Google engineer Siarhei Vishniakou has been working on bringing rumble support for Xbox controllers to Linux according to a new entry on Kernel.org. If the patch is accepted into the Linux kernel then gamers using these controllers on their Linux-based systems would get a better gaming experience.
After chatting with the Xbox team, the Google engineer managed to bring rumble support to two Xbox One controllers (model 1708 and model 1914) and the Xbox Elite Series 2 controller (model 1797). If you’re wondering what motivation Google could have for working on these drivers, it’s because they want rumble support on their Linux-based ChromeOS devices.
If the Linux kernel maintainers deem the patch to be okay and accept it, then we could see it land in the Linux 6.4 kernel, though, this is not a guarantee. The latest kernel release is version 6.3 Release Candidate 1. New release candidates will be released for around two more months before a new two-month cycle starts for the 6.4 kernel which could contain the Xbox controller patch.
While Google is looking to add support for the benefit of its own ChromeOS devices, all versions of Linux running the 6.4 kernel will get support added for rumble too. Depending on your distribution, however, users will have to wait varying amounts of time before they receive the 6.4 kernel update.
Source: Kernel.org via Phoronix