Searched for a few weeks and could not find any solid solution. Found a KDE thread that said it was a issue with flatpak but I don’t even have flatpak installed. Others say it’s Wayland, Do non KDE users on wayland get this too?
I know it’s for security but it’s too damned annoying to be worth it! Should I setup a tiling WM and be done with it? It really is that bad.
All I want to do is play Skyrim without seeing this every 15 minutes!
Ok so I’ve run into this bug frequently with my Steam Deck for the past 2 years.
The following is my possibly innacurate, but genuine attempt to best describe whats going:
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=490666
Its a KDE bug that is specific to how KDE handles GTK (2 and 3?) in Wayland.
It is not a bug with Wayland. It is not a bug with GTK.
GNOME doesn’t seem to have this problem.
Its existed for about 3 years, the thread I linked above shows some of the explanation of how/why its occuring… even though this particular bug report is only a few months old, you can find it recurring further back in the past.
Here’s some more bug threads:
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=480412
https://invent.kde.org/plasma/xdg-desktop-portal-kde/-/issues/6
Basically, in an attempt to make remote access/control permissions for GTK to work properly in KDE Wayland, KDE implemented what multiple KDE developers have themselves described as a ‘hack’, a temporary, quick fix solution, in various comments on forums.
Unsuprisingly, having a quick fix hack as an underlying, integral part of an entire DE, is not a good idea, as it doesn’t actually solve the problem except in very specific situations, and causes mass confusion downstream.
The problem has persisted for years because… as far as I can tell, to fix it properly would require a significant rewrite of KDE’s entire permission model, and also as far as i can tell, this has yet to be done.
The problem originally was pretty rare and thus I guess low priority, but as more and more people are trying to use KDE Wayland and a console controller or Steam Deck or gamescope or something like that, you can find more and more people complaining about it.
The devs seem to keep thinking they’ve fixed it, over 2024, only to find… no, they have not.
There is no functional ‘fix’, outside of switching back to X11, not until KDE gets its shit together.
For me on a Steam Deck, wanting to be able to use it as a gaming device and a PC, I switched over to the GNOME flavor of Bazzite, all problems solved.
This happens on gnome, too. I have chimera OS installed on a handheld I have, and every time I touched the screen, a remote bullshit something something pops up. It only goes away when I quit steam completely
In your Steam input settings, are you able to remove the desktop control mapping (or whatever it’s called)? At least that’s the tip I found one day when I went searching for a solution; however, on my Steam Deck, I couldn’t find a way to disable desktop control. I just ended up assuming it was a result of playing on a steam deck (probably so my system wouldn’t become unusable in desktop mode while on the go).
I do see that option to disable
Desktop LayoutunderEdit, its the top most option. You don’t have that on the Deck? Maybe steam is set to always be in big picture mode on the Deck. I want one pretty bad.Thanks for the tip, too late for a gaming session tonight. If I start now I’ll be up till 2. I’ll try it out tomorrow!
So, when I was originally looking into this, I was playing something in desktop mode with my system docked and a keyboard and mouse attached I think.
Anyway, that option does not exist for the built in controller, no. Right now I’m using an external controller, got frustrated because the desktop mapping randomly minimized the emulator window. So I went looking, and yup - “official layout for - disabled” shows up.
So thank you for the reply! Just solved a headache for me!
It is a wayland feature to request access to allow for remote control of the device. In this case specifically for input. It shouldn’t be happening every 15 minutes. That is a problem with whatever app you are using that keeps requesting this permission?
Steam and ps5 controller.
i had the same issue. just disable the touchpad in plasma settings.
This thing pops up over and over and over no matter how many times you give the okay.
Trying to play Minecraft Java with a controller mode and it interrupts nonstop. I too did not find a solution. I tried. It won.
What else do you have installed? KDE Connect?
KDE Connect doesn’t do this that I’ve ever seen, and I"ve used it in Wayland for years.
I don’t know if you’ve just never used this feature, but KDE Connect absolutely has a Remote Input option that pings this prompt. Unlike the prompt in the OP though, it has a “Restore on future sessions” checkbox.
When I first started getting this popup I did have that checkbox. I did check it. Didn’t really pay attention as it stopped happening for a while. It was just after Plasma 6 was released. My entire arch system was buggy for a couple months till they worked everything out. Maybe there is a setting in some config somewhere causing this lingering issue?
Yes but its not running.
you’ve got something connected that’s triggering the prompt, and kde on wayland issue is making it pop up over and over again. i think this one is as old as plasma 6 itself is.
try disconnecting all unnecessary input devices when playing. just usb mouse and keyboard. wireless is fine if it uses its own non-bt dongle.
or if it won’t open up a different can o’worms, switch to x11 for gaming sessions.
kde on wayland issue is making it pop up over and over again
Unfortunately it’s an Xwayland issue. It doesn’t remember the permission, and it also doesn’t give the desktop any information to work around it. Because of how portals work, the desktop doesn’t even know the request is coming from Xwayland :/
I’m actually using a ps5 controller and have mapped the dpad left and right to use keyboard input for a mod. If I don’t use those buttons for 15 minutes or so I get kicked out of game with this garbage popup, every time! At his point I’m fed up and ready to leave KDE. Been using KDE for 6 years and have seen so many poor design decisions but you could always go into the settings and fix it. This I guess has no fix.
Before Wayland was a thing, Steam used a X11 extension to send Mouse and Keyboard presses, which means that for a while, if you used Wayland you couldn’t emulate KB+M with your controller at all.
A while so long, that someone created a work around. Extest is a “adapter” that simulates the old X11 extension Steam was using and sends the keypresses using its own virtual input device, therefore completely bypassing the pop-ups.
While that wasn’t its intended function, and it is technically unnecessary now that Steam has added support for the proper ‘Wayland way of doing things’, I can confirm it still works just fine. I use Steam input all the time with no annoying pop-ups.It can be a bit annoying to install however. If you’re using Arch, grab it from the AUR. Bazzite ships with it OOTB, I believe.
Are you using Steam Input Settings to map those dpad buttons? If so, try setting that back to default, then use AntiMicroX to map keyboard input to your dpad instead.
I also get this when playing games. I think it might be a steam thing.
Specifically it seems to be steam input. Likely a side effect of intercepting devices to remap them.
