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The original was posted on /r/linux_gaming by /u/WadiBaraBruh on 2025-07-17 14:55:40+00:00.
What is meant with "console-like experience": Turning on the controller turns on the PC with Steam Big Picture mode and possibly the game running. This was tested on Arch Linux with an Intel i7-7700k and Nvidia GTX1080 on an up-to-date system using Wayland.
Requisites:
- A TV or Monitor that listens to Input and automatically turns itself on (virtually all PC monitors support this. With TVs, only newer generations).
- A controller dongle that supports wakeup from suspend
- Functioning suspend on the system
I will not go into TVs and configuring suspend functionality. Supporting TVs can be easily researched and configuring suspend is already sufficiently documented, for example in the arch wiki.
Note: It's possible that your onboard Bluetooth device supports wake up from suspend. However, this is not widely supported, which is why I will only look at dongles. In addition, with PCIe network cards that combine Wifi and Bluetooth, this will most likely not work.
Firmware settings
Before we look at dongles, we need to make sure that USB devices get power in a suspended system - we need to disable ERP (Energy-Related Products). For me, this was under APM (Advanced Power Management) -> ErP Ready. Set to disabled. Note: it's possible that the settings is called something like "allow USB devices to wake up" on your firmware settings.
You can test it by making sure the control LED is blinking on the dongle during a suspended state.
Dongle
This is the crucial part; not every dongle can wake the system from a suspended state. From my own testing I found:
Dongles that support it:
- Microsoft Xbox One Wireless Adapter
- Steam controller dongle
Dongles that don't support it:
- 8bitdo USB Wireless Adapter (older, non-Switch 2 variant)
Determining if dongle supports wakeup
To find out whether your dongle supports it, follow these steps. Example is using an XBOX adapter. List USB devices:
lsusb -tv
Your output will look something like this (I omitted a large part of the output to keep it brief).
/: Bus 001.Port 001: Dev 001, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/16p, 480M
ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
|__ Port 009: Dev 007, If 0, Class=Vendor Specific Class, Driver=xone-dongle, 480M
ID 045e:02e6 Microsoft Corp. Xbox Wireless Adapter for Windows
/: Bus 002.Port 001: Dev 001, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/10p, 5000M
ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
/: Bus 003.Port 001: Dev 001, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/2p, 480M
ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
/: Bus 004.Port 001: Dev 001, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/2p, 10000M
ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Notice the BUS number and the Port number of the device (Microsoft Corp. Xbox Wireless Adapter for Windows). Next, we will find out whether wake up is supported. In the next command, replace the numbers 1-9 with your Bus and Port number.
ls /sys/bus/usb/devices/1-9/power/ | grep wakeup
If you find that the output contains a line with the word wakeup, the dongle will work. Next, we will enable it to wake up the system. Again, replace 1-9 with your Bus and Port number.
echo enabled | sudo tee /sys/bus/usb/devices/1-9/power/wakeup
That's it, your controller will now be able to wake the system up from a suspended state by turning the controller on. For XBOX adapters to work properly, we will need to install the xone drivers from the AUR:
xone-dkms
xone-dongle-firmware
Restart the PC, pair the controller and make sure it works. Now you can test it by suspending the system and waking it up by turning on the controller.
To Gamescope or not to Gamescope
I'd split this part into either running Steam through Gamescope or just using Big Picture Mode in your DE of choice.
Your mileage may vary here. For example, in my setup (Intel CPU & Nvidia GPU), Steam running through Gamescope would crash after waking up from sleep. If you have an AMD system, please let me know in the comments how that works out for you.
Using Gamescope
First, install gamescope
sudo pacman -S gamescope
Create a new desktop entry in your Display Manager. For SDDM, you will need to create the file
/usr/share/wayland-sessions/steam-big-picture.desktop
With the following content. -console gives you access to the Steam console, with which you can exit out of the Gamescope session by typing in "quit".
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Steam Big Picture Mode
Comment=Start Steam in Big Picture Mode
Exec=/usr/bin/gamescope -e -- /usr/bin/steam -tenfoot -console
Type=Application
This pairs very nicely with selecting a separate User (e.g. user steamos) to be automatically logged in by the Display Manager (On KDE: Login Screen -> Behavior -> Automatically log in as user steamos with session Steam Big Picture Mode).
Using your Desktop Environment and Steam in Big Picture Mode
This is what I had to settle with because of the aforementioned issues. There's not much to be done here, just launch Steam and enter Big Picture Mode. The system can be suspended by selecting "suspend" in the Steam overlay, just like in gamescope.
General Desktop Environment settings
For convenience. In your DE, make sure that the screen is not locked after a certain amount of time or after waking from sleep. For KDE, you will find the settings under Screen Locking. Select "never" for "Lock screen automatically" and remove the tick from "Lock after waking from sleep". Also, add Steam to autostart. Depending on your setup, you might benefit from your Display Manager logging a user in automatically into the DE of your choice.
The system will suspend and resume flawlessly into Big Picture Mode. I could even suspend a game and return to it (like on the Steamdeck). Though, Steam crashed on the ~4th cycle of doing so. Again, I'm not sure if this a problem specifically with Nvidia. If you have made a different experience, please let me know.
That's it. Please add your experiences in the comments.
