diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index a377abc..e2db1ae 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -50,7 +50,49 @@ find_package(Qt6 ${QT_MIN_VERSION} REQUIRED COMPONENTS
     Sql
 )
 
-find_package(Qt6 ${QT_MIN_VERSION} QUIET COMPONENTS Gamepad)
+set(ALAKARTE_SDL3_SOURCE_DIR "" CACHE PATH "Path to an SDL3 source tree to build instead of using the system SDL3 package")
+
+if (ALAKARTE_SDL3_SOURCE_DIR)
+    if (EXISTS "${ALAKARTE_SDL3_SOURCE_DIR}/CMakeLists.txt")
+        set(SDL_TESTS OFF CACHE BOOL "" FORCE)
+        set(SDL_TEST_LIBRARY OFF CACHE BOOL "" FORCE)
+        set(SDL_DISABLE_INSTALL ON CACHE BOOL "" FORCE)
+        set(SDL_SHARED OFF CACHE BOOL "" FORCE)
+        set(SDL_STATIC ON CACHE BOOL "" FORCE)
+        set(SDL_X11_XSCRNSAVER OFF CACHE BOOL "" FORCE)
+
+        add_subdirectory("${ALAKARTE_SDL3_SOURCE_DIR}" third_party/SDL-build EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL)
+
+        # SDL built from source is treated as a third-party dependency. Silence its
+        # warnings so they don't drown out warnings from A-La-Karte itself.
+        foreach(_alakarte_sdl_target IN ITEMS SDL3-static SDL3-static_a SDL3-shared SDL_uclibc)
+            if (TARGET ${_alakarte_sdl_target})
+                target_compile_options(${_alakarte_sdl_target} PRIVATE
+                    $<$<COMPILE_LANG_AND_ID:C,GNU,Clang,AppleClang>:-w>
+                    $<$<COMPILE_LANG_AND_ID:CXX,GNU,Clang,AppleClang>:-w>
+                    $<$<COMPILE_LANG_AND_ID:C,MSVC>:/w>
+                    $<$<COMPILE_LANG_AND_ID:CXX,MSVC>:/w>
+                )
+            endif()
+        endforeach()
+    else()
+        message(FATAL_ERROR "ALAKARTE_SDL3_SOURCE_DIR does not contain a CMakeLists.txt: ${ALAKARTE_SDL3_SOURCE_DIR}")
+    endif()
+else()
+    find_package(SDL3 REQUIRED)
+endif()
+
+if (NOT TARGET SDL3::SDL3)
+    if (TARGET SDL3::SDL3-static)
+        add_library(SDL3::SDL3 ALIAS SDL3::SDL3-static)
+    elseif (TARGET SDL3::SDL3-shared)
+        add_library(SDL3::SDL3 ALIAS SDL3::SDL3-shared)
+    elseif (TARGET SDL3::SDL3::SDL3)
+        add_library(SDL3::SDL3 ALIAS SDL3::SDL3::SDL3)
+    else()
+        message(FATAL_ERROR "SDL3 was found/built, but no usable CMake target was provided (expected SDL3::SDL3 or a compatible variant)")
+    endif()
+endif()
 
 find_package(KF6 ${KF_MIN_VERSION} REQUIRED COMPONENTS
     Kirigami
diff --git a/src/CMakeLists.txt b/src/CMakeLists.txt
index 18acc6d..107a940 100644
--- a/src/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/src/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@ target_link_libraries(alakarte PRIVATE
     Qt6::Concurrent
     Qt6::DBus
     Qt6::Svg
+    SDL3::SDL3
     KF6::Kirigami
     KF6::I18n
     KF6::CoreAddons
@@ -53,11 +54,6 @@ target_link_libraries(alakarte PRIVATE
     KF6::WindowSystem
 )
 
-if (TARGET Qt6::Gamepad)
-    target_link_libraries(alakarte PRIVATE Qt6::Gamepad)
-    target_compile_definitions(alakarte PRIVATE ALAKARTE_HAVE_QT_GAMEPAD=1)
-endif()
-
 ecm_add_qml_module(alakarte URI org.kde.alakarte
     VERSION 1.0
     QML_FILES