Mouse unusable/unresponsive when Steam is running in Gamescope after latest beta update

steamopen Window managerDistro Family: Arch

ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux#13296 · opened 2026-06-05 by AQDuck97 · updated 2026-08-12 · 3 comments · github

AAQDuck97 2026-06-05 github

Your system information

Steam client version (build number or date): 5th June 2026
Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): CachyOS
Opted into Steam client beta?: Yes
Have you checked for system updates?: No
Steam Logs: Included tarball
GPU: AMD

Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:

Mouse is not recognized in latest Steam Beta if running in Gamescope.
I run Steam in Gamescope to simplify the experience in Hyprland as some games selects the wrong monitor for resolution options, etc. etc.
To do this I use this script I made:

#!/bin/env bash

width=2560
height=1440

gamescope -w $width -h $height -W $width -H $height --expose-wayland --backend=wayland --adaptive-sync -efr 144 -- steam

Before updating the client to the latest beta (as of June 5th 2026, 21:00 UTC), the mouse worked great in Steam whilst running in Gamescope, but after the update it's completely unresponsive.

This is unrelated to a similar bug causing the steam controller trackpad's mouse (v1 and v2) to be invisible. This is visible but won't let you click/hover anything.

After going back to stable (and restarting it) the issue was fixed. I have not updated Gamescope or any other system package, the issue appeared once I updated the beta client itself.

Expected behaviour: Mouse should appear as normal and click/hover over items
I have only tried in BPM as it tends to crash if I launch it in normal mode in Gamescope.

Steps for reproducing this issue:

Update to latest Steam beta client
Set it to launch directly to BPM
Launch Steam using Gamescope (example in script above)

steam-logs.tar.gz

AAQDuck97 2026-06-24 github

Update on this issue: It is present in the latest stable release now (June 24 build).

It's specifically the Steam client that has this issue in BPM when in Gamescope. Games launched in the same gamescope window works great with mouse and keyboard.

AAQDuck97 2026-07-03 github

Another update: I FOUND THE CAUSE OF THE BUG!
If a game controller is plugged in (or in Steam Controller's case, only the puck needs to be plugged in), mouse cursor will be unresponsive until you restart Steam without any controller plugged in.
Plugging Turning it on at any time during the session breaks it for the rest of the session.
I've tried with both Steam Controllers (2015 and 2026) and an 8BitDo Ultimate and got the same result with each of them (with the exception that the new SC did not need to be turned on, just "docked" with the puck was enough).

AAQDuck97 2026-08-12 github

Update 3: The overlay no longer works in games. I can hear it open when I hit the Steam or QAM button and I lose control of the game, but I can't see it and can't hear any items being selected when I move the stick/d-pad. I can close it again but need to do a button chord mouse click to refocus the game.

I also tried Beta client again to check an unrelated thing, but when I try to launch a game here I also don't get any controller input in games (at all).

Nothing extracted yet.