Don't want to see articles from a certain category? When logged in, go to your User Settings and adjust your feed in the Content Preferences section where you can block tags!
We do often include affiliate links to earn us some pennies. See more here.

I'm sure many of you will be aware by now that the Unity game engine has suffered problems with Linux support lately. One of those issues to do with keyboard input does actually have a workaround.

What happens, is that you might bring up a chat box and attempt to type "Hello", but it will end up as "Hheelllloo" as it's detecting more keystrokes than it should be. This also affects character movement in games too, like holding SHIFT to run will end up repeatedly switching between walk and run as if you're tapping the key constantly. It causes a lot of other issues too, it's quite a nuisance.

The fix is quite simple, if you add this as a launch option in Steam for the affected games:

XMODIFIERS='' %command%

Or for games not on Steam:

XMODIFIERS='' ./game_executable

That has been tested by myself and others and it really does fix it. From what I understand, it's an issue with "ibus", which is installed along with GNOME and it should be fixed in the latest stable version of Unity from what developers have told me.

The issue causes some games to be practically unplayable, until developers work on a fix themselves or upgrade Unity. Both can end up taking rather a long time!

Update: As it turns out, the issue stems from multiple bugs in SDL2. They affected Unity's build of SDL2 as they had Ibus and fctix turned off as per this bug report. I spoke with Marc from Unity (previously from Feral) who submitted the patch, which has been accepted upstream into SDL2. The rest (like this fix) has already been solved in SDL2 and merged into Unity already in the latest version.

With thanks to Steff for the tip.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: HOWTO, Unity
12 Likes
About the author -
author picture
I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check 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. Find me on Mastodon.
See more from me
The comments on this article are closed.
14 comments
Page: 1/2»
  Go to:

riusma Aug 23, 2018
@popey likes this! :P


Last edited by riusma on 23 August 2018 at 7:41 pm UTC
FerroTiC Aug 23, 2018
This is not limited to Unity games, it affects other games like Warthunder (Steam version), unless you start the launcher/game with XMODIFIERS='' steam  or directly.

You can also circumvent the issue by selecting other input source in GNOME3. GNOME Tweaks->Keyboard&Mouse->Show Extended Input Source ; then switch from IBUS to something else.
g000h Aug 23, 2018
I don't suppose there is a list of titles which are known to be affected? From above comments I'm assuming the current list is this:

Rust
WarThunder

EDIT:

I feel like adding this: I just loaded up RUST for the first time in 3 weeks, and it ran a 4.5GB update. Then I started playing it fine, no problems, and I don't use a game command switch to fix any problems, just the plain defaults. [For me, RUST is not affected by the problem mentioned in this article.]


Last edited by g000h on 25 August 2018 at 2:06 pm UTC
Liam Dawe Aug 23, 2018
Quoting: g000hI don't suppose there is a list of titles which are known to be affected? From above comments I'm assuming the current list is this:

Rust
WarThunder
I don't remember exactly, but it's a much longer list than that. War Brokers that I wrote about in the last day is another. A lot of Unity titles had it.
Liam Dawe Aug 23, 2018
Post updated, see the bottom.
ageres Aug 23, 2018
Quoteattempt to type "Hello", but it will end up as "Hheelllloo"
I remember I had this problem in Lazarus IDE few years ago. I solved it by removing ibus.
roothorick Aug 23, 2018
If the game dynamically links SDL2, a cleaner workaround would be to build latest SDL2 and swap it in. But it looks like most games statically link SDL2...

We really should advocate for dynamic linking and shipping the .so's alongside the game, specifically for situations like this. A lot of games won't get updated at all.
14 Aug 23, 2018
View PC info
  • Supporter Plus
Well, now I know why I wasn't experiencing this well-known bug. It must not occur to KDE Plasma users.
Phlebiac Aug 24, 2018
Quoting: roothorickWe really should advocate for dynamic linking and shipping the .so's alongside the game, specifically for situations like this. A lot of games won't get updated at all.

https://plus.google.com/+RyanGordon/posts/TB8UfnDYu4U
CrackedCrafterz Aug 24, 2018
I think, I have to install Rust again :D
While you're here, please consider supporting GamingOnLinux on:

Reward Tiers: Patreon. Plain Donations: PayPal.

This ensures all of our main content remains totally free for everyone! Patreon supporters can also remove all adverts and sponsors! Supporting us helps bring good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!

You can find even more ways to support us on this dedicated page any time. If you already are, thank you!
The comments on this article are closed.