemu AppImage, go into Properties, Checksums, and Calculate the SHA256 hash) matches the non-compromised version provided by the Cemu developers, if you have used Cemu from the dates I have mentioned, and the SHA256 hash does not match what is listed, assume your system may be compromised if it was ran. If you are on Windows, MacOS, or used the Flatpak version, you are not affected by this malware. More information regarding this attack can be found here. https://rentry.org/cemu-security-psa

The specifically affected packages were:

Cemu-2.6-x86_64.AppImage

cemu-2.6-ubuntu-22.04-x64.zip

edit I just figured out this article was posted 2 years ago on the Steam Deck community, personally I think is ok to repost because the game has improved a TON and it is worth checking up on! https://sopuli.xyz/post/10345987

This post is quite old and I think I am going to post a review of Luanti on the Steam Deck with a control scheme eventually, but I wanted to share this article in the mean time since I have been playing Luanti a lot on my Steam Deck lately.

Luanti is super easy to install on the Steam Deck, just go to desktop mode, open the "Discover" app, search for Luanti and click install. Done!

https://flathub.org/en/apps/org.luanti.luanti

Luanti also works great on Android from F-droid so if you are looking for a game and game engine that can be played on both a Steam Deck and an Android Phone Luanti is it!

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/net.minetest.minetest/

Something I want to stress, Luanti is a game engine that you can browse and download games from which are collections of mods. There are also mods that can be added to games.

One of the most popular games is Voxelibre, which creates an experience much like Minecraft.

https://content.luanti.org/packages/Wuzzy/mineclone2/

Nodeverse is worth checking out because it presents a game where you use a spaceship (like a flying boat kind of) to move around planets which are smaller instanced bits of land. You can then take off and explore other "planets" in the "solar system". This is a good example of how not every Luanti game needs to be an endless landscape with no constraints or macro form.

https://content.luanti.org/packages/aerkiaga/nodeverse/

However Luanti is a general singleplayer and multiplayer voxel game engine, so a wide variety of games can be made with the engine.

Take for example Build A City, it is fairly simple but the controls are there for a 3D management/rts type game.

https://content.luanti.org/packages/Splizard/buildacity/

Koboldkrieg also is an example of how a 3D tower defense game might work, again pretty barebones but it demonstrates that it is entirely possible in the engine.

https://content.luanti.org/packages/Nathan.S/kobo/

Also see Extra Ordinance a top down shoot em up.

https://content.luanti.org/packages/Sumianvoice/extra_ordinance/

I say all that to emphasize that don't look at Luanti and think this is just a Minecraft clone, it is really more like a Minecraft if it was open source and had a more generalist capability like Roblox to create different games.

My Steam controller V2 arrived today and I've been playing around with it for a few hours now. First things first: The hardware and built quality seem really great. Mostly what you'd expect from a "shrunk Steam Deck", but with some clear improvements as well. The d-pad and shoulder buttons feel way nicer than on the Deck. Also, proper haptic/rumble motors.

Using it on Linux (Kubuntu) was initially pretty seamless. Once I connected the puck, I was prompted to do some firmware updates, after which I could start using the controller.

One issue that came up rather quickly was that in some games as well as on the desktop, I could not see the mouse pointer. It was still working but essentially, it was invisible. After some digging, I found that this was a documented issue with Wayland on the old Steam controller. As a workaround, there's a library called extest, which emulates the old X11 behaviour. After compiling and enabling that, it works. I can even switch between a controller mapping and a desktop mapping, same as on Steam Deck. However, it still seems a little buggy sometimes. For example, I've had the on-screen keyboard refuse to come up one time, after which Steam was somehow completely unresponsive until I restarted my PC. Not sure whether issues like these are related to the workaround I had to do or not.

There's also quite a strange issue with the puck. When I boot up my PC with it plugged in, I can't control anything on the GNU GRUB. Afterwards, in the OS, it works fine, but it just doesn't take any keyboard inputs for the GRUB until I plug out the puck and restart the system. Hopefully, this behaviour can be fixed with a firmware update at some point, as it's fairly annoying.

Edit: Puck issues seem to be connected to the specific USB port. I plugged it into a different one and now GRUB works fine with it plugged in.

As a lot of reviewers are saying, it feels very close to the Steam Deck controls. The trackpads are slightly different texture and a bit more refined (in a good way). The D-pad and face buttons feel good to me as a longtime gamer.

I'm used to the Xbox Elite 2 these days and this is quite a bit lighter in weight and feels more like plastic, but still solid enough (again, like the Deck). I do maybe prefer the 8-edged D-pad and I'll probably miss the trigger stops, but gyro and trackpads and grip sense should more than make up for it.

"IN 16 CARTS"

Maybe the original controller's case will work? But probably not that great. I hope they release a case for the new one.

The linked repository has an installation script and more detailed instructions. You can also watch the installation tutorial video here: https://youtu.be/GVUVnngY93I

Has anyone had the css loader plugin for deckyloader make their QAM (quick access menu) not display properly? Some particular script (I don't know which one, or what would be the best way to narrow it down, because I installed several) made it where my QAM doesn't show. Functionally, it still works when I press the button, I can tell because the background blur effect still takes place and I can still navigate and change settings if I press the face buttons, but it's as if the menu display itself is invisible.

I was able to dig into the file system on desktop mode and delete the css folder (after copying it over to another location), and when I rebooted everything works fine again (sans css, of course)

I'm running Bazzite on a onexfly handheld, if that helps any.

Edit: in case anyone runs into this in the future, 'round main menu and QAM' was the script that caused the bug. You have to back out to the 'homebrew' folder where you will find another folder called 'themes' and that's where all the custom scripts you've installed will be located. You'll likely have to 'run as administrator' to do anything with the files. Just right click on a blank space inside the 'themes' folder and open/run as administrator should be an option. Type in your password and you should be good to go ('bazzite' would be the default password if you haven't set one up yet).

Edit 2: today I noticed I was having the issue again. I think the script I previously thought was the culprit actually wasn't. The new one that I tried removing is just called 'full screen menus'. So far so good, I'll come back and update again if the problem persists.

• On Invidious, a privacy focused YouTube wrapper: https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=ssa2bTq57aE
• or on YouTube directly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssa2bTq57aE

Some configuration tips and ideas what you can configure on the new Steam Controller through Steam Input. I found it interesting how the Stick was setup as a way of movement for mouse controlled top down games. Never thought about it to do a mouse click when the stick touches its outer ring. I recommend to watch this video, its well narrated, easy explained and shows exactly how to set it up. And more tips off course.

Thumbnail text: 13 Things you can do

Partial video description:

00:00 - You can do anything
00:44 - Dealing with Popups
01:40 - Bring up the keyboard
02:45 - Mouse Region on Sticks
03:28 - Bonus Swapping Sticks
05:59 - Bonus: Fine Adjustment
09:54 - Sponsor: Dbrand
12:30 - One stick two sticks left stick left stick
14:16 - Virtual Menus
21:08 - Virtual menu style 2
23:41 - Virtual Menu - Type 3
25:12 - Multibutton madness
26:28 - BONUS: Clearing commands
26:38 - BONUS - Skip the menus
28:33 - What do you want to know?

Disclaimer: This was mostly for my own curiosity, and the estimates are probably flawed in one way or another.

I was wondering how much of the Steam Controller sales went to scalpers. Lots of websites have reported on scalpers reselling the controller, but most of those articles just focus on how much is being asked for the controller, not how many are actually available/being sold. That doesn't really tell us much by itself.

Looking at ebay's sold items, there's about ~240* listed Steam Controllers that have been sold since the announcement.

There's an additional 20 current listing I see for the new Steam controller, that haven't sold yet (weirdly, almost all the unsold listing are located in Australia, with only a single remaining listing for a US seller).

Next question is how many Steam Controllers were available to buy. Approximate estimate for the US was around 35,000-40,000 controllers*. Europe would have it's own supply.

So while there were scalpers, it doesn't seem like they were responsible for a meaningful percentage of the sales.

Additional notes: Valve limited controller sales to 2 per transaction, but didn't limit it to 2 per account. This is speculated to have been a mistake, but still would have limited how many scalpers could have gotten with how hard it was to complete a transaction.

*Math section:

5 pages of results for steam controllers in the ebay sold section, at 60 items per page, so a max of 300 sold. However, none of those pages are just the 2026 Steam Controller, a lot are actually the classic steam controller, hori steam controller, steam link, or other controllers that advertise that they're for steam. I didn't do an exact count for all 5 pages, but only 48 out of 60 results on page 4 were the steam controller 2026, so around ~240 units.

The number of controllers sold in the US is based on the shipment of controllers Valve received. It was 28,500 lbs/12,970 kg. The controller and puck weigh 308g, which would divide out to something like 42,000 controllers in the shipment. After adding in additional packaging, 35,000-40,000 is a more likely estimate. The shipment officially contained 40 packages, so possibly 1000 controllers per package.

cross-posted from: https://piefed.social/c/subnautica2/p/2040327/subnautica-2-is-steam-deck-verified

Subnautica 2 Is Steam Deck Verified

Link to verification:
https://store.steampowered.com/verified/1962700/Subnautica_2

The community manager has also mentioned that Subnautica 2 is Handheld Optimized on the ROG Xbox Ally.

https://gitlab.steamos.cloud/SteamHardware/SteamController