I have a wired Xbox 360 controller [1.1] that has some drift in both analog sticks [1]. I would like to calibrate the deadzones [2] to fix this issue. How do you recommend doing this? I didn’t see any controller calibration option in the KDE Plasma controller settings [1].
References
- Type: Anecdote (Screenshot). Accessed: 2026-03-24T23:10Z. Location: “KDE System Settings”>“Game Controller”. Author: Meta
- All input methods are at rest.
- Type: Text.
Device type: Game Controller
Xbox 360
- Type: Text. Publisher: [Type: Webpage. Title: “Understanding Controller Deadzones”. Publisher: “Elevation IT”. URI: https://www.elevationit.uk/understanding-controller-deadzones/.]. Accessed: 2026-03-24T23:20Z. Location: §“What is a Deadzone?”.>¶1.
A deadzone is the small range of joystick movement that a controller or game ignores. It prevents unintended movement, such as stick drift, from affecting gameplay. […]
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Since you haven’t mentioned it, are there any specific games you’re running into issues with? If so, are these Steam/Proton games, Wine games, native titles, or emulated games?
How do you calibrate controller deadzones?
Personally, I went with the hardware fix route for dealing with stick drift rather than the software approach of aiming to filter it out, and got a controller with Hall effect thumbsticks.
I’m unfortunately of no help, but I love your use of references. [1]
References
[1] :3
[…] I love your use of references.
Thank you! 😘
The Arch wiki has a lot of good info on this:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Gamepad#Setting_up_deadzones_and_calibration
I would start with section 2.2.3: Joystick API deadzones and calibration, because the joystick API is the lowest common denominator for this stuff.
I would start with section 2.2.3: Joystick API deadzones and calibration, because the joystick API is the lowest common denominator for this stuff.
Most games don’t use the Joystick API any more (
/dev/input/js*), but rather the evdev API (dev/input/event*) which is dealt with further down on that page.I don’t even have the js devices on my system these days.
For Steam games (and non-Steam games launched through Steam), you can use Steam’s controller settings to expand the dead zones. Not the most universal solution, though.
[…] you can use Steam’s controller settings to expand the dead zones. […]
I tried this, but I can’t get it to work: to use steam’s deadzone control, I need to enable Steam Input [2], but when I do that, my controller no longer works in games [1].
References
- Type: Anecdote.
- Type: Post. Title: “PSA: Valve added deadzones to every Steam Input controller with a Client update and it’s messing up racing/fps games. Here’s how to fix.”. Author: “ManlySyrup”. Published: 2024-05-18T20:15:35.382Z. Accessed: 2026-03-25T00:31Z. URI: https://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/1cv67af/psa_valve_added_deadzones_to_every_steam_input/. Publisher: [“r/Steam”<“Reddit”].
There are few Steam games I’ve seen that do use gamepads but don’t support Steam Input. Not saying that they don’t exist, but I’d be kind of inclined to suggest playing around with the global Steam Input settings if your gamepad isn’t working with any titles via Steam Input.
What distro are you on? Make sure the kcm-joystick package is installed for KDE.
[…] Make sure the kcm-joystick package is installed for KDE.
On Arch Linux [1], that package doesn’t appear to exist [2].
References
- Type: Comment. Author: “Kalcifer” (“@Kalcifer@sh.itjust.works”). Publisher: [Type: Post. Title: “How do you calibrate controller deadzones?”. Author: “Kalcifer” (“@Kalcifer@sh.itjust.works”). Published: 2026-03-24T23:22:09Z. URI: https://sh.itjust.works/post/57363826. Publisher: [“Linux Gaming” (“!linux_gaming@lemmy.world”)<“sh.itjust.works”<“Lemmy”]]. Published: 2026-03-25T00:13:17Z. URI: https://sh.itjust.works/post/57363826/24475751.
- Type: Webpage. Title: “Package Search”. Publisher: “Arch Linux”. Accessed: 2026-03-25T00:19Z. URI: https://archlinux.org/packages/?sort=&q=kcm-joystick&maintainer=&flagged=.
What distro are you on? […]
Arch Linux [1].
References
- Type: Anecdote. Accessed: 2026-03-26T00:33Z.
