The steam deck also presents this problem, unfortunately.

If it works on Windows but not on the Deck or Link, I suspect it has Windows drivers that expose the USB dongle as an XINPUT device but that the dongle doesn't show up as a generic gamepad without those (and is probably not one of the many various gamepads supported in SDL3).

Out of curiosity, if you have VirtualHere, does enabling that (thus exposing the USB device to Windows directly) work? If my theory is right, the answer would be yes...

It works fine on Arch Linux, not on the Steam Deck. I don't have Windows.

Okay, a Flydigi Vader 5 Pro has been obtained, and an investigation is on the task list. :)

... and fixed for the next update!

You were able to get it connected via bluetooth though? I've been unable to figure out how to get it connected via any of the connection settings.

Not OP, but I can confirm that it worked via Bluetooth when we were testing here, yes. Unfortunately, I didn't have to do anything special to connect it to the Link, so... in theory it should just work.

I guess my question would be if you can connect anything else via Bluetooth (to see if your Link's Bluetooth is having issues), or if you are able to connect the FlyDigi Vader 5 Pro via Bluetooth on Windows (to see if the Vader 5 Pro is having issues).

It sees my bluetooth mouse just fine, the controller not at all

Is the hardware discontinued?

Originally posted by Tywin:

Is the hardware discontinued?

If you mean the FlyDigi Vader 5 Pro controller being discussed in this thread, no, so far as I know it's still actively manufactured.

If this was a question about the Steam Link hardware itself, yes. It was discontinued some years ago, and the last ones sold out in November of 2018: https://steamcommunity.com/app/353380/discussions/0/3104564981118448682/