I couldn’t get the game controller buttons to work so dug a little deeper. I wanted to know how the SDL_GAMECONTROLLERCONFIG variable was composed and found that the first part (03000...) is the ID of the controller. I thought maybe it had changed in recent batches, and I found this tool to check the IDs.

Skip to the end if you want the configuration that worked for me, or if you want to check your controller’s ID, install with:

Run it from the GUI and click on Controller Mapping at the bottom left. Press any gamepad button here to show the ID in the box at the bottom left, or perform the full mapping if you want to be able to copy and paste how it’s set up here.

If it doesn’t show any additional numbers at the end of the ID, click Save and then click Controller Mapping again and see if it’s been updated. I don’t know, SDL is weird.

In the end, this is the line that worked for me, added to the end of .profile in my home directory.

Save, log out, and log back in again.

I hope this helps someone!

– Edit Bonus round for XFCE users! The .profile file isn’t loaded by default, so create a file in your home directory with the name .xsessionrc and add the following: