Linux Setup
Platform-specific notes for running the desktop companion on Linux.
Requirements
- A recent distribution with
uinputandlibevdevavailable (present on virtually all mainstream distros by default) - Access to
/dev/uinput
Installing
Grab the .AppImage, .deb, or .rpm from the Download page,
whichever matches your distribution.
# AppImage
chmod +x VirtualGamepad-x86_64.AppImage
./VirtualGamepad-x86_64.AppImage
# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo dpkg -i virtual-gamepad.deb
# Fedora/openSUSE
sudo rpm -i virtual-gamepad.rpm
Granting uinput access
The desktop companion needs permission to write to /dev/uinput to create
a virtual controller device. If you don't want to run it as root every
time, add your user to the appropriate group instead:
sudo groupadd -f uinput
sudo usermod -aG uinput "$USER"
sudo chmod g+rw /dev/uinput
sudo chgrp uinput /dev/uinput
Log out and back in for the group change to take effect.
Common issues
Permission denied on /dev/uinput.
Follow the steps above, or run the app once with sudo to confirm that's
the actual cause before changing permissions permanently.
The app doesn't appear in games running under Proton. Some Proton/Wine configurations sandbox controller access. Check your Proton version's compatibility notes in the repository's issue tracker.