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PayPalFinally! One of the most annoying issues is your system going to sleep while gaming with a controller, and KDE Plasma 6.6 will solve it.
As noted in a fresh This Week in Plasma blog post, developer Nate Graham notes "Using a game controller will now count as 'activity', stopping the system from automatically going to sleep or locking the screen", which solves a bug report opened all the way back in 2013.
There's plenty more, but for me that really is the headline fix as it's happened far too many times for me to the point that I often just entirely turn off any sleep management or screen locking.
Some other highlights of what's coming below.
- Plasma 6.6:
- The “Slow Keys” accessibility feature has been implemented for Plasma’s Wayland session.
- The Zoom effect now has a mode where the pointer never leaves the center of the physical screen.
- The Emoji Selector app now lets you choose a preferred skin tone for emojis of hands and people.
- It’s now possible to disable the visible timeout indicators on notifications if they stress you out.
More nice bug fixes are coming too!
- Plasma 6.5.5:
- Fixed an issue that made some Plasma popups inappropriately stay open when they lost focus.
- Plasma 6.6:
- Possibly fixed one of the most common panel-related Plasma crashes.
- Fixed an issue in Spectacle that could make some toolbars in Rectangular Region mode appear off-screen when using a multi-monitor setup where not all screens share a baseline.
- Fixed a bug that could make the “New!” badge on newly-installed apps in Kickoff overflow for apps with very long names.
- Fixed a weird issue that could make the Task Manager start a drag-and-drop operation when double-clicking a task right on the screen edge.
Graham also notes the KDE end of year fundraiser managed to end on a high note with €385,000 raised from users for KDE e.V.. Great to see people opening their wallets for my favourite Linux desktop environment.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
About the author - Liam Dawe
I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly checked on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly.
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I think I've had the issue of Sleep not getting block when playing a game with a controller maybe once or twice ever. Now that I think about it, I would've said it's probably game-specific. But I don't really know since it rarely ever happened to me.
Exciting to see KDE continuing to evolve.
Exciting to see KDE continuing to evolve.
1 Likes
So no more
kde-inhibit --screenSaver --power steam? Cool! 😇
5 Likes
I already wanted to write that I'm not affected by the bug for whatever reason...
... but I think I was (am) and just disabled the screen saver!
Looking forward to the bug fix when it arrives in Debian stable, probably in 2027. :D
... but I think I was (am) and just disabled the screen saver!
Looking forward to the bug fix when it arrives in Debian stable, probably in 2027. :D
1 Likes
Oh so I no longer need to install Caffeine Plus every time use KDE? That's great news.
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I've had the screenlock kick in while playing using a gamepad back in my early Mint days (maybe around 2016'sh?) but I've never had it happen recently. I wonder if you have to have sleep enabled as an option for this to trigger? I have screenlock configured, but not sleep.
I've spent tens of hours playing No Rest for the Wicked on gamepad recently, and never had my screen randomly lock.
Now that I think about it - those Mint days were when I was using a wired Xbox360 controller, but now I'm on a bluetooth Dualsense controller. Maybe it's the bluetooth keeping my session alive.
I've spent tens of hours playing No Rest for the Wicked on gamepad recently, and never had my screen randomly lock.
Now that I think about it - those Mint days were when I was using a wired Xbox360 controller, but now I'm on a bluetooth Dualsense controller. Maybe it's the bluetooth keeping my session alive.
1 Likes
I'm on Gnome, but I could swear that this also is a problem I had in the past. Haven't played many games with controller lately, so no idea if it's still an issue or not.
But even then it annoys me at times: screen going blank during lengthy cut-scenes. Or the opposite: screen not going blank when Firefox with Youtube is open, and no video playing (happens only on occasion, though).
But even then it annoys me at times: screen going blank during lengthy cut-scenes. Or the opposite: screen not going blank when Firefox with Youtube is open, and no video playing (happens only on occasion, though).
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I've had this problem across several environments, even recently. I've always used Caffeine to work around it (it has an option to inhibit sleep any time there's a fullscreen window on a monitor), but I've always wanted this to be built into the DE itself. Here's hoping GNOME and COSMIC follow suit.
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Quoting: kaimanI'm on Gnome, but I could swear that this also is a problem I had in the past. Haven't played many games with controller lately, so no idea if it's still an issue or not.On my system with Archlinux + GNOME, if you are playing with the controller the screen doesn't go blank. If you don't touch the controller, a lengthy cut-scene as you say, the screen goes blank and you have to touch the mouse or keyboard (the controller don't work¿?). I have my power saving config to go blank after 5 min of inactivity so it's not a problem anymore for me.
But even then it annoys me at times: screen going blank during lengthy cut-scenes. Or the opposite: screen not going blank when Firefox with Youtube is open, and no video playing (happens only on occasion, though).
And that applies on steam, emulators etc.
1 Likes
YESSS
YESSSSSSSS
I was affected by this bug across multiple distros, finally no more clicking Manually Block Screen and Sleep locking.
YESSSSSSSS
I was affected by this bug across multiple distros, finally no more clicking Manually Block Screen and Sleep locking.
0 Likes
Great! Looking forward to february.
Anyone knows if they removed the annoying window that popus up every time you start a controller, requiring you to give permission to the controller to actually control things?
Anyone knows if they removed the annoying window that popus up every time you start a controller, requiring you to give permission to the controller to actually control things?
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Quoting: BrokattGreat! Looking forward to february.The what now?? Is that a Plasma window, or a Steam one? Got a screenshot?
Anyone knows if they removed the annoying window that popus up every time you start a controller, requiring you to give permission to the controller to actually control things?
2 Likes
mr-victory 13 hours ago
I have that prompt if I attempt to use KDE Connect's remote input. Never with a controller tho. Here is a pic
https://forums.opensuse.org/t/remote-control-requested-every-time-i-use-kde-connect-remote-control/175083
https://forums.opensuse.org/t/remote-control-requested-every-time-i-use-kde-connect-remote-control/175083
2 Likes
Quoting: scaineIt may be something unique for Steam Controller? I will post a pic when I get home. It's similar to the one @mr-victory linked to.Quoting: BrokattGreat! Looking forward to february.The what now?? Is that a Plasma window, or a Steam one? Got a screenshot?
Anyone knows if they removed the annoying window that popus up every time you start a controller, requiring you to give permission to the controller to actually control things?
Last edited by Brokatt on 7 Jan 2026 at 10:24 am UTC
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Quoting: BrokattI'm using a Steam Controller (from time to time) and KDE (always) and I've never seen this window.Quoting: scaineIt may be something unique for Steam Controller? I will post a pic when I get home. It's similar to the one @mr-victory linked to.Quoting: BrokattGreat! Looking forward to february.The what now?? Is that a Plasma window, or a Steam one? Got a screenshot?
Anyone knows if they removed the annoying window that popus up every time you start a controller, requiring you to give permission to the controller to actually control things?
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Well, my systems (I use KDE exclusively) are configured to never go to sleep when plugged in. Screen will turn off after 1 hour without activity. But I have never had it doing so while playing a game or watching something.
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mr-victory 7 hours ago
Quoting: BrokattIt may be something unique for Steam Controller? I will post a pic when I get home. It's similar to the one @mr-victory linked to.When looking for a post with a pic, I did come across a post about the warning appearing with a Steam controller.
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TheLinuxPleb 4 hours ago
Quoting: AnorelsanDon't know if it's KDE only, but recently Steam made it so finally that when a game is running it won't take you to a lock screen which in my opinion is most welcome change as games might behave bit badly when power saving is enabled.Quoting: kaimanI'm on Gnome, but I could swear that this also is a problem I had in the past. Haven't played many games with controller lately, so no idea if it's still an issue or not.On my system with Archlinux + GNOME, if you are playing with the controller the screen doesn't go blank. If you don't touch the controller, a lengthy cut-scene as you say, the screen goes blank and you have to touch the mouse or keyboard (the controller don't work¿?). I have my power saving config to go blank after 5 min of inactivity so it's not a problem anymore for me.
But even then it annoys me at times: screen going blank during lengthy cut-scenes. Or the opposite: screen not going blank when Firefox with Youtube is open, and no video playing (happens only on occasion, though).
And that applies on steam, emulators etc.
Heroic launcher did this already, but for some reason Steam was lacking it before.
Don't know why Valve hasn't announced it in the change logs or anything cause i think it is a big improvement.
Last edited by TheLinuxPleb on 7 Jan 2026 at 8:22 pm UTC
1 Likes
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