I had the exact same issue with a PS2 controller connected via a USB adapter. Exporting the SDL_GamepadBind string saved in ~/.steam/steam/config.vdf (provided you mapped and saved) in a bash script seems to correct the issue:
export SDL_GAMECONTROLLERCONFIG="03000000100800000100000010010000,Dualshock2,a:b2,b:b1,y:b0,x:b3,start:b9,back:b8,leftstick:b10,rightstick:b11,leftshoulder:b6,rightshoulder:b7,dpup:h0.1,dpleft:h0.8,dpdown:h0.4,dpright:h0.2,leftx:a0,lefty:a1,rightx:a3,righty:a2,lefttrigger:b4,righttrigger:b5,"
exec steam -bigpicture
Your system information
Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:
Steam doesn't ever load a controller configuration when launched directly into big picture mode. If I launch steam via
steamand then click the big picture mode icon then my controller works fine, but my setup requires steam to be launched directly into BPM, in which case unfortunately the controller has no configuration. Here's a log from steam when run without-bigpicture(noticeOpening joystick PS3 Controlleron line 46). Here's a log from steam run with-bigpicture, in which line 31 shows it recognizes the controller but doesn't load the named configuration. When I try to use the controller within the application it doesn't actually work because there isn't a configuration set.Steps for reproducing this issue:
steam, turn on big picture mode -> controller works just finesteam -bigpicture-> controller doesn't have any configurationThis is actually a fairly major issue for me because I'm using this machine as an HTPC running Kodi, so I need to be able to launch straight into BPM in order to use my controller as a remote for everything. Any help/updates greatly appreciated!