Same problems here. I have it happen whenever the controller is turned on after the game is already running. I've been playing Dark Souls Remastered, that's where I see it the most. If the controller idles out, reconnecting it causes DSR to crash completely. The controller must be turned on before launching the game. Sometimes it doesn't crash it and I can't figure out why. It doesn't seem to be related to steam input or enabling remote share (I'm on Ubuntu btw).
If I try to launch a game while the Steam Controller is connected, there is about a 50% chance that Steam will either crash or hang indefinitely, and about a 50% chance that the game I was trying to launch will require a reinstall in order to successfully launch again.
I can replicate this issue still on arch following those steps. Only way around it is to turn the steam controller on before launching steam for me.. and even then it's buggy
proton 10.0-4x1 2026-06
Your system information
Steam client version (build number or date): Stable as of 06/24/26
Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): CachyOS (Linux 7 Kernel)
Opted into Steam client beta?: No
Have you checked for system updates?: Yes
Steam Logs: steam-logs.tar.gz
Crash Dumps: Archive.tar.gz
GPU: AMD Radeon 9060 xt 16 gb
Proton Version: Proton 10.0-4 (though I believe I've seen the issue on multiple versions)
Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:
After launching steam and picking out a game to play, I will turn on my steam controller and then immediately boot the game. When I do this without allotting time between turning on the controller and booting the game, the game never launches and instead steam will freeze for several minutes and then crash.
Steps for reproducing this issue: