USB HD Control¶

The DualSense and DualSense Edge controllers on Bazzite: their battery, their firmware and the Edge's profiles. Officially the controllers' firmware is updated only on a PS5 and in an app for Windows. This app sends the same firmware, from the official update server, over a USB cable. The app changes nothing on the board.

Linux's own hid-playstation driver drives the controller, so games and Steam see it as usual. The app talks to the controller beside the driver, through its hidraw node (/dev/hidraw<n>).

The window¶

The header shows the controller the window is looking at:

Box	What it shows
Controller	Edge for the DualSense Edge, DualSense for the plain one
Connection	USB or Bluetooth
Installed firmware	the firmware the controller runs, as the update server numbers it (for example `0x0217`): green when it is the latest official firmware, orange when a newer one is out. Its tooltip has the build date
Latest firmware	the latest official version for this controller. Orange when the controller can be updated to it, on the USB cable: a click starts the update. Otherwise a click asks the update server again. Its tooltip says when the app last asked it, and why an update cannot start
Reports	how many input reports a second the controller sends now, for example `250 Hz`. Steady and high is a good connection; a low or jumpy number over Bluetooth points to interference or distance
Bluetooth off in	for a controller on Bluetooth, the time left before it is switched off unused (see Switch Bluetooth off when unused); any button, stick or trigger starts it over. Cable on the USB cable, Never when switched off, "—" when the service is not running

At the right end of the header, the battery stands as a phone shows it, with the percentage inside it: five modules from the bottom up for the level, green, orange at 20 % or less, red at 10 % or less. While the controller charges, the modules above its level fill one after another, upwards, in green. The controller reports its level in steps of 10 %.

The state beside the title says whether an update is available.

With more than one controller connected, a tab for each appears under the header, for example Player 1 · Edge · USB · 100 % and Player 2 · Edge · Bluetooth · 40 %: the player number its lights show, the model, the connection and the battery. Click a tab to show that controller in the window: its drawing, firmware, light bar and profiles. With one controller there are no tabs.

Below the header, the window shows one of three pages:

Connect your controller, while no controller is connected: a drawing of the controller with a USB-C cable going into its port. The app finds the controller by itself once it is plugged in or paired.
The introduction, after the first controller connects: three short pages on what the app does, the firmware update and the Edge's profiles (the battery, on a plain DualSense). Skip goes straight on; Show the introduction, at the bottom of the main page, brings it back.
The main page: the Controller box with a drawing of your controller, the firmware box and the profiles.

On the cable and over Bluetooth¶

Linux drives a controller over one connection at a time. A controller that is connected over Bluetooth and then plugged in stays on Bluetooth: the cable only charges it, and the firmware update cannot start. A PS5 switches to the cable by itself; Linux does not. The window says so (On Bluetooth, not the cable) and offers Use the cable in the firmware box: it disconnects the controller from Bluetooth (with bluetoothctl, no password needed). Then unplug the cable and plug it in again, and Linux takes the cable. Switching the controller off (hold the PS button for 10 seconds) before plugging it in does the same.

The controller box¶

The drawing is the app's own, not the official artwork, with the face buttons in the colors of the first PlayStation pads. The color buttons for the light bar are under it; to its right, the light bar's color now, and Test vibration. It follows your controller live: a button lights while you press it (the Edge's Fn and back buttons too), the sticks move and the triggers fill as far as you pull them. Hover over a part to see its name (Cross, L2 trigger, Left back button, Light bar).

The i at the top left opens the controller's spec sheet: what it reports now (model, connection, firmware, hardware version, battery), the model's specifications with the official source of each (for the DualSense Edge its instruction manual and the PlayStation Blog: model CFI-ZCP1, released 26 January 2023 at $199.99, a 1,050 mAh battery, about 325 g), and the parts the drawing leaves out because the controller does not report them: the L2 and R2 stop sliders, the RELEASE latch, the reset button, the headset jack, the charging contacts, the microphone and the speaker. The plain DualSense has no specifications in the app yet: only facts from an official source go in. During a firmware update the drawing shows the cable plugged in, data flowing down it and the touchpad filling as the firmware goes in.

Light bar: the circles under the drawing: Blue, Red, Green, Purple, White, Off, or the color wheel for any color. The color is set at once and again each time the controller connects while the app is open; the drawing shows it. The controller does not keep it: it forgets it when it disconnects, and Steam or a game may set another. Off saves some battery.
Turn Bluetooth off switches a controller on Bluetooth off by ending its connection; the PS button switches it on again. On the USB cable it stays on: the cable powers it.
Switch Bluetooth off when unused: after 10, 30 or 60 minutes without a button pressed, a stick moved or a trigger pulled, a controller on Bluetooth is switched off the same way, as a PS5 does; Never leaves it on. 10 minutes is the default. Nothing in Linux does this by itself, and a controller left on drains its battery in a few hours. A small service that the installer adds does it, also while the window is closed. It ignores the motion sensors, so a controller lying on a table counts as unused, and it leaves controllers on the USB cable alone. While a game started from Steam runs, every controller stays on, whether it is used or not: a game does not always pick a controller up again that went away and came back, so the wait starts over when the game ends. The journal says when the service saw a game start and end.

With several controllers connected, each has its own wait: one in use stays on while an unused one goes off. A desktop notification says which one, by the player number its lights showed, for example DualSense Edge (player 2) switched off: Not used for 10 minutes. Press the PS button to switch it on again. If switching it off fails, the notification says so and why; hold the PS button for 10 seconds then. The journal keeps the same lines: journalctl --user -u bc250-usb-hdcontrol-idle. - Player indicator: the short row of small white lights just under the touchpad. Linux lights it when the controller connects, with the player number in the order the controllers connected: one light in the middle for player 1, two for player 2, three for 3, four for 4, all five for 5. All dark means the controller is off. The drawing shows the same lights, and hovering over them names the player: with two controllers connected, it is the number on the chosen tab. The app does not change them (only root may). - Test vibration runs the left motor, then the right one, almost a second each, and the drawing shakes on that side: you should feel each on its own side. A motor that stays still while the drawing shakes is worth a closer look.

The firmware update¶

Check for an update asks the official update server (fwupdater.dl.playstation.net) for the latest version of each controller. With Check when the window opens on (the default), the window asks by itself, at most once a day.

When a newer version is out, Latest firmware in the header turns orange; a click on it:

downloads the firmware from the update server (about 1 MB) and keeps it, so a second try needs no network;
checks that it fits: the firmware names the controller it is for (its USB product ID and its target), and its version must be newer than the one the controller runs;
saves a backup of the Edge's profiles (see Profiles);
sends it to the controller, with a progress bar.

It takes about half a minute. The controller then checks the firmware's signature, switches to it and restarts. It leaves USB for a moment and comes back; the header then shows the new version. The profiles stay as they were. The Bluetooth pairing does not: to use the controller without the cable again, remove it from the system's Bluetooth settings first, then pair it anew (hold Create and PS until the light bar blinks quickly). Without that it blinks for a while and switches off.

Before it starts:

Connect the controller with a USB cable. The update does not go over Bluetooth.
Quit Steam (Steam › Exit), and any other program that reads the controller. The app names the program that has the controller open and does not start while one does, so that nothing else talks to the controller during the update. In Game Mode, switch to the desktop first.
Leave the cable in and the board on until the window says the update is done.

If the controller refuses the firmware or stops answering, the window says what it reported. Unplug the controller and plug it in again: the header then shows which firmware it runs, and the update can be tried again.

The firmware files¶

The update server has one file per target and only the latest version of it. The DualSense's target depends on its revision; the DualSense Edge's is 0044. The app knows the files that were on the update server on 23-10-2026 by their SHA-256:

Target	Controller	Version	SHA-256
`0044`	DualSense Edge	`0x0217`	`c157eec635f809232e06c255a0847e6b915b0032ca661b12ae35fb2e4eac49df`
`0004`	DualSense	`0x0630`	`861ad95a99b16805ff20f5690372988662c4f69c6ad0b266e793d7fc2292315a`
`000B`	DualSense	`0x0630`	`b66528795683d214ca06fe4672d298de75bf019bd5046442cbec63fc02974f86`
`000E`	DualSense	`0x0641`	`b9c217d8ded5f09f03034e7e5037af0c174c3c77a3cbd201ee5fd219ee448fc8`

A newer file from the update server works too; the confirmation then says the app does not know it yet. The controller checks its signature either way. The files are kept in ~/.local/share/bc250-usb-hdcontrol/firmware/, named after their target and version (FWUPDATE0044-0217.bin). The Firmware box names the kept file of the latest version with its SHA-256 check: a green ✓ for a file the app knows, an orange ! for one it does not.

Use a file… sends a firmware file you have, for example one kept from the update server before. The app checks it the same way and refuses a file for another controller or one that is not newer.

Profiles¶

The DualSense Edge keeps four profiles; Fn and Triangle, Square, Cross or Circle chooses one (Triangle is the default profile). The Profiles box shows them side by side, a column each, as the controller reports them: the name, each stick's curve (Default, Quick, Precise, Steady, Digital or Dynamic), each trigger's range, and the buttons that send something other than themselves (the back buttons included). A profile whose checksum does not match is marked. The card of the profile the controller uses now says Active, and follows when you switch with Fn. Click a profile to see on the drawing what it sets: the Fn buttons, and the sticks, triggers and buttons it changes from their defaults. Click it again to let go.

Back up… saves them in a JSON file, exactly as the controller holds them, and Read again reads them anew, for example after you changed them on a PS5. The app also saves a backup before every firmware update and before every change to a profile, in ~/.local/share/bc250-usb-hdcontrol/profiles/.

Create, edit and clear¶

Under each card, with the controller on the USB cable:

Create… on an empty slot makes a profile there, starting from the default profile's settings.
Edit… changes a profile.
Clear removes it from the controller, after asking.

The default profile (Fn + Triangle) has none of these: the app never changes it. Over Bluetooth, and during a firmware update, the buttons are grayed out.

The editor sets:

Name: up to 39 characters.
Sticks: each stick's curve (Default, Quick, Precise, Steady, Digital or Dynamic) and its sensitivity, 0 to 10. A profile made on a PS5 shows "as it is" next to the slider: its curve stays exactly as it was until you change the curve or the slider.
Triggers: where on its travel L2 and R2 start and stop counting, in percent. The controller keeps the range in the profile, but on Linux it still reports the trigger's whole travel: it was tried on a DualSense Edge, where R2 set to 0 to 50 % filled like L2. A PS5 may use the range.
Buttons: what each button sends, the back buttons included: its own, another button, Options or the touchpad's click.

Save to the controller saves a backup of all four profiles, writes the profile, and reads it back to check that the controller kept it. If it did not, the window says so and names the backup. The parts of a profile the app does not show stay as the controller holds them.

The controller applies a profile itself, also on Linux: after Fn + Square, a button you set to send another sends that one, and the drawing shows what the controller sends (Cross set to Circle lights Circle). The sticks follow their curves too (on Digital a stick jumps to the edge). The triggers' range is the exception, as above.

The plain DualSense has no profiles.

From a terminal¶

bc250-usb-hdcontrol --info

prints each controller's connection, battery, firmware and profiles, without a window and without the network. bc250-usb-hdcontrol --idle-watch is what the service runs; journalctl --user -u bc250-usb-hdcontrol-idle shows when it switched a controller off.

Access to the controller¶

Bazzite gives the user at the board the controller's hidraw node, so the app needs no password and no udev rule. On a system that does not, the window says so; a udev rule with TAG+="uaccess" for the controller's USB ID (054c:0ce6 for the DualSense, 054c:0df2 for the DualSense Edge) gives the user at the board access.

Install¶

Install it from the BC250 Bazzite Suite portal, or from a clone or release folder, as your own user:

./install.sh                         # app menu entry and Desktop icon
./install.sh --no-desktop-shortcut   # app menu entry only
./install.sh --uninstall             # remove the app; keeps its settings, firmware and profile backups
./install.sh --uninstall --purge     # also remove its settings, firmware and profile backups

It installs:

the app in ~/.local/share/bc250-usb-hdcontrol/app, with the bc250_core it was tested with;
PyQt6 in the suite's shared venv ~/.local/share/bc250-bazzite-suite/venv;
the launcher ~/.local/bin/bc250-usb-hdcontrol, an app menu entry and a Desktop icon;
the user service bc250-usb-hdcontrol-idle, which switches unused controllers off (see the controller box).

Settings are kept in ~/.config/bc250-usb-hdcontrol/bc250-usb-hdcontrol.ini.

Credits¶

The update protocol comes from dualsense-updater-rs (nchie), the layout and writing of the Edge's profiles from dualsense-edge-profile-web-application (steffalon). The firmware report is read as Linux's hid-playstation driver reads it.

License¶

GPL-3.0-or-later — see LICENSE. The code ported from the two projects above is MIT; the app's README keeps their notice. The controllers' firmware is Sony's and is not part of the app.