DS5-Linux-Decky

A Decky Loader plugin for the DS5-Linux-Bridge dongle — a USB-to-Bluetooth bridge for the Sony DualSense on a Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W. It brings the dongle's web config page into the Steam Deck Quick Access Menu — glanceable battery, connection status, and controller settings, without leaving your game.

Requires the DS5-Linux-Bridge dongle. This plugin is a client of the firmware's HTTP API (the dongle's embedded web page is the other client). Without the dongle it has nothing to talk to.

 

Features

• Status — battery %, charging state, and controller model (DualSense / DualSense Edge), polled ~every 4 s.
• Settings — controller mode, polling rate, audio buffer length, idle-disconnect timeout, onboard LED, USB wake keyboard (where supported), and a factory reset, saved to the dongle on change.
• Dongle selector — when multiple dongles are found, shows each dongle as a selectable row with its name/IP and current state.
• Wake-on-LAN (WiFi firmware) — a glanceable Wake PC button, two configurable wake targets (enter a MAC or resolve one from an IP), rename the dongle's .local name, and reset its WiFi to re-onboard.
• Network (USB firmware) — shows which subnet the dongle answered on, and lets you switch the dongle's webconfig_subnet — including a custom IP.
• Paired controllers — list, rename, forget, forget-all, or pair a new controller (opens a 30-second pairing window).

Two firmware generations, one plugin

The dongle has two transport generations, and the plugin discovers both:

• WiFi firmware (current) — the dongle joins your home WiFi and advertises itself over mDNS as ds5.local (renameable). The plugin resolves that name and also sweeps the Steam Deck's own LAN to find dongles you've renamed. This firmware also exposes Wake-on-LAN and WiFi setup.
• USB firmware (older) — the dongle is a USB-NCM network adapter on a private link-local subnet. The plugin probes the three preset subnets (10.55.55.105 / 172.31.55.105 / 192.168.137.105) and any custom NCM address.

The API is reachable whether or not a controller is connected, so the plugin can manage the dongle while idle; "no controller connected" is a normal state, not an error. UI that only applies to one generation (Wake-on-LAN, WiFi reset vs. the NCM subnet selector) is shown only for the firmware that supports it, gated on the capability flags the dongle reports.

When more than one dongle is reachable, a Dongle section appears above the status panel. Each row is one discovered dongle; click a row to make it the active dongle. The selector keeps the chosen dongle while the plugin re-discovers devices, so it should not jump back to the first dongle unless the selected one disappears.

Installation

Install Decky Loader first, then enable Developer Mode in Decky settings (this reveals the install options below).

Easiest — install from URL. In Decky settings → "Install Plugin from URL", paste this permanent link (always points to the newest release):

https://github.com/kungaa/DS5-Linux-Decky/releases/latest/download/DS5-Bridge.zip

Or — install from ZIP. Download the latest DS5-Bridge.zip from the Releases page, then use "Install Plugin from ZIP" and pick the file.

Either way, open the Quick Access Menu (••• button) afterward — DS5 Bridge appears with a 🎮 icon.

Not on the Decky store (the plugin is hardware-specific). Install from the URL or Releases page above.

Troubleshooting

"No dongle found." / "Can't reach the dongle."

WiFi firmware: make sure the dongle actually joined your WiFi (it isn't still serving its DS5-Setup-XXXX onboarding network) and is on the same network as the Steam Deck. Verify from a terminal (Konsole in Desktop Mode):

curl http://ds5.local/api/status       # or the dongle's LAN IP if you renamed it

If ds5.local doesn't resolve, use the dongle's IP directly (check your router's client list). The plugin also sweeps the Deck's own subnet, so a renamed dongle on the same LAN is still found.

USB firmware: the USB-NCM network interface is always present, but the Deck's NetworkManager doesn't always lease an address on it right away — most often right after installing the plugin, or just after a controller (re)connects (the link briefly re-enumerates). While that's happening there's no route, so fetches (and curl) fail. Quick fixes, in order:

1. Press Retry / Refresh in the plugin.
2. Toggle the controller off and back on (or replug the dongle). This re-creates the interface and prompts NetworkManager to lease it — usually all it takes.

curl http://10.55.55.105/api/status    # should return JSON
ip addr show | grep 10.55.55            # Deck should have a 10.55.55.106 address

If curl fails and there's no 10.55.55.x address, it's a host networking issue (NetworkManager hasn't leased the interface), not the plugin — re-toggling the controller is the fix. The plugin retries automatically to ride out short delays, but it can't create a network route that the host hasn't set up.

Development

Requires Node.js v16.14+ and pnpm v9 (npm i -g pnpm@9).

pnpm i            # install frontend deps
pnpm run build    # build the frontend to dist/index.js

The Python backend (main.py) uses only the standard library (urllib), so there is no backend build step or Docker requirement. Re-run pnpm run build after any change under src/.

Releasing

Releases are automated. Bump version in package.json, then push a tag:

git tag v0.3.0
git push origin v0.3.0

GitHub Actions builds the plugin and publishes a Release with the installable zip attached. See .github/workflows/release.yml.

Related

• DS5-Linux-Bridge — the dongle firmware this plugin controls (the source of truth for the HTTP API).

License

BSD-3-Clause. See LICENSE.