[Steam Deck] doesn't load local controller configs when booted without network access

steamclosed Distro Family: SteamOSGeneral controller / Steam Input

ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux#12060 · opened 2025-05-30 by dbluelle · updated 2025-12-29 · 6 comments · github

Ddbluelle 2025-05-30 github

When booting the Steam Deck in offline mode and without any network connection (Wifi or Dock),
the locally modified per-game controller configs are not set. The configs are still listed in the available layouts.

The problem seems to be that the deck sets the path to the steam client installation after trying to read the saved controller configs for the installed games:

The log contains entries like this:
cloud_log.txt:[2025-05-29 17:52:30] [AppID 241100] (ValidateCache) File '/Steam Controller Configs/1601541550/config/kodi/kodi2_0.vdf' missing from disk, remote state unknown, removing from our list of files

When booting with network access, the entries contain the full path to the controller configs like this:
cloud_log.txt:[[2025-05-29 19:59:33] [AppID 241100] Found 6 files that match /home/deck/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Steam Controller Configs/1601541550/config/*.vdf

As a workaround I made a the following softlink in the root folder:
sudo steamos-readonly disable
sudo ln -s "/home/deck/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Steam Controller Configs" "/Steam Controller Configs"
sudo steamos-readonly enable
With that softlink, the controller configs are properly loaded and available.

My Steam Deck is running the stable version 3.7.8

Steps to reproduce:

install kodi flatpak
modify the controller layout for kodi
go to offline mode (I don't know if that is really necessary)
switch off Wifi and disconnect from Dock
reboot the Deck
look at controller layout of kodi, it will be reset back to the default layout ("Gamepad mit Kamerasteuerung")

Aaustinp-valve maintainer 2025-05-31 github

Can you post the whole contents of your controller.txt, controller_ui.txt, and cloud.txt logs along with the timestamp where the issue occurred? I'm unable to reproduce this issue with my account.

Ddbluelle 2025-05-31 github

Logs without softlink: fail.zip
Logs with softlink: with_softlink.zip

Aaustinp-valve maintainer 2025-06-04 github

Can you post the full contents of your log folder? We'd also like to look and the content log and maybe some others. It appears for some reason that the Steam install folder path isn't being seen correctly by Steam Cloud when it's trying to initialize things

Ddbluelle 2025-06-08 github

Here are the logs:logs_fail.zip
I forgot to mention that I've setup a PIN to be entered at startup, maybe that's also relevant.
Although the issue also occures when I disable the pin.

Aariallas 2025-06-24 github

I am encountering the same kind of issue:

Turn on Offline mode
Reboot
For now controller settings work normally
Enter desktop mode. Here starts the first issue - steam is using the default desktop controller layout instead of my custom one
Switch back to gaming mode

Now in gaming mode:

controller settings for all apps have reset to defaults
any changes made to controller settings are reset as soon as I back out of controller settings
this perists until a reboot

In controller.txt you can see the logs when I try to change controller settings for a game:

[2025-06-24 20:57:49] ConfigSet - failed to find config set file on-disk: /Steam Controller Configs/56640512/config/configset_FYZZ41302A79.vdf
[2025-06-24 20:57:49] Save Configset: failed to write to file /Steam Controller Configs/56640512/config/configset_FYZZ41302A79.vdf
[2025-06-24 20:57:49] Save Configset: failed to write to file /Steam Controller Configs/56640512/config/configset_controller_neptune.vdf

logs.zip

@dbluelle's workaround with a symlink works for me too

Ddbluelle 2025-12-29 github

The latest stable update of the steam client ( https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1675200?emclan=103582791470414830&emgid=500593045099513243 ) has fixed this issue, so I'm closing it.

Nothing extracted yet.