ALT Acts Like a Toggle in Wine Games

[Hydris]

Am I the only one that has this problem?

I alt+tab a lot to chat with other people during loading screens, but whenever I press enter in game, it acts like alt+enter which changes between fullscreen and windowed mode.

[Cat on Linux]

I don't have this issue with Debian and Budgie desktop. Are you using Ubuntu and its mainstream desktop by any chance?

[x_wing]

Originally posted by Cat on Linux:

I don't have this issue with Debian and Budgie desktop. Are you using Ubuntu and its mainstream desktop by any chance?

All DE use Alt+tab as windows switching afaik. Maybe the OP is Alt+lmb clicking? On KDE that's the shortcut for moving windows.

[Cat on Linux]

Originally posted by x_wing:

Originally posted by Cat on Linux:

I don't have this issue with Debian and Budgie desktop. Are you using Ubuntu and its mainstream desktop by any chance?

All DE use Alt+tab as windows switch afaik. Maybe the OP is Alt+lmb clicking? On KDE that's the shortcut for window move.

Alt-Tab - yes, but not just Alt. I've heard there's some DE that would bind actions to Alt. In that case I believe OP should unbind such action in Settings

[x_wing]

Originally posted by Cat on Linux:

Alt-Tab - yes, but not just Alt. I've heard there's some DE that would bind actions to Alt. In that case I believe OP should unbind such action in Settings

I'm not sure if it's just "Alt" reading the OP explanation of the problem. I believe that no DE will allow to bind Ctrl, Super or Alt as unique shortcut as they are base modifiers keys (I mean, Alt is used to get special characters on every keyboard distribution afaik).

[Cat on Linux]

Originally posted by x_wing:

Originally posted by Cat on Linux:

Alt-Tab - yes, but not just Alt. I've heard there's some DE that would bind actions to Alt. In that case I believe OP should unbind such action in Settings

I'm not sure if it's just "Alt" reading the OP explanation of the problem. I believe that no DE will allow to bind Ctrl, Super or Alt as unique shortcut as they are base modifiers keys (I mean, Alt is used to get special characters on every keyboard distribution afaik).

Ubuntu Unity used Alt to bring HUD, I recall people had issues with that, I wonder which DE is in question here.

[Marlock]

Actually by the descriptiin OP's issue seems to be that after using "alt+tab" he hits "enter" and it behaves as "alt+enter" instead

to me it looks as if alt is behaving like a sticky key modifier...

this should affect the system even outside games so it's a long shot but maybe OP should check his accessibility settings... look for any accidentally enabled keyboard accessibility setting, most likely something called "enable sticky keys" or "enable toggle behavior for modifier keys" or something like that...

also, as a potential workaround, if/when it happens again try to tap the left-alt and then right-alt keys strongly and then test "enter" again, se if the behavior goes back to normal...

Sometimes my PC doesn't register the key-up event for right-shift correctly on Steam's interface and then moving the mouse selects and deselects text on the UI depending on where it moves... it's very rare and it might just be a hardware issue with my el-cheapo keyboard but I suspect it can be caused by intermittent software issues sometimes too (it only happens on Steam interface for me). Just tapping both of the ctrl, alt and shift keys fixes it.

[petri.piira]

Xfce based distros sometimes have problems with alt (e.g. when using xrdp) and with steam native games, alt-mouseclick might not be recognized by the game. Or some other combination having alt.

The solution in both cases is the same, go to the window manager settings and clear the keyboard shortcut "super+alt". Or whatever the shortcut is which causes this in your case. But "super+alt" is the usual one. It is a shortcut for ... making the window show just the title bar, or something like that.

[Hydris]

I'm using Xubuntu (xfce). I don't have sticky keys set in accessibility settings as far as i know. I'm not doing ALT+LMB. I have both hands on the keyboard for the games I was playing.

Originally posted by Marlock:

Actually by the descriptiin OP's issue seems to be that after using "alt+tab" he hits "enter" and it behaves as "alt+enter" instead

This is exactly the case. But it doesn't act like this for native Linux games.

Originally posted by petri.piira:

The solution in both cases is the same, go to the window manager settings and clear the keyboard shortcut "super+alt". Or whatever the shortcut is which causes this in your case. But "super+alt" is the usual one. It is a shortcut for ... making the window show just the title bar, or something like that.

I do not have Super+Alt bound.

Edit:

I just checked an in-game input visualizer. So I see what happens is that pressing ALT by itself, it doesn't stick, but when I change the window with alt+tab then return to the menu, ALT is displayed to be held down or activated.

Input visualizer doesn't display for tab, so I have no idea if tab is also being considered held down.

[Marlock]

so it doesn't register alt being un-pressed...

have you tried tapping alt after alt+tabing to see if alt is then updated to the correct un-pressed state?

edit: I would guess that proton only monitors alt's state changes (key down and key up) while focused if this happened to more people, but never heard similar complaints in the steam for linux forums...

edit 2:
maybe windowed-fullscreen mode (windowed but occupying the whole screen area and in front of everything) helps the issue here, when available

check this comment in someones blog post about proton (sorry, lost the link):

I’ve remarked that Steamplay games do not survive to alt-tab. So always launch them in windowed mode

[Hydris]

Originally posted by Marlock:

so it doesn't register alt being un-pressed...

have you tried tapping alt after alt+tabing to see if alt is then updated to the correct un-pressed state?

edit: I would guess that proton only monitors alt's state changes (key down and key up) while focused if this happened to more people, but never heard similar complaints in the steam for linux forums...

edit 2:
maybe windowed-fullscreen mode helps the issue here

check this comment in someones blog post about proton (sorry, lost the link):

I’ve remarked that Steamplay games do not survive to alt-tab. So always launch them in windowed mode

It doesn't deregister alt if I tap alt again while the window is unfocused. It will if I tap alt in-game.
I do play borderless fullscreen and that's how it was originally set, but it will change from that because of alt+tab -> [alt+]enter.

[Hydris]

No one knows how to fix?

[petri.piira]

Have you gone through all of your window manager shortcuts to see if removing one of those would help? Xfce sometimes gets confused with modifiers, when something (like a game or remote desktop) wants to capture them instead.