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>
The session now turns KWin's blur and contrast effects off by id (blurEnabled and
contrastEnabled in the desktop's kwinrc), and a KWin that renamed them would quietly
leave them on. The check looks for their built-in factories (KWin::blur_factory,
KWin::contrast_factory) in kwin_wayland, which it already reads for --output-count,
and warns if one is gone. The kwin and plasma-workspace retest hints gain the blur and
the hidden autostart entries.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
vrserver sends a controller's state only when something on it changes, and one lying still
or asleep may not even send its first one. The check subscribed to one controller and failed
after 3 s of silence. It now subscribes to all, and silence after a good handshake is a skip.
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>
steam/ft-steam menu opens the SteamVR dashboard on Steam's menu, or closes
the dashboard if it's up, without pointer mode: it asks Steam's UI over its
debugging port to show its dashboard overlay (ShowVROverlay, what Steam
calls itself) and focus the Steam frame's left menu (MenuStore.OpenMainMenu).
ft-steam check says whether those calls still exist, and update-check.py
runs it, since a Steam client update can rename them.
The CDP client moves from display-settings/steam_settings.py to
steam/steamui.py, so both use it.
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>
