I’m messing around with my OrangePi5 again, gonna experiment with Armbian and DietPi again. As both offer a minimal installer, I’ll want to add a DE, or at least a graphical interface that can run at boot and let me control it with a bluetooth controller.
If not a full DE, just what packages should I experiment with?
I can’t tell you how to do it under Wayland off the cuff, but you can map a controller’s analog stick to act like a mouse. It’s a little clumsy, but that’ll let you use any mouse-oriented DE.
Some gamepads, like the PS5’s controller and I assume the Steam Controller, have touchpads built into the controller that work as pointing devices.
If you don’t specifically want only a gamepad, I’d probably use a trackball or touchpad and maybe keyboard, as a trackball can be used from a couch, lile a gamepad.