The desktop has its own XDG_CONFIG_HOME (~/.config/frametop), and SteamVR's tools and OpenVR
read their path registry from there. So from a terminal in the desktop:
- pointer/driver/install.sh (install.sh step 4, every reinstall or update from Konsole) wrote
a new registry, ~/.config/frametop/openvr/openvrpaths.vrpath, with only our driver and
"runtime": null, and never registered the driver with SteamVR. That stray file then hid
SteamVR from every OpenVR program started in the desktop.
- scripts/update-check.py (and so doctor.sh and report.sh) reported OpenVR "can't connect to
SteamVR as a background app" (VRInitError_Init_PathRegistryNotFound, or
InstallationNotFound with the stray file) and "vrcmd --overlays lists no overlays". A user's
report of 2026-10-05 showed both, with SteamVR and Frametop's services fine.
- ft-layout's vrcmd calls (the gamescope backend) found no overlays.
They now run with XDG_CONFIG_HOME=~/.config: the driver installer (install, uninstall, probe,
aimhere), update-check.py (for all its checks: nothing there reads the desktop's own config),
report.sh's vrpathreg show, and ft-layout's vrcmd. report.sh doesn't set it for the whole
report, since session/fix-panels.py --check reads the desktop's Plasma config through it.
The driver installer also removes the stray registry (only vrpathreg's, with no runtime), and
update-check.py warns about one. And vrpathreg runs `xdg-open vrmonitor://driverinstalled` to
tell SteamVR's desktop monitor, which the Frame doesn't have: in the desktop that showed "could
not read file vrmonitor://driverinstalled" on every install. A stand-in xdg-open on its PATH
takes it, so install.sh no longer filters the step's output.
Tested in a fake HOME with a copy of SteamVR's registry, a stray one, and the desktop's
XDG_CONFIG_HOME: the new installer removes the stray file, registers the driver in the copy,
and never reaches xdg-open; the old one wrote the stray file, left the copy alone, and ran
xdg-open. update-check.py from that environment: OpenVR and vrcmd ok (the old one fails both);
its stray-registry warning fires on a seeded file. ft-layout's vrcmd: 119 overlays (was 0).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Each check starts two gdbus processes (about 5.5 ms of CPU each on the
Frame), so checking once a second cost about 1% of a core for as long as
the desktop ran. On SteamOS 0.3.0 native activation fails, so the watcher
always runs. A registry left behind now goes within 5 seconds instead of 1.
design.md also says where the watcher matters: started from the VR
launcher, the desktop runs in steam.service, which doesn't stop with it,
so keep-apps.sh and the unit's stop don't clean up there.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Plasma 6.2.5 keeps a panel on a screen number and never moves one whose
number is past the screen count, so a taskbar saved on a spare output
(#18, lastScreen=8 with three screens) or on a screen a smaller layout
dropped stayed hidden. Before Plasma starts, session/fix-panels.py moves
such a panel and its tray's containment to screen 0 (the primary),
keeping its widgets, unless screen 0 already has a panel on that edge.
doctor.sh checks the panels' screens, and report.sh lists them with the
live outputs and panels.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
GetComponentStateForDevicePath with no input source handle fails for
every render model component while a VR game runs (checked 2026-10-03
with a game up: all 21 components of frame_controller_right). TipOffset
then fell back to the controller's pose, which aims 40 degrees above the
Frame controller's laser. In games, pointing at a screen's middle missed
it and pointing below it hit, so the new aim-to-laser only worked from
the bottom; the controls' reveal and pin/roll aim were off the same way.
GetComponentState still answers then, with the same tip.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
SteamVR's own floating windows take the laser while a controller points
at them in a game and give it back when it points away. Frametop's
panels didn't: with the controllers left to the game (outside_games, the
default, or dashboard), they couldn't be clicked without the dashboard.
ft-screens now sets MakeOverlaysInteractiveIfVisible on a screen or
floating window while a hand controller's laser pose meets it, its
controls, or its popups (UpdateAim; curved screens hit on their
cylinder), and clears it 0.3 s after the aim leaves a wider margin. A
drag or a held button keeps it on. The keyboard, one overlay, uses
ComputeOverlayIntersection and now follows the mode when a game starts
or ends while it's open. This replaces the reset button's own aim zone.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Each desktop screen gets a reset button left of its bar (a reticle). It
puts every screen back in its layout around where you are now, like
Meta+Shift+R (ft-layout apply).
In a VR game the screens leave the controllers to the game (the
outside_games and dashboard modes), so a controller couldn't click any
of their controls. Aiming a hand controller at the reset button now sets
MakeOverlaysInteractiveIfVisible on that button's overlay alone, so the
trigger clicks it; the flag clears half a second after the aim leaves a
zone twice as wide, and the game gets the controllers back. The aim
comes from the laser poses ft-screens already reads to show the controls.
The ft-layout spawn is now RunLayout(cmd), shared with the arrange.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The relay sent the helper one "move" per SYN_REPORT, so a 1000 Hz mouse sent 1000 datagrams
a second to a helper whose loop runs every 8 ms, and each one went through a dozen sscanf
and strncmp tests in the helper before reaching the move handler. In a 200 ms test at
1000 Hz, 149 reports now make 45 moves with the same total.
flush() on a report now sends only once 4 ms have passed since the last move; tick() sends
the rest when due, and the select timeout shrinks to match. Buttons and the gaze
keys still flush first, unconditionally, so a click lands where the pointer was. In the
helper, "move" is now tested first in the command dispatch, and its handling is one lambda.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The gesture reader fetched vrserver's /input/getstate.json over HTTP every 3 seconds, the
whole time the relay runs, to notice a controller's root path changing when the 3D mouse
takes or gives back its hand role.
It now looks them up when it connects, when a message comes from a device path it doesn't
know (at most every 3 s; the device is read from the message with two string searches, not
a JSON parse of all 160 a second), 1.5 s after the relay's 3D mouse connects or lets go (the
relay tells it through GamePause.controllers_changed), and otherwise every 30 s. The keys
test's pause stub gets the new method.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The relay sent to @ft_pointer_helper on a blocking socket. When the helper stalled, a
layout placement or grabprobe holds it for seconds while ft-gazed keeps filling its socket at
90 Hz, the relay's one loop blocked with it: keyboards, the volume keys (which must never
reach gamescope), and pausing all stopped until the helper read again.
The socket is non-blocking now. A command the helper doesn't take (EAGAIN) waits in a queue,
and everything after it queues behind it so the order holds; tick() sends what it can on each
loop, and the select timeout drops to 20 ms while anything waits. Mouse moves add up into one
queued move. A scroll notch is dropped rather than queued, since scrolling seconds late is no
use; its release still goes. Presses, releases, show, hide, and the rest are kept, so no
button stays down. The queue holds at most 512 commands. While paused, the configured
pointer's queue still drains, so the releases and "hide" from standing down arrive. A
"vrbind" that hits a full socket is sent again on the next loop instead of being lost.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The nested Plasma session runs the system's XDG autostart entries. Discover's update
notifier (/etc/xdg/autostart/org.kde.discover.notifier.desktop) started
plasma-discover --mode update inside it, 520-620 MB resident and about 9% of a core,
with flatpak-system-helper and AppStream downloads behind it. IBus started a nested
ibus-daemon with kimpanel and ibus-extension-gtk3, which no app in the desktop can use:
KWin's input method is ft-textinput (zwp_input_method_v1, focus reports only; the VR
keyboard types through ft-screens' seat), and the session already drops QT_IM_MODULE,
GTK_IM_MODULE and XMODIFIERS. Nothing in Frametop talks to IBus.
Before Plasma starts, the session script copies both entries into
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/autostart with Hidden=true, which plasma-session honours for that
desktop only. It does this once ([Defaults] autostart=1 in frametoprc) and skips a name
the user already has a file for, so deleting the copy brings the program back. The
geoclue demo agent stays (it answers apps' location requests outside GNOME and idles at
0%), and orca's entry is OnlyShowIn GNOME-family desktops, so it never ran. Tested
against a temporary XDG_CONFIG_HOME, including an existing user ibus.desktop left alone.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The nested kwinrc had no [Plugins] group, so KWin ran its default blur and background
contrast effects, and kdeglobals had no AnimationDurationFactor, so animations ran at
full length. KWin renders through zink on Turnip, on the GPU vrcompositor needs, and
blur re-renders what's behind every translucent panel and menu; each animation frame is
another frame for KWin and ft-screens.
Before KWin starts, the session script now writes [Plugins] blurEnabled=false and
contrastEnabled=false to $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/kwinrc and [KDE] AnimationDurationFactor=0 to
its kdeglobals, each only if the desktop's own file has no value for it. It does this
once and records that in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/frametoprc ([Defaults] effects=1), because
System Settings deletes a key put back to its default: without the marker, turning blur
back on wouldn't survive a restart. The ids blur and contrast are the built-in effects
of KWin 6.2.5 on SteamOS (both enabled by default in its plugin metadata). Tested
against a temporary XDG_CONFIG_HOME: fresh config, an existing blurEnabled=true kept,
and a deleted key not rewritten.
README and docs/reference.md say how to turn them back on.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Every frame (about 116 a second) the helper tested the cursor ray against every visible
overlay twice with ComputeOverlayIntersection, set the dot's alpha, width, transform and
visibility (five calls into SteamVR), and sent the driver a pose datagram, even with the
mouse and the head still.
Now a frame reuses the last collision result when the mouse, the anchor (1 mm) and the
eye (5 mm) haven't moved and no overlay showed, hid, or changed handle. The passes still run
at least every 100 ms, since overlays move on their own (a floating window's controls follow
it), and always while dragging. The dots' setters go to SteamVR only when their value changes:
the placement when the dot moved 0.2 mm or the eye 5 mm, which turns or resizes it by well
under 1%, and the width on a 0.5% change. The plain pose goes to the driver only when the
laser's origin moved 0.2 mm or its direction 0.04 deg (0.1 mm where it lands, 15 cm on), and
at least every 100 ms; the driver keeps the last pose and reports it every frame. A tilt's
pose, a placement, or waking sends the next one regardless.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
ft-screens gave KWin a frame callback for every committed screen on each tick, and the tick
was an 11 ms timer set again after each run, so it slid through the display's frame and came
about 85 times a second at 90 Hz: the desktop repeated a frame several times a second (judder
in scrolling and video), and KWin drew every screen in one burst at a random point of
vrcompositor's frame. Hidden screens got the same 90 Hz unless Frametop was paused for a game.
- Ticks run on a timerfd at absolute times, once per display frame, 1 ms after the vsync
(IVRSystem::GetTimeSinceLastVsync and the HMD's display frequency, read once a second), so
KWin gets its callbacks early in the frame. Measured with --no-vr: 91 wakeups a second
instead of about 85. On the Frame the vsync times SteamVR reports lie on a 90 Hz grid.
- Each screen's callbacks come at a rate for how much of it you see (vr.cpp,
UpdateAttention): every frame while focused (within 12 degrees of where your head points,
a laser or the mouse on it in the last 1.5 s, carried, or typed on), 15 a second for the
rest of what you see (within 60 degrees), and 1 a second when hidden, behind you, or
paused. Levels rise at once and fall after 1.5 s (focused) or 0.5 s (in view). KWin draws
a screen only after its callback and its apps wait for theirs, so this throttles the apps
too. A screen where nothing changes costs nothing at any rate, as before.
- A video in view keeps every frame: 8 commits in a row that each redraw 6% or more of the
screen, at 10 a second or more, count as one (from the surface's buffer damage).
- "rates F V H" / --rates set the three rates (default 0 15 1, 0 = every frame), "rates?"
shows them and each screen's level, "watch S" gives everything full rate for S seconds for
a remote viewer (vnc-bridge.sh renews it), and "phase MS" moves the ticks for tuning.
- ft-screens' main thread runs at nice -5 after the session starts: SteamOS allows down to
-8 once the soft RLIMIT_NICE is raised, and KWin waits on these ticks. It had spent nearly
3 times as long waiting to run as running.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
While FreeRDP ran, vnc-bridge.sh called ft-layout remote-view every 5 s, which scans
all of /proc for plasmashell and runs kscreen-doctor -j: about 4.4% of a core for a
layout that rarely changes.
It now stats the two files the answer depends on, the nested KWin's
~/.config/frametop/kwinoutputconfig.json (positions, scales, primary) and
~/.config/frametop-layout.json (screen sizes), once a second while FreeRDP runs. After
either changes it reads the layout every 2 s for 10 s, since KWin's outputs follow the
file a few seconds later; otherwise once a minute, in case a change touched neither.
With no VNC viewer connected nothing runs (previous commit).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
vnc-bridge.sh kept FreeRDP connected to krdpserver from the moment remote desktop
started, so krdp captured and H.264-encoded every KWin redraw in software (openh264)
with nobody watching: krdpserver 55-78% of a core, xfreerdp 16-27%, Xvnc 6-11%, with 0
clients on :5900. krdp 6.7 creates its screencast session per RDP connection and drops
it when the connection closes, so krdpserver itself idles without one and stays up.
The bridge now counts established connections to Xvnc's port with ss, starts FreeRDP
when a viewer appears (the desktop shows about 3 s later; the VNC screen is black until
then) and stops it 45 s after the last one leaves (VNC_IDLE_SEC). Xvnc has no client
hook, so its log output, which it writes for every connection, wakes the bridge early;
otherwise it looks every 5 s while idle (0.1% of a core measured, against 0.9% for ss
once a second) and every second while FreeRDP runs. The layout check runs only while
FreeRDP runs.
While a viewer is connected the bridge sends "watch 15" to ft-screens (@ft_screens) at
once and every 5 s, so screens at a reduced frame rate (out of view, headset on a
stand) stream at full rate; it lapses by itself if the bridge dies, and an ft-screens
without the command just answers an error. The window search after starting FreeRDP
now ends when FreeRDP exits instead of polling for 30 s.
krdp on 127.0.0.1 with a fresh password, VNC on the tailnet address with VncAuth, and
remote-ctl.sh start/stop (pause and resume) are unchanged.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The main loop slept a fixed 8 ms, about 116 wakeups a second, whether the pointer was awake
or not, and every second it looked up every overlay's handle and read a string property from
all 64 device slots to find its own device.
With the pointer off and hand gestures off, the loop now waits in poll() on its command
socket for up to 250 ms, or 20 ms while mapped Frame controller buttons are being read
(SteamVR input has no event to wait for). A mouse command ends the wait at once. The
headset's activity level, the game check, and the "vrgame" and "gazeawake" repeats keep
going at that pace. The 50 ms visibility poll and the 1 s handle lookups run only while the
pointer is awake, and waking forces both. The device index is looked for only while it's
unknown, and again after SteamVR activates or deactivates a device. The HMD pose history is
kept only with hand gestures on, its one user.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The helper ran `vrcmd --overlays` once a second while the pointer was awake, and in gaze
mode the pointer never sleeps. Each run is a shell plus vrcmd, a new SteamVR client, about
26 to 30 ms of CPU, so about 3% of a core all the time.
The list is now read every 20 seconds, and at once (at most once a second) when it may have
changed: the pointer waking, the dashboard opening or closing or creating an overlay, the
scene app changing, an "overlays" request, and a left click that hit nothing, which may be
on a panel that came up since. The thread waits on a condition variable instead of waking
every 100 ms, so it sleeps while paused. The main loop looks the keys up again as soon as a
new list is in, rather than at its next 1 s tick. Overlays already on the list still show
and hide within 50 ms, from the IsOverlayVisible poll.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The gaze service ran ft-gaze and our own eye tracker all the time: with gaze mode off, ft-eyes
still took about 60% of a core, and ft-eyegrab, ft-gaze and ft-gazed 3 to 4% each. Now ft-gaze
and our tracker run only while gaze mode is on and someone wears the headset, while a check or
the calibration is open or asked for, or under a "wake" lease, which the Gaze page of Frametop
Input Settings renews while it's open. 30 s after the last use they stop, and the frame grabber
idles with our tracker.
- The pointer helper answers "gaze ? headset" with worn|away (SteamVR's activity level for the
headset); an older helper answers it as before, and the service then goes by gaze mode alone.
- A quick check, calibration, or fit check asked for while idle wakes the tracker and opens once
it sends; the automatic calibration waits quietly while it starts.
- Status has "awake" and "idle" (why), and the Gaze page shows it.
- gaze/test/idle-test.py runs the service with a fake helper and ft-gaze, offline.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Frametop kept using the headset during games: with gaze mode off, our eye tracker still took
about 60% of a core, remote desktop about 2 cores while on, and KWin kept drawing hidden
screens because ft-screens sent their frame callbacks at 90 Hz. Pausing gives that back, and
resuming brings back only what pausing stopped. It's also a way to keep the gaze service and
our eye tracker off during games, which PR #13 asked for.
Paused (input/game_pause.py, run by the input relay):
- frametop-gaze stops (ft-eyegrab then idles by itself), and hand tracking and remote desktop
stop if they run
- the desktop hides and slows down: ft-screens "pause on" hides every panel and sends KWin a
frame callback once a second; or, with pause_desktop "close", the desktop closes and starts
again on resume
- the relay lets go of the 3D mouse, typing goes to Steam, and mapped buttons and key
combinations do only pause_toggle, steam_menu and commands
Toggled by both thumbsticks clicked together twice (configurable), read passively from
vrserver's web socket (input/vrws.py) so it works in games and takes nothing from them; by the
new pause_toggle action; by input/ft-pause; and, with pause_auto (default on), by a VR game
starting and ending, which the pointer helper now reports ("vrgame 1|0"). Frametop Input
Settings has a Games page for it. update-check.py checks the web socket, and doesn't count a
paused gaze service as failed.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
container-up.sh starts the dev container in a scope of its own, so
distrobox enter finds it running and skips its wait for distrobox-init.
On a fresh install, init was still setting up passwordless sudo when
dev-container.sh ran sudo dnf install, and sudo asked for a password
with no terminal to read it from. container-up.sh now waits for
container_setup_done itself, and the container's sudo calls use -n,
so a password prompt fails at once with a clear message.
Fixes#9
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
- floating-windows.md and profiles.md describe what's built, with what
isn't listed as such; the plans, phases, and branch notes are gone
- hands-migration.md is gone: the move is done; its open items are in
hands/README.md's Known issues
- reference.md: Layout & profiles, every action, key combinations,
floating windows, the gaze pointer, and hand tracking as they are
- design.md gets the KWin findings from floating-windows.md
- README, gaze/README, AGENTS, hazards, gaze-controllers, and the
example config catch up with gaze, hands, and the stuck-key fix
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The gaze checks and calibration in a headset panel (quick, five, full, headset
fit; shared-buffer drawing, click-to-capture), keyboard and mouse gaze clicks
(Meta+J/K, the mouse's buttons alike, mouse moves only while a button is held,
double right/Meta+K tilts a drag), one 55 degree learning limit with a quick
check past it, eye presence for "the headset went on", the gaze probe as a
development tool, and the relay releasing keys the desktop has down that no
keyboard holds.
Conflicts with the profiles: the relay keeps known_action/needs_pointer and
the gaze defaults (Meta+J/K and the float key); Input Settings keeps the
profile actions everywhere and the gaze actions in key combinations only.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Check headset fit now runs in the headset panel too ("fitcheck"): a card per
eye (tracked or lost, the tracker's signal, how much of the last 10 s it was
seen) and the hints, from the probe's fitcheck.py, updated at most twice a
second; left click or Meta+J runs its guided check, right click or Meta+K closes
it. So Quick check, Calibrate, and Check headset fit all happen in one place.
The gaze probe moves to the Gaze page's overflow menu as "Gaze probe
(development)", and its app menu entry says it's a development tool. Texts that
sent users to it ("use Calibrate… with Own tracker") point at Calibrate.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
A drag begun by right during the left's held-back press (or Meta+K during
Meta+J's) now lasts while either button or key is held, so pressing the right
one again is free: it tilts, as a right press does during any mouse drag. Meta+K
during a keyboard drag (held still into one, or the second Meta+K) tilts while
held: the head turns the panel, and the mouse can too; let go and the head drags
again from there.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The right button's press is held back like the left's: hold it, the pointer
stops where you look, move onto the target, and the right click comes on the
release (held still, it's a real right press). Right during the left's held-back
press now starts a drag where the pointer is, as Meta+J then Meta+K does, in
place of a right click there; letting go of either drops it. So once you've
moved, the left alone only clicks, and the right starts a drag.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
POINTER_GAZE_MOUSE_MOVE=held, the default (the Gaze page's Mouse movement
switch, with why it's on): while the gaze has the pointer, moving the mouse
does nothing; it moves the pointer only while a button is held, as a
correction. A bumped or drifting mouse can't pull the pointer off what you're
looking at, and every mouse move is a correction, so lessons aren't polluted by
mouse moves to somewhere else. With the gaze stale for a second, in a game, or
with the headset off, the mouse moves the pointer as usual. "free" is the old
behaviour.
Pressing the right button while the left one's press is held back right-clicks
where the pointer is instead (correct with the left, then right-click); both
releases are then nothing. Meta+J then Meta+K stays a drag.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Drops the quick check's second step (3629681): the user didn't want it, and it
re-entered itself every tick, re-placing and redrawing the panel, which
flickered in the headset.
POINTER_GAZE_NUDGE_MAX is the one learning limit, now 55 degrees by default:
half of the 109 the Frame shows across. The helper measures the correction
itself (raw gaze to click), not the mouse's path; past the limit it isn't
learned and the helper sends "recheck" for the quick check, for the mouse and
keyboard alike. ft-gazed's own limits (8 and 25) follow the setting.
Test, our tracker's 409 clicks since its Sep 29 calibration: a one-dot check
set from any one of them puts the next 2 minutes' clicks within 15 degrees (99%
within 4.2) and the next 10 minutes' within 25, so it gets well under 55.
The panel's dot is still and its capture ring fills in quarters, so it's drawn
again only a few times per dot.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
After the quick check's capture, in gaze mode, the dot stays where it is in the
room (the panel's new "lock") and the gaze has the pointer again. You put the
pointer on the dot as you'd correct a click, with the mouse or Meta+J and the
head. That click clicks nothing: the helper sends it as "calverify", learned
whatever its size. Over POINTER_GAZE_NUDGE_MAX, the capture runs again, up to
3 times. A right click or Meta+K skips it.
POINTER_GAZE_NUDGE_MAX is now the one limit: 15 degrees by default (was 8),
and ft-gazed's own limits (8 for SteamVR's tracker, 25 for ours) follow it. A
keyboard correction past it isn't learned but opens a quick check ("recheck"),
in place of the 30 degree keyboard limit.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
On the Frame, a SteamOS update replaces SteamVR, KWin, and gamescope with the
rest of the OS image. scripts/update-check.py, run by doctor.sh and report.sh,
checks what Frametop uses from it: the OpenVR interface versions the installed
programs were built against, the vrcmd --overlays format, the eye tracker's
shared memory layout, host files, services, sockets, and the driver
registration. doctor.sh --mark-good records the package versions once things
work, and later runs say what changed and what to try by hand.
The session no longer stops when mesavars.sh or flatpak.sh is missing.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
ft-gazepanel (gaze/panel) is a SteamVR overlay that stays put in your view and
shows dots at known head-relative directions; the gaze service runs it and
drives it (gaze/gazecheck.py):
- a one-dot quick check 3 s after the headset goes on, when our tracker asks
for a click (reseat), at most every 2 minutes, and from Quick check on the
Gaze page; five dots follow if the next 3 lessons are still over 2 degrees off
- the full calibration (the probe's three rounds, dark to bright) when gaze mode
comes on without one, or from Calibrate; quitting it with still no calibration
turns gaze mode off
Each dot takes the gaze once it has held still for 0.6 s; a left click or Meta+J
takes it at once, a right click or Meta+K closes the panel (the pointer helper
hides its dot and passes those presses on while "calpanel" lasts). Our tracker
gets clicks and its own calibration; SteamVR's gets lessons per eye, or a new
calibration.json.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Steam reads the Frame controllers itself, outside SteamVR's bindings, and every
press and release it sees takes SteamVR out of laser mode, so controller clicks
at the gaze can't be done cleanly (docs/gaze-controllers.md, from the gaze-first
branch's tests).
- Gaze precision and Gaze drag take a mouse button or a key combination only;
the controller source, its aim steering, and POINTER_PRECISION_GAIN,
POINTER_PRECISION_DEADZONE and POINTER_GAZE_DRAG_GAIN are gone.
- The gaze actions (including Gaze pointer on/off) can't be mapped to controller
buttons: the relay ignores them there and doesn't ask the helper for those
buttons, and Input Settings no longer offers them.
- Last used wins in gaze mode too: picking up a controller hands it the laser,
as docs/design.md already said.
- The gaze dot shows all the time (POINTER_GAZE_DOT=always, the default;
moving brings back the old behaviour), with a switch on the Gaze page.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Fixes#7: SteamVR's keyboard never came up for the desktop's apps, and
opening it for our panels doesn't work well on the Frame (it's Steam's own
panel, mounted in the dashboard's scene, it follows the laser between
panels, and it takes the controllers over to SteamVR's laser).
- KWin starts input/ft-textinput as the desktop's input method. It tells
the input relay when a text field gains or loses focus, and the relay
asks ft-screens to open or close the keyboard. The session drops the
QT_IM_MODULE=xim and GTK_IM_MODULE=xim that the gamescope session sets,
or Qt and GTK apps never report text fields.
- The keyboard is ft-screens' own panel (screens/keyboard.cpp): a US laptop
layout, typed with a controller's laser or the 3D mouse. It opens 0.7 m
in front of you, below your eyes and facing you. It has a grab bar to
move it, a Close key, latching Shift, Ctrl and Alt, and repeat on a held
key. It's drawn into shared DMA-BUFs, so it doesn't flicker. Its keys
reach the focused screen as key presses, so every app takes them.
- It steps aside while the Steam menu or Steam's own keyboard is up and
comes back after. A layout reset closes it, and it doesn't open without
a head pose.
- Frametop Input Settings has a Keyboard page: open it for every text
field, only while no keyboard is connected (the default), only from a
mapped button (the new Open/close keyboard action, for mice and
controllers), or never. A switch keeps it open until you close it.
- The pointer helper treats every frametop.* overlay as a real panel. The
keyboard's shared texture reports 0x0 like SteamVR's scene-graph
controls, and the helper had given it their wide catch radius.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The pointer and gaze services need steamvr.service to be running (Requisite=), and ft-pointer, ft-screens, and ft-gaze connect as a background app before switching to overlay, so they never start a vrserver of their own. One started from the dev container never finds the headset, which left a reboot stuck in a loop.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
(cherry picked from commit 51b4e79318)
A head-locked performance overlay kept catching the 3D mouse. It has no
input method, so SteamVR's laser passes through it, but the helper hit
tests every visible overlay with ComputeOverlayIntersection, and the dot
stuck to it whenever it crossed that corner of the view.
POINTER_IGNORE in frametop.conf now lists overlay keys the helper leaves
out of the collision, comma-separated shell patterns, so "vendor.app*"
covers a whole app, including panels it opens later. The laser starts
just before the cursor point, so an ignored panel nearer to you doesn't
catch it either.
Frametop Input Settings has a new Ignored panels page. It asks the
helper for SteamVR's overlays ("overlays", answered from the list's
thread once vrcmd has run again, even while the pointer is off), groups
them by app, and has a checkbox per panel and one for the whole app.
Frametop's own screens aren't offered, since ignoring one would leave
nothing to click the app on with the mouse. Entries for apps that
aren't open are listed so they can be removed.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
A display mount that covers the proximity sensor makes the headset seem
worn, so SteamVR never turned its displays off and they stayed on all
night. The new power service, ft-powerd (frametop-power.service), goes by
use instead: after DISPLAY_OFF_MIN minutes in which the headset and
controllers didn't move and no input device was used, it turns the
backlight off, and the next movement or input turns it back on.
The new Power tab in Frametop Display Settings sets that time and has a
Stay awake while plugged in switch. The switch sets Steam's own "When
Plugged In and Idle -> Sleep after" to Never through Steam's UI, so the
Frame stays reachable remotely while the power button still works.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Named layouts: Save current arrangement in Frametop Display Settings now
asks for a name, and saved layouts are listed with the presets under
Arrangement, with rename and delete next to the list. A named layout is
the custom arrangement under a name: each screen's place relative to
your head, width, curve, and pin, but not resolution or scale. Using one
copies it into the custom arrangement, so desktop start, Meta+Shift+R,
and Arrange now apply it unchanged; "active" remembers the name, and a
plain capture clears it. ft-layout gains save, use, layouts, rename, and
delete. A layout saved with fewer screens than there are now leaves the
others where they were saved last, or where the preset puts them.
Head pin: ft-screens' pin command takes "head" as well as left and
right, and pins the screen to the headset (device 0) where it is, like a
HUD. A head-pinned screen skips the wrist facing rule and shows whenever
the screens do. Carrying it re-pins it to the head on release, like a
wrist pin, so it can be adjusted in VR. The Visibility tab (now
Visibility & pins) sets each screen's pin: in the room, either wrist, or
your head, and the pin command now rejects anything but left, right, or
head (it used to take anything else as left). This removes the "no HUD"
limit from the docs.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
SteamVR's combined gaze keeps going on one eye, but it holds the lost
eye's yaw, so the gaze moves half as far sideways as the eyes do.
ft-gaze now reads each eye's tracking uncertainty and raw measurement
from eye-server.mmap. When the tracker loses an eye, ft-gazed takes the
gaze from the other one, plus the offset that eye usually shows
against both, learned while both are seen. On a recording, one eye
alone came out a median 0.8 degrees from both eyes' gaze.
Glances down at the keyboard, past every screen, aren't sent. The
pointer stays put, and eyes lost there don't count as lost.
The gaze probe gets a Headset fit mode. It shows per-eye tracking,
openness and confidence, maps where each eye gets lost, gives hints,
and has a guided check. The settings app opens it from the Gaze page
and shows how often each eye is lost. The probe can also test each eye
alone, and its side panel now collapses to a title bar so the dot
isn't hidden behind it.
Snapping to UI elements is deferred; the mouse drag is the correction.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
A controller released the 3D mouse's pointer on a single pose sample
faster than 0.35 m/s or 2 rad/s, once the mouse had been still for
500 ms. The helper polls about every 8 ms, so one noisy sample was
enough: a knock on the desk, or a tracking jump when the headset's
cameras pick a resting controller up again (#1).
A controller now has to stay over the limit for 100 ms in a row, and
only samples with a normal tracking result (Running_OK) count. The new
POINTER_CONTROLLER_PICKUP setting (1 by default, 0.5 to 5) scales both
limits; it's a slider on the Pointer page of Frametop Input Settings
and applies live. A controller picked up for real still gets the laser
back through SteamVR's hand role, which follows its touch sensors. The
release log now records the speed and spin that triggered it, to tune
the default.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Most of SteamVR's Settings page took no clicks from the 3D mouse: they
went through to a desktop screen behind it, and the page covered the dot.
Steam's pages (Library and the rest) are drawn in
valve.steam.gamepadui.main, which ComputeOverlayIntersection hits exactly.
For SteamVR Settings that overlay is hidden and the page is drawn by the
dashboard's scene-graph panel, whose shape OpenVR doesn't give out. The
helper guessed a plane and a 0.5 m circle from the panel's transform, but
its origin is at the page's left edge and the page's surface is nearer
than that plane, so the laser, starting a few cm in front of the guess,
started behind the page.
On that page only (dashboard open, the main overlay hidden, the line of
sight crossing the page's measured area), the laser now starts 25 cm from
the eye so SteamVR's own hit test finds the page. The dot is drawn 0.6 m
out, in front of the page, and the laser-catching dot sits 8 m out,
invisible, with SteamVR's hit dot hidden on it. The beam and SteamVR's hit
dot show there, like a controller's; everywhere else nothing changes.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The Frame controllers aren't input devices on the host, so the pointer
helper reads them with SteamVR input (vrbuttons.h, actions/), one action
set per button, and sends presses to the relay, which does the mapped
action like for a mouse button. Only mapped buttons are taken, at an
overlay-global priority (SteamVR's experimental "Enable global input from
overlays"), and only outside games unless In games is on. Frametop Input
Settings gets a Controllers page to map them.
Gaze mode: a left press while the gaze has the pointer isn't sent at
once. The pointer stops, you drag it onto what you meant with the button
held, and the release clicks there; a press held still for
POINTER_GAZE_HOLD (0.5 s) becomes a real press, for drags. The dot shows
only while the mouse moves it (POINTER_GAZE_SHOW), while a press is held,
and as a pulse per click. Outside games the pointer stays on while gaze
mode is on. ft-gazed takes a third of each lesson's offset instead of all
of it: in the first live test one 6 degree lesson moved everything and put
the next target 7 degrees off. Frametop Input Settings gets a Gaze page.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
MAGIC pointing (Zhai et al. 1999), off by default: with POINTER_GAZE=1,
"gaze on", or a button mapped to the new gaze_toggle action, the cursor ray
is the corrected gaze from ft-gazed while the gaze has the pointer. Moving
the mouse takes the pointer from where the gaze left it; looking more than
POINTER_GAZE_RETAKE (5 deg) away with the mouse still gives it back. The
pointer is aimed at the gaze, never steered toward it, and only fresh gaze
moves it, so a stopped service or a blink leaves it where it is. A mouse
nudge of up to POINTER_GAZE_NUDGE_MAX (8 deg) before a click is sent to
ft-gazed as a lesson in the eye tracker's error.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
It works but is only lightly tested, and what's left is mostly tuning its
settings. Frametop Input Settings now says so under the Head follow switch,
and the README, design notes, and button action name say it too.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Easing the reference toward the head all the time moved the cursor on
every small head movement, so a cursor parked in a corner of the view
drifted. Now nothing moves while the head stays within the leash. Once
the head has been past it for POINTER_LEASH_DELAY (0.2 s, so a glance
out and back doesn't count), the reference eases all the way to where
you face (POINTER_LEASH_RETURN) and the cursor lands back in its place
in the view, then the leash waits again. Leaning inside the leash no
longer moves the cursor either. Leash 0 stays head-locked.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The leash only moved its reference when the head reached the leash's end,
so after turning back it sat up to the leash off, and recentring meant
overshooting with the head. The reference now eases toward the head's
facing (POINTER_LEASH_RETURN, 0.2 s) and never lags more than the leash,
so the cursor settles back to its place in the view once the head stops.
The mouse can now move the cursor up to POINTER_FOLLOW_REACH (70 degrees)
from the middle of the view, up from a fixed 40. Both are sliders on the
Pointer page.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
