TIL: KDE has game controller support

And it's not always useful.

After giving up WoW after giving up Final Fantasy XIV, I'd like to get back into the latter again. And since I own a Steam Deck, I decided to play it with a game controller, even on my Linux desktop. For an MMO, FF has great controller support. I set up the basics on my Character Settings, but every time I pressed the B button, it triggered the "Cancel" function. This happened even when I wasn't in a menu but had the action crossbar enabled. It was maddening! I even tried getting help from GPT, but even for me, its advice to fiddle with Wine registry sounded a bit too much like open-heart surgery.

I was about to give up when I remembered that my 8BitDo SN30 pro has different connection modes. So I switched it from XBox to Android mode. I was hopeful because Android comes closest to Linux, right? And it worked! The B button only cancelled menus, but not action buttons. I was good to learn playing the game again. Or so I thought.

When I logged in the next time to build up more controller muscle memory, the Cancel Everything Effect was back in full force. But this time, I noticed a KDE dialogue window popping on and off. Could it be that...? I quit the game, opened NeoVim and started insert mode. I pressed the B button on the controller. Back in normal mode. OMG.

Turns out that KDE can use a game controller for keyboard input. And apparently, it can't always tell if you're in a game, so it'll still happily trigger keystrokes while you're trying to keep your party alive.

Of course, you can easily disable this feature in KDE settings. Now I can finally fend off Alzheimers by training my index fingers and thumbs to do the right thing at the right time. Which I'm sure will be a nightmare that's almost as terrible as getting cancelled by my B button.