NEWS.md
# Changes since v0.8 up to v0.9
*Quote of the day:*
> Good News, Everyone!
Much hard work of several weeks has gone into this release, so there's a big
reason to say thanks to all contributors, be it testing, suggestions, bug
reporting, or - of course - programming.
First of all, Michael Schmitt donated an Xbox Elite 2 controller, so we now
have full support for basic functionality of this controller, with support for
the advanced features coming in the v0.10 version of the driver. This builds
upon contributions done in the previous version of the driver.
Additionally, Ben Schattinger contributed support for the new Xbox Series X|S
controllers that were released by Microsoft with their new console generation.
Support for the new share button is still not finalized but it will generate a
key code. This new controller uses BLE (Bluetooth low energy) to connect to PC,
so you need a Bluetooth dongle that supports that features (most should do).
Both of you, Michael and Ben, qualified for the quote of the day. You guys
rock.
Also, some donations were provided by several people via Ko-fi. Thanks for
that, it's really appreciated. You guys are awesome!
Let's not forget all the people who contributed to the project patiently
providing feedback, bug reports, and testing, or even just a "thank you": This
release is our "thank you" back to the community.
Finally, we've got a logo now.
Here the gist of what the new version delivers:
* Discord community (shared with xow, ask to join your project)
* Code generation assertions
* Start of code-redesign for splitting the driver core
* Start of profile support (not implemented yet)
* Dropped old debug mode
* Better compliance with the Linux Gamepad specification
* Improved driver documentation
* Improved hardware documentation
* Improved hardware support
* Improved quirks handler to more easily handle hardware quirks
* Improved HID handler performance
* Improved dmesg logging
* Improved DKMS installer
* Improved rumble timing and precision
* Improved rumble damping setting
* Improved continuous integration testing
* Added support for new hardware-level device functions
* Added high-precision mode for the thumb sticks
* Added option for disabling dead-zones for better Proton support
Many of the bug fixes have been backported to the v0.8 branch which has now
received its end of life. If you're having problems with the new features,
please report that and use the v0.8 branch until that specific bug is fixed.
## Known Problems
The Bluetooth stability of the Xbox controllers is still a known issue which we
probably can't fix in the driver. Some work-arounds are in place but that's not
a 100% guarantee. Some of these problems can even be observed when using the
controller with Windows. All the problems seem to mostly focus around using
rumble, so you may need to disable rumble.
The other class of problems is connecting/pairing the controller properly. This
seems to be a Linux kernel issue or a Bluez daemon issue, or a combination of
both. Usually, Windows doesn't show any problems here. Apparently, we cannot
fix this in the driver. You may want to report this to the kernel or Bluez
developers.
Always use the controller updated to its latest firmware before trying other
steps: Microsoft fixed some connection problems, and also HID implementation
details in the past with firmware updates.
## Breaking Changes
This release fixes button mappings for 8BitDo controllers to actually match
their names on the controller instead of matching positions with original Xbox
controllers. The X,Y and A,B buttons will be swapped compared to previous
versions.
This change is controversial but let me tell you that we are going to work on
changes that let you easily choose and switch behavior in v0.10.
The module parameter `debug_level` has been dropped. Some other parameters
have been dropped in favor of better replacements. Please reconfigure your
parameters and settings.
## The Future
The new controllers provide some new functionality at the hardware level which
we are going to try to emulate at the driver level for older generation
controllers. The prominent example for this is mapping profiles support: Until
we figured out how this is implemented in hardware for the Xbox Elite 2
controller, we won't implement any emulation support in the driver. This is
because we want to end up with an emulation that is 100% compatible with the
hardware implementation, and not end up with some customization functions that
needs emulation for the Xbox Elite 2 controller.
We are also going to split the driver into components to easily add support for
USB or GIP dongle connections, with USB probably coming first because the GIP
dongle still has licensing issues for using its firmware.
## Headlines:
* hid-xpadneo, quirks: We need to carry a quirk for Linux button mappings
* hid-xpadneo, rumble: Migrate damping to generic attenuation parameter
* installer: Change to base directory first
* xpadneo, deadzones: Implement a high-precision mode without dead zones
* xpadneo, udev: Work around libinput using the controller as touchpad
```
Kai Krakow (78):
hid-xpadneo: Drop `debug_level`
hid-xpadneo, quirks: Pass quirks from driver data
udev: Expose all xpadneo input devices as user-readable
hid-xpadneo, profiles: Prepares profile switching for customization
Update bug_report.md
docs, news: Document breaking changes.
hid-xpadneo, rumble: Migrate damping to generic attenuation parameter
xpadneo, udev: Work around libinput using the controller as touchpad
hid-xpadneo: Tell the user which controller connected
hid-xpadneo, quirks: Fix a typo
hid-xpadneo, quirks: Expand flags to 32 bit
hid-xpadneo, quirks: We need to carry a quirk for Linux button mappings
xpadneo, quirks: Add Nintendo mappings quirk for 8BitDo controllers
docs: Fix a syntax problem in SDL link
xpadneo, deadzones: Use smaller dead zone and fuzz for precision
xpadneo, deadzones: Implement a high-precision mode without dead zones
docs: Document another storage location for SDL gamepad mappings
docs: Document SDL HIDAPI breakage
hid-xpadneo, init: Ignore HID_CONNECT_FF
hid-xpadneo, quirks: Convert to proper bit values
hid-xpadneo: Update copyright
configure, cleanup: Remove the tedious whitespace
xpadneo, cleanup: Fix missing newline at end of file
hid-xpadneo, cleanup: Remove some more comments
hid-xpadneo: Replace `combined_z_axis` with additional axis
hid-xpadneo: Stop spamming the HID layer with repeated reports
Revert "hid-xpadneo, quirks: Convert to proper bit values"
hid-xpadneo, timing: Use clamp() instead min()/max()
hid-xpadneo, rumble: Tighten the rumble timing
hid-xpadneo: Fix potentially loosing input packets for XBE2 controllers
docs: Add Repology badge
docs: Mention MissionControl sibling project
docs: Cleanup some whitespace
docs: Add xpadneo logo
docs: Add Discord badge
installer: Drop VERSION tag file from master branch
installer: Fix white space
installer, dkms: Prevent showing readlink errors
installer: Add verbose mode
installer: Exit on unexpected errors
installer, dkms: Skip ERTM if setting is not writable
tests: Add verbose mode to Azure Pipeline
tests: Also test uninstallation in Azure Pipeline
tests: Dump make.log to stdout on verbose DKMS error
tests: Run Azure Pipeline on multiple Ubuntu LTS versions
hid-xpadneo: Ignore trigger scale switches
hid-xpadneo, profiles: Log to kernel starting with lower-case
hid-xpadneo, rumble: Remove useless use of max()
hid-xpadneo: Optimize delay_work clamping
hid-xpadneo, rumble: Use proper integer rounding in calculations
hid-xpadneo, rumble: Limit command duration
hid-xpadneo: Fix kernel coding standards
docs: Remove bogus blank line
docs: Do not misuse back-ticks
docs: Document broken packet format of XBE2 v1
hid-xpadneo: Handle XBE2 v2 packet format
hid-xpadneo: Add XBE2 trigger scale setting
docs: Fix collaboration referral
docs: Fix a typo
hid-xpadneo: Reserve another bit for the new XBXS share button
hid-xpadneo: Document XBXS modes and PIDs
docs: Document XBXS controller support in the README
docs: Restructure text about profile support
docs: Add BLE note for the XBXS controller
docs: Move profile switching section
hid-xpadneo: Make assertions of hardware buffer sizes
hid-xpadneo: Make rumble motor bits a full enum type
installer: Move version information to separate include file
installer: Remove excessive blank lines
installer: "INSTALLED" is an array
configure: Use braces around variables
installer: Change to base directory first
hid-xpadneo: Alias the Share button
hid-xpadneo: Fix a comment about rumble timing
hid-xpadneo: Improve PID documentation
docs: Document Bluetooth low energy requirements
installer: Also fix the updater
hid-xpadneo: Move headers to separate file
Ben Schattinger (2):
docs: Document Xbox Series X/S controller
hid-xpadneo: Add Xbox Series X / S controller support
```
# Changes since v0.7 up to v0.8
*Quote of the day:*
> HID me baby, one more time!
Much hard work of several weeks has gone into this release, so there's a big
reason to say thanks to all contributors, be it testing, suggestions, bug
reporting, or - of course - programming.
Many thanks @medusalix for finally figuring out the underlying problems of
the disconnect behavior of the controller during rumble events: After some
internal discussion, we managed to find a race condition in the controller
firmware and worked around it by throttling the rumble reprogramming to
intervals of at least 10ms as this is what the controllers seems to accept
as the minimal interval without freaking out. As a "thank you", I contributed
a logically identical patch to the [xow](https://github.com/medusalix/xow)
project which has not been merged yet, tho. Check it out - it supports the
native dongle that comes with the controller!
Also, let's all say "thank you" to @ehats for contributing the Xbox Elite 2
series controller support. He started from zero to mastering the HID
internals in just a few days with just a little help from me. I'm sure, a
vast amount of effort, a steep learning curve, and a lot of endurance and
probably also one beer or another went into this work. Leave him some kudos
for this awesome contribution, and expect more to follow. His work builds
the base for adding profile support and customization into the next xpadneo
version. He qualified for the quote of the day above.
A handful patches have been contributed which fix some smaller bugs:
* Thanks to Adam Becker for adding some bug and style fixes.
* Lars-Sören Steck fixed a scripting bug, thank you.
* Manjaro users now see instructions for their favorite distribution,
thanks to @snpefk.
Let's not forget our testers, who have patiently been with us during the
development of this milestone: We appreciate your work, patience, and
contributions.
Many of the bug fixes have been backported to the v0.7 branch which has now
received its end of life. If you're having problems with the new features,
please report that and use the v0.7 branch until that specific bug is fixed.
## Breaking Changes
This version removed some module parameters with only partial replacement.
One of those if `disable_ff` which can no longer be used. Instead, there's
a new parameter `trigger_rumble_mode` which can disable trigger rumble
only. The next update will include a new parameter to set rumble attenuation
to 100% which translates to no rumble at all.
## Headlines:
* dmks, installer: Move etc sources one level up
* docs, mapping: Document and explain `joydev` mapping
* hid-xpadneo: Adhere to Linux Gamepad Specification
* hid-xpadneo, battery: Rework detection, parsing and reporting
* hid-xpadneo, compat: Fix compilation on kernel 4.19
* hid_xpadneo, quirks: Add "8BitDo SN30 Pro+"
* hid-xpadneo, rumble: Throttle reprogramming of rumble motors
* installer: Parse DKMS version info correctly
* installer: Use awk in non-GNU mode
```
Kai Krakow (70):
configure: `fake_dev_version` no longer exists
configure: `trigger_rumble_damping` should no longer default to 4
configure: Choose a single or default config file only
configure: Create missing directories and files on demand
configure: Silence superfluous error messages
dkms, install: Do not apply inline version patching
dkms, installer: Fix early exit if `git-rev-parse` does not work
dkms, installer: Fix version parsing
dkms, udev: Eliminate bash scripting from udev rules
dkms, uninstall: Fix early exit if `modprobe -r` does not work
dkms, update: Suggest a download URL actually matching the version
dkms: Use cmdline format which requires less escaping
dmks, installer: Move etc sources one level up
docs, chipsets: Update chipset compatibility reports
docs, cleanup: Fix typos
docs, cleanup: Fix white-space and new-lines
docs, cleanup: Fix whitespace
docs, cleanup: Remove outdated debug documentation
docs, cleanup: Visual tweaks
docs, formatting: Migrate to proper headlines
docs, mapping: Document and explain `joydev` mapping
docs: Document 8BitDo SN30 Pro+ controller
docs: Improve the debugging instructions
docs: Mention other projects
docs: Update documentation with rumble modes
docs: xpadneo is no longer the only driver
hid-xpadneo, battery: Protect concurrent access with spin locks
hid-xpadneo, battery: Rework detection, parsing and reporting
hid-xpadneo, cleanup: Reorder includes
hid-xpadneo, cleanup: Simplify mapping code
hid-xpadneo, comments: Fix wording
hid-xpadneo, compat: Fix compilation on kernel 4.19
hid-xpadneo, events: Do not send Xbox logo event for turn-off
hid-xpadneo, formatting: Kernel allows 100 chars line length now
hid-xpadneo, Makefile: Accept `rmmod` failing
hid-xpadneo, patching: Only show version patching if changed
hid-xpadneo, rumble: Protect concurrent access with spin locks
hid-xpadneo, rumble: Throttle reprogramming of rumble motors
hid-xpadneo: Adhere to Linux Gamepad Specification
hid-xpadneo: parameter `combined_z_axis` cannot be changed at runtime
hid-xpadneo: Separate private and foreign includes
hid_xpadneo, cleanup: Use symbols instead of numbers in mapping phase
hid_xpadneo, probe: Fix newline in error path
hid_xpadneo, quirks: Add "8BitDo SN30 Pro+"
hid_xpadneo, quirks: Migrate 8BitDo quirks to OUI match
hid_xpadneo, rumble: Optimize motor reprogramming
hid_xpadneo, style: Fix indentation
hid_xpadneo: Add quirk modes for misbehaving controllers
hid_xpadneo: New trigger rumble modes
hidxpad-neo, cleanup: Fix a comment style
installer, cleanup: Remove superfluous whitespace
installer: Add support for disabling ERTM override
installer: Compare latest version correctly
installer: Fix non-git version lookup
installer: Get latest version from the releases page
installer: Parse DKMS version info correctly
installer: Print some version information in update instructions
installer: Trim whitespace from online version numbers
installer: Try to fetch the current version from git tags
installer: Use awk in non-GNU mode
meta: Ignore vscode metadata completely
meta: Sort gitignore
misc: Add hidraw test program
Update bug_report.md
Update bug_report.md
Update bug_report.md
Update bug_report.md
Update bug_report.md
Update README.md
xpadneo, event: Remove symbols
Adam Becker (6):
Fix bug where 2 would map to unknown PS type instead of battery.
Fixing formatting issues
Don't use common return point if no resources are freed
Formatting parameter sections
Add parameter section for toggling the FF connect notification
Rename 'xpadneo_mapping' to match other names
Erik Hajnal (1):
Add support for XBE2 (Unknown mode)
Lars-Sören Steck (1):
Fix error "[: unexpected operator"
snpefk (1):
Add install instruction for Manjaro
```
# Changes since v0.6 up to v0.7
Major code overhaul and redesign. It optimizes the controller
communication path, adds support for more hardware and uses
HID table fixups now instead of trying to code for every
broken mapping variant.
## Headlines:
* fix direction_rumble_test path error (#168)
* hid-xpadneo: Convert mapping to using tables instead of code
* Pretend we are in Windows wireless mode
```
Kai Krakow (21):
Add support von non-DKMS build
Follow the kernel code style better
hid-xpadneo: Prevent accidental fall-through
hid-xpadneo: Scale rumble magnitudes correctly
hid-xpadneo, cleanup: Remove setting default axis values
hid-xpadneo, cleanup: Outsource welcome rumble
hid-xpadneo, cleanup: Cleanup `xpadneo_initBatt()` a little
hid-xpadneo: Fix usage of report ID in `xpadneo_raw_event()` hook
hid-xpadneo: Use work queue for rumble effects
hid-xpadneo: Use work queue for battery events
docs: Add some controller documentation
Pretend we are in Windows wireless mode
Revert "shift axis values to the left"
hid-xpadneo: Convert mapping to using tables instead of code
hid-xpadneo: Clean up
hid-xpadneo: Do not repeat rumble packets
hid-xpadneo: Rework the directional rumble model
hid-xpadneo, cleanup: Clean up combined z-axis feature
hid-xpadneo: Pretend different firmware for PID 0x02E0
hid-xpadneo: Autodetect battery presence after connect
hid-xpadneo, cleanup: Remove most of the remaining debug cruft
Dugan Chen (1):
Add Support For Xbox Elite Series 2 Wireless
Florian Dollinger (1):
Create no-response.yml
Srauni (1):
fix direction_rumble_test path error (#168)
```