I realize there have not been any substantial changes to xow in over a year now. This is partly due to the lack of free time for me as a university student. I thought about the numerous feature requests and long-standing bugs and finally decided to abandon the concept of a user mode driver. While it certainly proved a point it also demonstrated how quickly you reach the boundaries of integration with other parts of the operating system (audio, battery reporting, etc.). I have been working on a new kernel driver for the last couple of months and it already works pretty well. It is currently USB-only and support for the wireless dongle will be added later on. It has audio functionality, battery reporting and support for the chatpad. If you would like to give it a try you can head over to the Discord server. Feedback is much appreciated!
xow is a Linux user mode driver for the Xbox One wireless dongle.
It communicates with the dongle via libusb and provides joystick input through the uinput kernel module.
The input mapping is based on existing kernel drivers like xpad.
The Xbox One wireless dongle requires a proprietary firmware to operate. The firmware is included with the Xbox - Net - 7/11/2017 12:00:00 AM - 1.0.46.1 driver available from Microsoft Update Catalog. The package is automatically downloaded and extracted during the build process due to Microsoft's Terms of Use, which strictly disallow the distribution of the firmware. By using xow, you accept Microsoft's license terms for their driver package.
xow supports both versions of the wireless dongle (slim and bulky one) and the Surface Book 2's built-in adapter. The following Xbox One controllers are currently compatible with the driver:
| Model number | Year | Additional information | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1537 | 2013 | Original controller | Working |
| 1697 | 2015 | Audio jack | Working |
| 1698 | 2015 | Elite controller | Working |
| 1708 | 2016 | Bluetooth connectivity | Working |
| 1797 | 2019 | Elite controller series 2 | Working |
| 1914 | 2020 | Share button and USB-C | Untested |
- RPM packaging instructions (for distributions like Fedora)
- EmuELEC (starting with version 3.3)
- GamerOS (starting with version 13)
- Steam Link (starting with build 747)
Feel free to package xow for any Linux distribution or hardware you like, as long as you do not publish any prebuilt executables. The build process embeds a copy of Microsoft's proprietary firmware into the binary, prohibiting any type of distribution. Any issues regarding the packaging should be reported to the respective maintainers.
- Linux (kernel 4.5 or newer)
- curl (for proprietary driver download)
- cabextract (for firmware extraction)
- libusb (libusb-1.0-0-dev for Debian)
- systemd (version 232 or newer)
Clone the repository (necessary for version tagging to work):
git clone https://github.com/medusalix/xow
Build xow using the following command:
make BUILD=RELEASE
NOTE: Please use BUILD=DEBUG when asked for your debug logs.
Install xow as a systemd unit (runs xow at boot time) and start the service:
sudo make install
sudo systemctl enable xow
sudo systemctl start xow
NOTE: Running xow manually is strongly discouraged. A reboot might be required for xow to work correctly.
Make sure to completely uninstall xow before updating:
sudo systemctl stop xow
sudo systemctl disable xow
sudo make uninstall
You can enable the dongle's pairing mode by sending the SIGUSR1 signal to xow:
sudo systemctl kill -s SIGUSR1 xow
NOTE: Signals are only handled after a dongle has been plugged in. The default behavior for SIGUSR1 is to terminate the process.
InputException: No such file or directory- The
/dev/uinputdevice has to be available. Theuinputkernel module needs to be loaded.
- The
InputException: Permission denied- The permissions for
/dev/uinputhave to allow read and write access. Theudevrules need to be installed and any conflicts with existing rules have to be resolved.
- The permissions for
Mt76Exception: Failed to load firmware- Another driver might have already loaded the dongle's firmware. The dongle needs to be unplugged to reset its internal memory, followed by a restart of xow's
systemdservice.
- Another driver might have already loaded the dongle's firmware. The dongle needs to be unplugged to reset its internal memory, followed by a restart of xow's
LIBUSB_ERROR_TIMEOUT- See the USB incompatibilities section.
LIBUSB_ERROR_BUSYorLIBUSB_ERROR_NO_DEVICE- Only a single program can communicate with the dongle at once. Any existing drivers that might interfere with xow need to be disabled. This includes running multiple instances of xow.
LIBUSB_ERROR_ACCESS- The permissions for the dongle's USB device have to be set correctly. This is also handled by the
udevrules.
- The permissions for the dongle's USB device have to be set correctly. This is also handled by the
Using an outdated version of libusb can cause various issues. Make sure to update libusb to the latest version.
The controller only remembers the last device it was connected to. It will not automatically establish a connection to the dongle if it was previously plugged into a USB port or paired via bluetooth, even if the same computer was used.
- Certain games do not detect wireless controllers
- Enable the compatibility mode in the service configuration, reload the
systemddaemon and restart the service. Controllers connected to the dongle will appear as Xbox 360 controllers.
- Enable the compatibility mode in the service configuration, reload the
- Buttons/triggers/sticks are mapped incorrectly
- Try the options listed on this page to remap your inputs.
- Input from the sticks is jumping around
- Try the options listed on this page to set your deadzones.
Some USB controllers are known to cause issues with xow. Plugging your dongle into a USB port that uses an ASMedia controller will lead to problems. Most Intel USB controllers work well with xow.
Power management issues can arise when using a USB 3 controller. These can lead to timeouts of the USB communication. The use of a USB hub can mitigate these problems.
In case of any other problems, please open an issue with all the relevant details (dongle version, controller version, logs, captures, etc.).
NOTE: Please refrain from creating issues concerning input remapping, deadzones or game compatibility as these topics are outside the scope of this project.
The dongle's wireless chip (MT76xx) handles the WLAN connection with individual controllers.
The packet format follows Microsoft's undisclosed GIP (Game Input Protocol) specification.
Most of the reverse engineering was done by capturing the communication between the dongle and a Windows PC using Wireshark.
As no datasheets for this chip are publicly available, I have used datasheets of similar wireless radios for assistance.
Special thanks to the authors of OpenWrt's mt76 kernel driver.
It would have been impossible for me to create this driver without mt76's source code.
If anyone has a greater understanding of the GIP or the weird quirks I had to add to make the driver work, please contact me.
xow is released under the GNU General Public License, Version 2.
Copyright (C) 2019 Medusalix
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
of the License, or (at your option) any later version.