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⇱ MSI Claw Configuration Driver For Linux Coming Together With The Assistance Of AI - Phoronix


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MSI Claw Configuration Driver For Linux Coming Together With The Assistance Of AI

Written by Michael Larabel in Hardware on 14 May 2026 at 12:24 PM EDT. 19 Comments
One of the latest Linux gaming handheld drivers being worked on is the MSI Claw Configuration Driver for controller configuration.

Complementing other MSI Claw handheld Linux support work over the past two years, a driver for controller configuration with the MSI Claw series is being worked on. With the driver in its current form, it allows for changing the gamepad mode, M-key behavior, and reset function.

This driver is currently being worked on by Derek Clark who has been responsible for not only MSI gaming handheld improvements but other gaming devices too like the Lenovo Legion Go series. Derek Clark based the driver on the original work and reverse engineering done by Denis Benato and then further improvements made by Zhouwang Huang prior to now refactoring the driver codebase and making other improvements. It's also noted that Claude Code (claude-sonnet-4.6) assisted with this driver for initial code review on the new driver.

👁 MSI Claw 8 handhelds


Sent out on Wednesday was the v2 patch for this MSI Claw configuration driver, which is now named "hid-msi-claw". Those with an MSI Claw handheld can check out that nearly 600 line driver for providing better controller configuration support under Linux. Hopefully it won't be too long before this driver works its way into the mainline Linux kernel.

Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience. Michael has written more than 20,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated benchmarking software. He can be followed via Twitter, LinkedIn, or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.