Game center tools

This repository contains some opinionated scripts that I wrote for my specific purposes:

• headless Linux gaming system streamed to my TV set via Sunshine/Moonlight
• no keyboard, only a Bluetooth gamepad connected directly to the gaming system OR a gamepad connected to the client and forwarded via USB/IP
• XFCE desktop environment
• Steam Big Picture as main UI

Gamepad battery notifications (gamepad-power)

Dependencies: notify-send, udev, mounted sysfs on /sys

A little systemd service that monitors battery-powered gamepads and sends notifications when the battery charge changes. Notifications are sent using notify-send which must be installed on the system. Battery status detection requires a mounted sysfs in /sys and udev running.

Run make && sudo make install to install the shell scripts and a systemd unit for the user daemon. After that, enable it:

systemctl --user enable --now gamepad-power.service

Note that in order to start the service automatically at login time you need a desktop environment that supports systemd and graphical-session.target (XFCE is not one of them, I had to make it work in some other way). You can also start /usr/local/bin/gamepad-power in whatever way you prefer.

Steam compatibility tools updater (steam-compat-updater)

Dependencies: notify-send, curl, tar, gunzip

This is a script that will update Steam compatibility tools (currently only GE-Proton).
Just run it under the same user you also run Steam with and it will use desktop notifications (using notify-send) to notify upgrades or errors. If no upgrades are found, no notifications are displayed.

Please note that if Steam was running during an upgrade, it needs to be restarted to detect the upgrade.

Run make && sudo make install to install the shell script and a systemd unit for the user daemon. After that, enable it:

systemctl --user enable --now steam-compat-updater.service

Note that in order to start the service automatically at login time you need a desktop environment that supports systemd and graphical-session.target (XFCE is not one of them, I had to make it work in some other way). You can also start /usr/local/bin/steam-compat-updater in whatever way you prefer. This script is not a daemon and just runs once, does the upgrades, then exits - it is intended to be run once at system startup.

Moonlight USB/IP integration

Dependencies: notify-send (client only), Polkit (client only), usbip

This is a set of systemd units, configuration files and script that somewhat integrates Moonlight with USB/IP, which is basically a tool to "forward" USB devices through the network to another host. This has the advantage that games will see the controller as if it's attached directly to the gaming system and will be able to use all its features - something that can't be done with the built-in Sunshine/Moonlight emulation.

Note

This integration will make your controller work only for your gaming (Sunshine) host but not in Moonlight GUI itself. This is because of USB/IP taking exclusive access to the controller. You must use another device to control the Moonlight GUI (mouse/keyboard).

Heavily inspired by the USB/IP Arch wiki page, I tried to streamline the process as much as I could, automating almost everything. The idea is this:

• connect a controller to your Moonlight system
• start Moonlight via a wrapper script
• start a service on the server (Sunshine) system to attach the controller

On the Moonlight system (streaming client)

Configuration files exist for the DualShock 4 and DualSense controllers.

Run make && sudo make install to install everything. After that, you can start Moonlight via the wrapper script moonlight-usbip or via application shortcut "Moonlight USB/IP".

The wrapper script will:

• start the usbip daemon and try to bind both the DS4 and the DS5 (whatever it will find connected)
• start Moonlight
• stop usbip when Moonlight quits

Privileged operations (e.g. start usbip) will use systemctl and should work out-of-the-box if Polkit is installed.

On the gaming system (streaming server, e.g. Sunshine)

Configure the host of your streaming client in all files inside moonlight-usbip/server/remote-devices: set the USBIP_HOST variable.

Run make && sudo make install to install everything.

Note

The following command may be configured in Sunshine as preparation steps: the start command for the "Do" (mandatory), the stop command for the "Undo" (optional). This way the system will be completely automated, as long as you connect the controller before starting Moonlight.
Anyway for the moment it is not recommended to set the "Undo" command because Proton can't handle controller reconnections due to a bug: ValveSoftware/Proton#7952

Execute this command after starting Moonlight:

systemctl start usbip@CONTROLLER.service

Replace CONTROLLER with:

• ds4 if you have a DualShock 4 controller
• ds5 if you have a DualSense controller

Privileged operations (i.e. systemctl) should work out-of-the-box if Polkit is installed.