protonscr

Launching -steamos3 makes bluetooth mouse to lose connection

steamopen Distro Family: Arch
ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux#13235 · opened 2026-05-21 by FurtadoPires · updated 2026-05-22 · 3 comments · github
FFurtadoPires 2026-05-21 github

System information

  • Steam client version: 1779155395
  • Distribution: Cachyos (Arch Linux)
  • Opted into Steam client beta?: Yes
  • Have you checked for system updates?: Yes
  • GPU: AMD

I'm using a Bluetooth mouse (specifically a Logitech M350s) in a KDE Wayland session, if I try to launch steam in the terminal using steam -steamos3 then my mouse will instantly lost connection to the Bluetooth dongle. My keyboard (Logitech k270) which has wireless connection through a dedicated receptor wasn't affected.

Restarting makes it work again, but it will happen every time I use the -steamos3 parameter.

Steps for reproducing this issue:

  1. Use a mouse connected to a bluetooth, don't use models with a dedicated receptor
  2. Open the terminal and run the client using steam -steamos3
  3. Check if the bluetooth mouse is still responding
Llostgoat 2026-05-21 github

@FurtadoPires the -steamo3 flag means, "I am running on SteamOS and I'd like steam to control some of my system settings".

In this case what is probably happening is that steam is turning off bluetooth when it starts with that flag. As that is the SteamOS default. You can go to the Settings->Bluetooth panel and turn on Bluetooth. And that way Steam will know you want to keep BT on.

FFurtadoPires 2026-05-21 github

the -steamo3 flag means, "I am running on SteamOS and I'd like steam to control some of my system settings".

Yes I'm aware of that and I'm doing it only for test purposes. Even so, this parameter shouldn’t break things in the user side, specially something not related to the client itself.

Let's say I only have Bluetooth’s mouse and keyboard, then running this would lock me from having any kind of input in my system.

RRLB2310 2026-05-22 github

That flag always resets bluetooth for me.

I have a wrapper script for whenever my controller connects to my system. Adding a null path to "DBUS_SYSTEM_BUS_ADDRESS" causes Steam to not toggle bluetooth. I am unaware of any other side effects.

export DBUS_SYSTEM_BUS_ADDRESS="unix:path=/dev/null"

Nothing extracted yet.