protonscr

Steam interface can be used whilst lock screen active

steamopen Big PictureWindow managerDistro Family: Fedora
ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux#13144 · opened 2026-05-02 by Sector14 · updated 2026-05-02 · 0 comments · github
SSector14 2026-05-02 github

Your system information

Steam Beta Branch: Stable Client
Steam Version: 1777411435
Steam Client Build Date: Tue, Apr 28, 2026 21:40 UTC -08:00
Steam Web Build Date: Tue, Apr 28, 2026 22:14 UTC -08:00
Steam API Version: SteamClient023

Distribution: Fedora 44/Cosmic Spin
GPU: AMD R9700

Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:

Running steam with gamescope direct into big picture (as shown here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Steam#Big_Picture_Mode_from_a_display_manager):

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Steam Big Picture Mode
Comment=Start Steam in Big Picture Mode
Exec=/usr/bin/gamescope -e --expose-wayland --display-index 0 -w 1920 -h 1080 -r 60 -o 60 -f -- /usr/bin/steam -tenfoot -steamos3
Type=Application

as this was the only way to get a usable experience under fedora/cosmic with wayland. Otherwise issues with opening on wrong monitor, overlay too slow to be usable unless hardware rendering turned off, then overlay was fine but BP was unusably slow. Plus games would exit and BP would be in a small window rather than full screen requiring exiting BP and re-entering. Gamescope solves all those, however...

If you use the suspend option from bigpicture, the system will sleep. Pressing to steam controller button will then wake the system to the lock screen (as cosmic do not yet have an option to not auto lock on suspend).

If you then turn the steam controller off and back on again, you can hear the sound of the big picture ui navigation happening despite the lock screen being visible. Input is getting through to steam to the point I was able to successfully launch games without unlocking my session.

I would expect steam to ignore mouse/keyboard/controller input whilst a session is locked. Although whether this issue is a steam one, gamescope, wayland or cosmic I don't know. Maybe running steam via gamescope to avoid having to add gamescope to every games launch command is an unsupported config? Regardless if a session has been locked but input can still pass through to a running application it seems like a problem, whichever application is responsible.

Steps for reproducing this issue:

  1. Launch big picture (I used gamescope not sure if that's required to cause the issue or not)
  2. Suspend PC from big picture
  3. Press steam controller guide to wake PC (or power on pc to wake)
  4. hold guide button to turn off controller (as input at this stage doesn't seem to pass through)
  5. turn on steam controller again
  6. press guide button a few times or navigate to hear ui audio. Memorise the right sequence and you can launch games.

Nothing extracted yet.