Wiimotes, the Steam Deck, and Dolphin

Published: 2023-06-18
Updated: 2026-07-23

Note: I dumped these games using a homebrewed Wii from original disks. I'm not endorsing piracy in this article.

The Problem

For most of my gaming needs, I end up using my Steam Deck or desktop computer - which are great. But sometimes I want to boot up a Wii game.

Emulating the Wii these days is easy enough with Dolphin, but the wiimotes are another story. They have an infrared camera, and accelerometer, and potentially[^1] a gyroscope.

The weirdest part is that these little sticks do this all over Bluetooth. Yes, these controllers released in 2006.

Naturally, they’re a bit funky about it, but that means they can (at least in theory[^2]) work with modern devices!

It turns out that we don’t want Steam Input to bind to the Wiimotes.

It turns out what we want to happen is for Dolphin to take over the Bluetooth stack and talk with the controllers itself.

The Solution

Linux Setup

First, we need to modify SteamOS to allow Dolphin to use Bluetooth Passthrough properly. You’ll need to add a sudo password via passwd if you haven’t already.

To disable the read-only protection (potentially dangerous ):

sudo steamos-readonly disable

Then, we need to go to: /etc/udev/rules.d/ and create a new file named 52-dolphin.rules. The contents should be:

# Wiimotes
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="057e", ATTRS{idProduct}=="0306", TAG+="uaccess"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="057e", ATTRS{idProduct}=="0330", TAG+="uaccess"

The first is for original (white/black) controllers, the second is the Motion Plus (blue) one.

If you use different or non-genuine controllers (no Wii logo), you'll need to get the Vendor ID and Product ID. This can be found in a lot of different ways. I connected them to Windows and used Device Manager -> Details -> Hardware IDs.

Then, you can reload the rules as here, but I would just reboot the Deck to be sure.

Once that is done, you can re-enable the read-only protection.

sudo steamos-readonly enable

After that, it’s time to set up Dolphin properly.

Dolphin Setup

Go into Desktop Mode and open Dolphin. If you don’t have it installed already, do so. I recommend Emudeck.

In Dolphin, open the Controller Settings dialog, then select the “Passthrough a Bluetooth adapter” option in the Wii Remotes section.

You’ll want an easy way to sync the controllers to the Deck, as they won’t automatically connect. Under Hotkey Settings, go to Wii and Wii Remote.

Then, you’ll want to bind a button of your choice to the Press Sync Button option. I chose a back paddle button[^3]. I would also bind General -> Toggle Fullscreen while you’re here.

If the button you want isn't bound to anything yet, you need to open up Steam and set it there. Go to Steam -> Settings -> Controller -> Desktop Layout.

For the next part, you’ll have to have a game running while you do this. I recommend having Graphics Settings -> Start in Fullscreen unchecked. I have another keybind to then fullscreen the game.

Press the actual sync button[^4] on the controller (next to the batteries).
Press your bound ‘sync’ button on the Steam Deck every few seconds.

That’s it! It should just work. For me, all Wiimote functionality including the speakers worked, besides remembering the pairing.

[^1]: Gyroscopes are included in the Motion Plus controllers (or extensions).

[^2]: The nightmare of Bluetooth protocol stacks will not be covered here, thankfully.

[^3]: Well, these days I actually use the back paddle on my Steam Controller.

[^4]: Pressing 1+2 (for ‘One Time Mode’) hasn’t worked for me.