Control-c kills Game-Mode

[hackebeilchen]

Hello,
I recently opened a ticket with Steam support because my Steam Deck restarted after I pressed Control+c in Gaming Mode. After a few messages it seemed that I resolved my issue by doing more or less random things on the Deck.
That was apparently wrong. The problem resurfaced. In the beginning I figured that it wasn't a bug but intentional, after a little more testing I think it is a bug.
Steps to reproduce:
1 - Start Steam Deck
2 - Switch to Desktop-Mode
3 - Open Konsole
4 - Without closing Konsole use Shortcut to start Gaming-Mode (do not restart)
5 - In Gaming-Mode press and hold Control and hit 'c' on a over Bluetooth connected Keyboard.

When closing the Konsole application or choosing to restart the system to get back to Gaming-Mode the Bug does not surface.
I am using a Keychron K6 keyboard with ISO-UK layout (in Gaming-Mode it is set to US-International).
I am using the Beta-Branch of SteamOS, I also used the Stable-Branch, here the behaviour did also occur but not as reliable reproducible.

Best Regards,
hackebeilchen

[Marlock]

Linux terminals (Konsole included) receive ctrl+c as a command to immediately interrupt whatever is being executed.

What's weird is that you aren't running Steam through Konsole, nor game mode, so it should not be affected by this hotkey at all...

...even if it was supposed to receive the hotkey input when not focused, which is also not expected.

Given other Gaming mode issues with input focus, I'm guessing Konsole being open is enough for the hotkey to be interpreted as Konsole would interpret it, but the resulting command is passed to GameScope instead of to whatever is running inside Konsole... which is a hot mess!!!

[hackebeilchen]

I tested a bit further and it is not only the Konsole (but that works best). I seem to only need to open the Desktop (but it happens most of the time when I leave something open when returning to Gaming-Mode).
When I first recognised the problem I had only installed some Flatpaks (Firefox and Chrome).

[saorsa]

Bumping as the issue remains unaddressed. Using CTRL-C while using a browser or game in Game Mode can cause SteamOS to involuntarily restart. This has happened on multiple Steam Decks and through several versions of SteamOS on both existing and reimaged installations. As adinsx previously pointed out, you should not be able use a terminal emulator shortcut to SIGINT a process through the compositor.

[Marlock]

the usual shortcut for restarting the compositor on Linux Mint is Ctrl+Alt+Backspace...

Maybe Valve uses Ctrl+C for the same purpose on GameScope?

Or they just use a hidden terminal emulator to fire up Gaming Mode in some level

Or Konsole sets up its shortcuts in a way that Gaming Mode triggers it even if Konsole isn't in focus, and the firec command (SIGINT) gets sent to Gaming Mode instead of Konsole

Is there a way to customize Konsole's Ctrl+C shortcut to something else?

I'm curious if that has an effect on the shortcut that kills Gaming Mode too

[Derk]

I use chrome in gaming mode all the time. And twice my SteamDeck restarts when I Ctl-C. I don't know why it happens, it not terribly conssistens. An
d I dont know if it just a hard crash or not.

[hackebeilchen]

This is still a problem

[Sirhc]

Still a problem, makes copying text inside game mode a complete hassle if you cannot right click copy in the program(ie. Almost any game).

[Marlock]

try ctrl+shift+c (this is the usual linux terminal shortcut to copy stuff without triggering the ctrl+c app killer shortcut and hopefully it acts as ctrl+c on apps/games that aren't paying too much attention)

[Mahjik]

Originally posted by Sirhc:

Still a problem, makes copying text inside game mode a complete hassle if you cannot right click copy in the program(ie. Almost any game).

It's how Linux works. That's not going to change.

[hackebeilchen]

Originally posted by Marlock:

try ctrl+shift+c (this is the usual linux terminal shortcut to copy stuff without triggering the ctrl+c app killer shortcut and hopefully it acts as ctrl+c on apps/games that aren't paying too much attention)

This depends on the program used it is not a system property but one coded into every software. That ctrl+c kills is the default behavior and should be overwritten in gui applications. A lot of native linux tools also use those and similar key combinations. And if it kills the program it should do that and not kill the DE.

[Marlock]

i agree Valve should fix this by disabling the "ctrl+c kills" behaviour in gaming mode

i suggested using ctrl+shift+c as a potential temporary workaround while there is no fix

[Marlock]

Originally posted by Mahjik:

It's how Linux works. That's not going to change.

it's how the linux terminal works, not any DE or other GUIs

gaming mode is not the terminal and is also being used to launch fullscreen gui apps, so it's unreasonable to expect it to behave like the terminal instead of like a GUI

there is probably some hidden use of terminals (TTY maybe) by Valve in gaming mode, but it can probably be fixed if they stop and think about it

unfortunately this seems to not have been selected as a prioritary issue yet