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How do you calibrate controller deadzones? (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 7 months ago by to c/linux_gaming@lemmy.world
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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

  1. Type: Anecdote (Screenshot). Accessed: 2026-03-24T23:10Z. Location: "KDE System Settings">"Game Controller". Author: Meta

    • All input methods are at rest.
    1. Type: Text.

      Device type: Game Controller

      Xbox 360

  2. 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. […]

all 16 comments

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[–] 5 points 7 months ago (1 child)

I’m unfortunately of no help, but I love your use of references. ^[1]^

References[1] :3

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    • [–] 4 points 7 months ago (2 children)

    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.

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 child)

    […] 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

    1. Type: Anecdote.
    2. 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"].
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  • [–] 1 point 7 months ago

    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.

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    • [–] 2 points 7 months ago (3 children)

    What distro are you on? Make sure the kcm-joystick package is installed for KDE.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

    What distro are you on? […]

    Arch Linux ^[1]^.

    References

    1. Type: Anecdote. Accessed: 2026-03-26T00:33Z.
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  • [–] [S] 2 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    […] Make sure the kcm-joystick package is installed for KDE.

    On Arch Linux ^[1]^, that package doesn't appear to exist ^[2]^.

    References

    1. 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.
    2. Type: Webpage. Title: "Package Search". Publisher: "Arch Linux". Accessed: 2026-03-25T00:19Z. URI: https://archlinux.org/packages/?sort=&q=kcm-joystick&maintainer=&flagged=.
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    • [–] 2 points 7 months ago

    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.

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    [–] 1 point 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 child)

    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?

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    • [–] 1 point 7 months ago* (3 children)

    What I usually do is increase deadzone until joystick no longer registers inputs while centered. And then move them around a bit and check to make sure that they return to 0,0 when let go of every time.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 7 months ago (2 children)

    What tool do you use to accomplish that?

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