GameSir G7 HE - hid-generic claims device, no rumble support

[NachoWolf-19]

GameSir G7 HE Controller - No rumble/vibration support

Controller: GameSir-G7 HE Controller for Xbox
USB ID: 3537:1082
OS: CachyOS (Arch-based)
Kernel: 7.0.11-1-cachyos
xone version: xone-dkms-git

Problem

The controller is detected and all buttons/axes work correctly, but rumble/vibration does not work. The controller is being claimed by hid-generic instead of xone drivers.

dmesg output

[ 1095.315376] hid-generic 0003:3537:1082.001E: ignoring exceeding usage max
[ 1095.315671] input: GameSir-G7 HE Controller for Xbox Keyboard as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb1/1-5/1-5:1.1/0003:3537:1082.001E/input/input90
[ 1095.383156] input: GameSir-G7 HE Controller for Xbox Mouse as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb1/1-5/1-5:1.1/0003:3537:1082.001E/input/input91
[ 1095.383233] hid-generic 0003:3537:1082.001E: input,hiddev97,hidraw4: USB HID v1.10 Keyboard [GameSir-G7 HE Controller for Xbox] on usb-0000:00:14.0-5/input1
[ 1139.215208] usb 1-5: New USB device found, idVendor=3537, idProduct=10a0, bcdDevice= 6.64
[ 1139.863383] usb 1-5: New USB device found, idVendor=3537, idProduct=1082, bcdDevice= 6.64
[ 1139.867396] input: GameSir-G7 HE Controller for Xbox as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb1/1-5/1-5:1.0/0003:3537:1082.0021/input/input99
[ 1139.918741] hid-generic 0003:3537:1082.0021: input,hidraw3: USB HID v1.10 Gamepad [GameSir-G7 HE Controller for Xbox] on usb-0000:00:14.0-5/input0
[ 1139.919844] hid-generic 0003:3537:1082.0022: ignoring exceeding usage max
[ 1139.987786] hid-generic 0003:3537:1082.0022: input,hiddev97,hidraw4: USB HID v1.10 Keyboard [GameSir-G7 HE Controller for Xbox] on usb-0000:00:14.0-5/input1

Note: the device briefly enumerates as idProduct=10a0 before switching to idProduct=1082. xone modules are loaded but hid-generic claims the device first and xone never takes over.

lsmod

xone_gip_gamepad    20480  0
xone_wired          24576  0
xone_gip            73728  2 xone_gip_gamepad,xone_wired
ff_memless          20480  2 xpad,xone_gip_gamepad

Expected behavior

xone should claim the device and enable rumble/vibration support, as it does for other Xbox licensed controllers.

Notes

• Buttons and axes work correctly via hid-generic
• Steam Input detects the controller but cannot send rumble commands
• xpadneo was also tested with no improvement
• G7 SE works fine (added to kernel 6.14), but G7 HE (released July 2024) has no support yet

[madnj]

I would add that the Gamesir G7 SE controller has the same behavior on the current CachyOS kernel (Kernel: Linux 7.1.2-2-cachyos
). It loads as hid-generic and while it functions as a gamepad, it doesn't have rumble support. If plugged in while holding the buttons to the left and right of the xbox logo, it will come up with the XBox logo LED illuminated, however it will not initialize and the button mappings are wrong and it doesn't bind to the xone driver.

[madnj]

Apparently I just needed to implement kernel quirk through GRUB and it's working fine (G7 SE). I just added this to my GRUB cmdline: usbcore.quirks=3537:10a0:gk - I'd guess a similar quirk would be needed for the Gaemsir-G7 HE. Note though that this works with the xpad driver natively, I didn't need xone to get the controller to be properly supported (with rumble in games etc).

[caasi]

As @madnj guessed, the G7 SE quirk usbcore.quirks=3537:10a0:gk also fixes
the G7 HE. I confirmed it on HE hardware, and again after a reboot with the
parameter on the kernel command line.

The controller then enumerates as 3537:1065 and stays in GIP mode. xone binds
it. Steam shows it as Microsoft Xbox Controller. Input works in GTA IV.

Flag g is USB_QUIRK_DELAY_INIT and flag k is USB_QUIRK_NO_LPM. I
tested them one at a time. 3537:10a0:g alone holds GIP mode. 3537:10a0:k
alone does not, and the pad falls back to HID as 3537:1082. I tested each
single flag one time. The pair has run for several hours. So an entry in
drivers/usb/core/quirks.c probably needs only USB_QUIRK_DELAY_INIT. The
single-flag result needs repetition before a kernel patch.

To try it without a reboot, run the command below, then re-plug the
controller:

echo '3537:10a0:gk' | sudo tee /sys/module/usbcore/parameters/quirks

Rumble works at the driver level, but not in games. Every layer from the
game-facing device down to the pad works:

• fftest on the real device vibrates the pad for the three effects the pad
  accepts (0, 4 and 5). It still vibrates while a game runs and Steam holds
  the device open.
• The Ping button in the Steam controller settings vibrates the pad.
• With Steam Input on, Steam adds a virtual device, Microsoft X-Box 360 pad 0. lsof shows the Wine process of the game (winedevice) holds that
  virtual device. fftest on the virtual device also vibrates the real pad,
  so Steam forwards the effect. (Observed with Monster Hunter Rise.)
• With Steam Input off, lsof shows winedevice holds the real device
  directly. (Observed with Castle Crashers.)

So the rumble path through xone is not part of the problem.

None of the three games vibrates the pad. Castle Crashers does not vibrate it
with Steam Input on, and it does not vibrate it with Steam Input off. GTA IV
and Monster Hunter Rise do not vibrate it either. All three ran under Proton.
But in each state the device that winedevice holds does vibrate under
fftest. So the effect is lost in the game, or in the input layers above that
device. I did not observe the game side. ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux#8590
describes rumble lost inside Steam Input, but that is not the cause here,
because the forwarding worked in my test.

The cause is not a binding race. hid-generic does not take the device
before xone. In GIP mode (3537:10a0) the USB initialization fails with error
-71. The device disconnects, and it returns in HID mode as 3537:1082. In HID
mode both interfaces report bInterfaceClass 3, while xone_wired asks for
interface 0 with class FF, subclass 47, protocol D0:

alias: usb:v3537p*d*dc*dsc*dp*icFFisc47ipD0in00*

So xone cannot match the device in HID mode. The fix must act during USB
enumeration, before the fallback. The quirk does that. With the quirk,
interface 0 reports 255 / 71 / 208 (0xFF / 0x47 / 0xD0). I do not know what
selects the product ID.

Press the Xbox button after you connect the controller, the same as on
Windows. Until you do, the adapter gip0 exists but no client appears. xone
waits for the announce packet from the device.

Ubuntu 24.04, kernel 6.8.0-49-generic, xone 0.5.8.

Kernel log

Trimmed. The serial number, the device address and the handshake key are
removed.

Before the quirk:

[151054.029331] usb 1-1: New USB device found, idVendor=3537, idProduct=10a0, bcdDevice= 6.64
[151054.032802] usbhid 1-1:1.1: can't add hid device: -71
[151054.052508] usb 1-1: USB disconnect, device number 6
[151054.682495] usb 1-1: New USB device found, idVendor=3537, idProduct=1082, bcdDevice= 6.64
[151054.740068] hid-generic 0003:3537:1082.0007: input,hidraw6: USB HID v1.10 Gamepad [GameSir-G7 HE Controller for Xbox] on usb-0000:00:14.0-1/input0

After the quirk:

[152180.732264] usb 1-1: unable to read config index 0 descriptor/start: -71
[152181.055459] usb 1-1: new full-speed USB device number 11 using xhci_hcd
[152181.183406] usb 1-1: New USB device found, idVendor=3537, idProduct=1065, bcdDevice= 6.64
[152181.299801] usb 1-1: reset full-speed USB device number 11 using xhci_hcd
[152181.427033] xone-gip gip0: gip_create_adapter: registered

Nothing more appears for 160 seconds. Then I press the Xbox button:

[152341.781789] xone-gip gip0: gip_handle_pkt_announce: address=<redacted>, vendor=0x3537, product=0x1065
[152341.817802] xone-gip gip0: gip_parse_classes: class=Windows.Xbox.Input.Gamepad
[152342.531623] input: Microsoft Xbox Controller as .../1-1:1.0/gip0/gip0.0/input/input42
[152342.531751] xone-gip-gamepad gip0.0: gip_register_client: registered
[152343.999892] xone-gip-gamepad gip0.0: gip_auth_complete_handshake: key=<redacted>

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Debugged and written with Claude (Claude Code).