A fresh install that chose our tracker (the installer's default since 12ad93d) could never
calibrate it, so gaze mode never worked. ft-eyes maps pupils to a gaze only once it has a
calibration, so before its first one ft-gaze's "own" source is empty. ft-gazed then never
counted a sample, Checks.can_run() stayed false, and the calibration refused to open: "Not
calibrated, and the calibration can't open: the eye tracker isn't sending", or "the headset is
off or the tracker isn't sending" from Calibrate. This Frame never hit it, because its
calibration came from the gaze probe. Reported 2026-10-05 on SteamOS stable.
- With our tracker in use, running, and uncalibrated ("blind"), SteamVR's tracker seeing an
eye is enough to open the full calibration (ft-eyes answering is what makes calibrated()
False rather than None).
- Each dot stands in for the gaze, so a click takes the CHECK_WINDOW up to it. ft-eyes already
checks, in calib-point, that each pupil was seen in enough frames and held still then, and
its reason for a refused dot shows in the panel's note as before.
- A quick or five-dot check is refused until then ("use Calibrate"): ours can't take a click
without a calibration.
- With no eyes seen, the reason given is that, not "the eye tracker isn't sending".
gaze/test/first-calibration-test.py runs the service against a fake ft-gaze, ft-eyes and
pointer helper, in a temp HOME: the calibration opens by itself when gaze mode comes on, each
click sends ft-eyes the 0.6 s before it, a refused dot's reason reaches the panel, and
calib-fit leaves the tracker calibrated with gaze mode still on. It passes here and fails on
the previous code. gaze/test/idle-test.py still passes. Not yet tested in the headset.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
