I recently bought a Steam Deck and I have a lapdock on the way, intending to use the Deck as a dual-purpose gaming handheld and laptop replacement. So on that front, I was wondering what more experienced users could tell me about using it.

I did read through the official FAQ, and a few questions pop up. In no particular order:

  1. Is there a way to boot the Steam Deck directly into desktop mode, without going through the Steam environment first? (Strictly as a time saver)
  2. In practice, how well does sudo steamos-readonly disable and installing things from pacman work out for you? In particular, I want to use PWAs For Firefox and it requires this package in order to work. Do packages actually get wiped with SteamOS updates, as the FAQ warns?
  3. Is it possible to re-enable the read-only filesystem after installing a package, to safeguard it from accidental changes?
  4. Any other tips, tricks or warnings you’d like to share.
  • Telorand@reddthat.com
    11·
    12 days ago
    1. Yes, kinda. This apparently breaks your ability to easily switch back to game mode, but you can still get back there by running the second command below and rebooting.

    to boot into desktop mode by default

    steamos-session-select plasma-persistent

    to boot into gaming mode by default (and to fix inability to go back to gaming mode from desktop)

    steamos-session-select gamescope

    1. It will last until each update. Updates happen via an A/B partition switch, so the other partition gets updated, then that one becomes the default for booting (both still technically boot, but the original image will be behind).

    2. If you mean accidental changes by you, then it would be steamos-readonly enable. Note that changes happen via a persistent OverlayFS. Re-enabling might remove that overlay and your changes. Test with something easy to see if it persists. Note point 2 about permanence.

    3. Don’t bother messing with the system files if possible. Try to use an AppImage or Flatpak instead, as they exist in userspace and will persist over updates. The issue is that it’s the core system files that are written to a new image each update, not your home directory. Your home directory and settings will persist.

    If you want something modifiable but still atomic, Bazzite is a good option. You can apply rpm packages via layering, and you can install packages from other package managers via distrobox. You’ll still have the safety of images as restore points. If you want a more traditional Linux experience, though, look into something like CachyOS.

    • NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.deOP
      5·
      12 days ago

      Thanks, awesome answers all around!

      Regarding another distro, I do use CachyOS on my desktop so that’s definitely an option, but for the time being I want to give SteamOS a fair shot before I go and install a different OS on it. There’s every chance I’ll cave and install CachyOS within a month or two.

      Don’t bother messing with the system files if possible. Try to use an AppImage or Flatpak instead, […]

      Yes, definitely; I was going to do that anyway. There are only a few corner-cases, like the PWAs For Firefox that I linked in the OP, where this isn’t possible or might require a lot more fiddling than I prefer. But in almost all cases, I can work with Flatpaks, AppImages, or through a web browser.

      Thanks for answering, I was honestly not sure I’d get much good info here but you proved me dead wrong :)

      • Telorand@reddthat.com
        2·
        11 days ago

        Good luck! Incidentally, if you do end up going to CachyOS, I like webapp-manager for PWAs; should be in the extra arch repos. I’ve tried a few flatpaks for creating the necessary shortcuts, and I haven’t found one that felt quite as nice. Do go try some, though, because maybe there’s one that works better for you!

          • Telorand@reddthat.com
            3·
            11 days ago

            Someone said that Distrobox is installed by default, so I’m wondering if you could install Firefox via distrobox and also install PWAsForFirefox to that app in the same container.

        • NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.deOP
          2·
          11 days ago

          I use it on Linux Mint, the biggest issue I have with it is external links:

          https://github.com/linuxmint/webapp-manager#how-to-open-links-in-my-main-browser

          How to open links in my main browser?

          For Firefox, all links are always opened within the WebApp, either directly or using a new tab. To open a link in your main browser, right-click anywhere, select Copy link location and paste the link in your main browser.

          Really annoying. PWAs For Firefox fixes it, you just gotta change a setting.

    • smeg@feddit.ukEnglish
      2·
      11 days ago

      Can’t you just use distrobox directly on steamos to save changing os?

      • Telorand@reddthat.com
        1·
        11 days ago

        Dunno, honestly. If it’s not preinstalled as part of the base image, it would be subject to the same removal issues as other packages.

        • smeg@feddit.ukEnglish
          2·
          11 days ago

          Yeah looks like it’s installed by default. Can’t find an official announcement/changelog but according to an unsourced reddit thread it’s been there since steamos 3.5.