How I setup geforce now from linux with a controller pro gamepad
By: Eric Régnier
Tags: Geforce Now, Linux, Gaming, Gamepad, Lutris

I searched how to do such a setup. First I tried to play using browser version for geforce now, but it does not work properly, for at least the one game I tried : fenyx immortals.

The problem was : when I am ingame, the “input lag” is longer and longer over time, so the game video render is totally not synchonized with the input from my gamepad.

How I run geforce now smoothly in real time from ubuntu:

I solved this by just installing the lutris version which is the geforce now browser version for windows.

The excellent lutris project is there https://lutris.net/

and the link to the install for geforce now is there : https://lutris.net/games/geforce-now/

Just install lutris on your computer and click install link on the geforce now lutris app script to install it (allow xdg to open the link in lutris app)

I don’t know technically what is the difference that makes it work using a “window” geforce now version, but my intuition tells me there is something wrong with image streaming possibly not using udp protocol in the browser. I really don’t know in the end, but it just work like this.

Setup for the controller pro

If connecting it using bluetooth is not enough, I followed the following steps that let me use properly the gamepad in my game 👍

install xboxdrv sudo apt install xboxdrv in ubuntu like distros test the gamepad sudo apt install jstest-gtk This tool let you check the controller works properly on your computer. It should work properly at this step. It might work properly in lutris setup from there, but It might also not work. Indeed, the geforce app in lutris seems to be a browser app in a chrome electron “container” . I had difficulties to make my controller work in chrome with my current setup as the browser test was working on firefox but not on chrome. (but geforce now works only on chrome) You can test your gamepad into chrome from this app https://gamepad-tester.com/ (hit some buttons on gamepad once the app is running to hope have a result). In case there is no result either on this site and on the geforcenow app in lutris, you should try the next step from here : (a link to stack overflow I lost :( )

This is because Linux doesn’t have a driver for Switch Pro controllers and Linux makes the device read-only by default. Chrome can use it without a driver but it needs to send commands to the device to initialize it first.

The fix is to configure udev rules that tell Linux to make the device writeable. As root, create a file /etc/udev/rules.d/50-nintendo-switch.rules and paste these rules into it:

# Switch Joy-con (L) (Bluetooth only) KERNEL=="hidraw*", SUBSYSTEM=="hidraw", KERNELS=="0005:057E:2006.*", MODE="0666" # Switch Joy-con (R) (Bluetooth only) KERNEL=="hidraw*", SUBSYSTEM=="hidraw", KERNELS=="0005:057E:2007.*", MODE="0666" # Switch Pro controller (USB and Bluetooth) KERNEL=="hidraw*", SUBSYSTEM=="hidraw", ATTRS{idVendor}=="057e", ATTRS{idProduct}=="2009", MODE="0666" KERNEL=="hidraw*", SUBSYSTEM=="hidraw", KERNELS=="0005:057E:2009.*", MODE="0666" # Switch Joy-con charging grip (USB only) KERNEL=="hidraw*", SUBSYSTEM=="hidraw", ATTRS{idVendor}=="057e", ATTRS{idProduct}=="200e", MODE="0666"

It should work as expected now :) Hope this help some folks !