If you want to get your Xbox One/ Xbox 360 running on ubuntu you basically have the choice between the in-kernel xpad driver and the userspace xboxdrv driver.
Most of the guides recommend using xboxdrv as xpad has been stagnating. However using xboxdrv has some disadvantages; as it runs as a daemon in userspace you have to manually take care of starting/ stopping it and giving your user access to the virtual devices it creates.
Xpad on the other hand just works as any other linux driver directly inside the kernel which is more efficient and hassle free.
Fortunately while pushing SteamOS Valve has updated the xpad driver bringing it on par with xboxdrv:
- they added support for Xbox One Controller
- they fixed the communication protocol – no more blinking controller light
Update July 22, 2015
Unfortunately there are still several issues with the SteamOS driver. This follow-up post discusses them and the solutions in detail.
The bottom line is that I updated the official linux driver with chunks found in the SteamOS driver, as well as in several patches floating around the internet. Code and install instructions are available at Github.