Xbox USB Dongle only works after replugging on Raspberry Pi

Submitted by Expello on #1

Hi,

I’m using VirtualHere Server on a Raspberry Pi 3B+ with an Xbox USB Wireless Dongle.

In general, everything works very well, the connection is stable, fast, and overall pretty much perfect.

However, I’m running into one annoying issue:

The Raspberry Pi stays powered on all the time and is not shut down between uses.
Under Windows, the VirtualHere server is detected immediately, and it also correctly shows that the Xbox dongle is in use / available.

But when I try to connect a controller, it won’t connect at all unless I physically unplug the Xbox dongle from the Raspberry Pi and plug it back in again.

As soon as I do that, the controller connects immediately and works perfectly.

I also tried setting:

ClaimPorts=1

in the config.ini, but unfortunately that did not solve the issue.

Has anyone experienced this before or found a workaround?
Having to unplug and replug the dongle every time is pretty annoying in the long run.

Thanks!

Submitted by Michael on Wed, 2026/04/01 - 06:06

#2

Seems like the dongle is going to sleep and that is not supported by virtualhere. You could try this

When the dongle isnt working, right click on it and select Custom Event Handler and type power_cycle_port and press enter. That might wake it up. (Its not a real power cycle but it might be enough to get it to wake)

 

Submitted by Expello on Wed, 2026/04/01 - 17:00

#3

Thank you for your quick response.

Your recommendation resulted in the following error:

ERROR: Error -1 switching port power, please see server log for more details

Unfortunately, I can't find any log files in /var/log/.
Where can I find the server log?

Thank you and best regards
 

Submitted by Michael on Thu, 2026/04/02 - 06:25

#4

It is in journalctl (or /var/log/syslog)

Try

sudo journalctl | grep vhusbd

Submitted by Michael on Thu, 2026/04/02 - 10:11

#6

Reproduce the error then Right click on the cloudhub in the virtualhere client and select Server Properties, Configure Button -> Advanced Save Server Log. It will show in this log. Just paste those few lines here.

Also just try rebooting from that menu and see if that works too regarding the xbox controller.