For what it's worth, I can use my Celestron focus motor (a original #94155, not the redesigned #94155-A) on my Nexstar 8 SE, using both the direct USB connection driver (celestron_sct_focus), and through the hand controller driver (celestron_gps).

I use a Lenovo laptop with Gentoo. The two interfaces (HC and direct USB to focuser) both emulate different USB serial adapters (my HC has the newer-style mini-USB port on the bottom), and so need separate drivers in the kernel. The HC needs the "USB Prolific 2303 Single Port Serial Driver" (CONFIG_USB_SERIAL_PL2303), and the focus motor direct-USB port needs the "USB Modem (CDC ACM) support" (CONFIG_USB_ACM). Kernel is 5.3.11. I used the newest INDIlib 1.8.2 release, which is available in the Gentoo tree. After choosing the correct driver, and port (/dev/ttyUSBx for HC, /dev/ttyACMx for direct USB), I can control the motor in both KStars device manager and Ekos.

One odd thing: I had been using the focus motor through the hand controlle's buttons until yesterday. It was calibrated. However, when establishing an INDI connection for the first time, it said the min and max limits were both 0. I performed a calibration through the celestron_sct_focus driver in kstars, and after that, I got sensible limits, and could move the focuser at will using either the USB connection, or the connection through the HC. And I can also still move the focuser using the HC's pushbuttons.

For good measure, I also tried all the above again through my RPI3 with astroberry. Both connecton modes also work through the 2 indi drivers in astroberry, and the limits were set correctly (no need to calibrate again). Only issue is, the power from the USB port alone on RPI3 seemed not quite enough, as the focus motor was struggling a bit. But it still got to the desired focus position in the end

So all in all, both drivers are working well for me!

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