Difference between revisions of "Steam Deck"

Latest revision as of 19:45, 5 January 2025

The Steam Deck is a handheld gaming computer produced by Valve Corporation, designed to run the large library of games available on the Steam storefront client. It is a handheld portable gaming device that can also function as a game console, and desktop PC.

Review

There has never been a portable game device that is capable of so much and utilizing an efficient operating system on the back-end. The Steam Deck incorporates the most cutting edge innovation in operating system emulation allowing for the use of OS specific games to function without the nasty specific OS itself, rather, substituting an efficient and adaptable alternative that does not drive up the cost of the product.

When looking for a handheld gaming device that you can simply pick up, power on, and get to playing games, the Steam Deck will fulfill your needs as well as any competitor. Aside from that, the Steam Deck can use an adapter or external dock to expand it into a full gaming console, which is not necessarily unique, however, less common as some other handheld gaming units can't do this.

What really sets the Steam Deck apart, is that beyond being a handheld or console gaming device, it is also a full gaming PC allowing the user to play computer games that are not available for a console. Any PC computer game on Steam that signified by SteamOS will function on the Steam Deck, while many Windows only games are also playable. This sets the Steam Deck apart from using a Linux PC with SteamOS, in that the Steam Deck will allow more gaming options than the PC.

When adding a docking station you increase your gaming possibilities because those games that are not verified to work on the Steam Deck due to controller or interface issues, will work fine as the docking station expands input devices allowing you to attach a keyboard and mouse. The Dock Station can be an official Steam product or a 3rd party docking station such as the UGREEN station. There are also basic adapters that offer the same expansion capabilities.

Critics may include some polish work that needs to be done on the operating system as there are bugs. Also, there are still going to be Microsoft Windows only games that will not work on the Steam Deck, even with the latest Proton compatibility tool. In response to those criticisms it should be pointed out that all game devices have their share of bugs. The Sony Playstation, for example, an excellent game console and perhaps best on the market in that category, is still plagued by some bugs and will crash during game play.

Setting realistic market expectations for the technology and price, you will not beat the Valve Steam Deck as an all around gaming system offering an unbeatable level of flexibility. It is well built, the hardware is very serviceable, and Valve is known to offer full support with representatives that are both patient and willing to put in the effort to resolve your issue. The Steam Deck really does offer something for everyone.

Operating System

The Steam Deck Operating System, SteamOS for the Steam Deck, is an Arch-based distribution of Linux. The Steam deck, unlike other commercial game units, is completely unlocked and by design has full Linux driver compatibility, it can easily be used as an all-purpose handheld PC with Arch Linux.

An Article on the Arch Linux web site discusses replacing SteamOS/Arch with plain Arch Linux. The article indicates that while Steam Deck SteamOS is an Arch-based distribution, it has several packages that differ from the official repositories, and is not supported by the Arch Linux community.

Differences Between SteamOS Arch and Official Arch

Official / Plain / Vanilla Arch Linux differs from SteamOS Arch Linux in several ways. Here are some of those differences.

Pacman is the command line-based package manager that comes with Arch Linux. SteamOS doesn't allow software changes from the terminal using the 'pacman' command to install as the error produced will complain about a read only file system. You will be able to use the command to view installed packages and some other things, but not to install packages. It is possible to change the read-only file system to writable in order to use pacman. The software will not remain after Valve pushes an update to the Steam Deck OS version. The The Arch User Repository is also not available on the Steam Deck OS by default as it is not writable.

According to Valve's Steam Deck FAQ, the company distributes SteamOS as a read-only Operating System. When a software update for the Steam Deck is released by Valve, it replaces the entire operating system on the Steam Deck with the latest image. So any customization using pacman or otherwise to the operating system, including some of those discussed here (like disabling KDE Wallet) will have to be re-done after the update.

SteamOS is not meant to be a completely open and customizable system because that introduces too many complications for user support. It requires some minor hacking to enable certain customization. Although SteamOS was made with Arch Linux, it is not as open and customizable. SteamOS, if treated as a Linux distribution and compared against the others would be considered the most restrictive. This is why some users have decided to replace SteamOS with an alternative such as the official Arch linux release. Do not consider doing this if you are primarily interested in using your Steam Deck for gaming. You will find it is possible to do enough customization with SteamOS and redo it after an update. However, if you're a competent and confident experienced Linux user you will think of the Steam Deck as any other PC and have no trouble changing the OS or going back to SteamOS at will.

Usage Tips

set a password for the default deck user

This is very important as you will need to know this password for troubleshooting problems that might arise in the future.

By default, there is no password for the "deck" user which means that sudo (root) is not available.

command shell from game menu aka CLI

Control+Alt+5 while in big picture mode will give you a command shell.

username: deck
password: (?)

firmware, bios, and other boot menus

These are special key combinations. They will be summarized and then expanded upon.

• Hold down Volume Up and press the Power button to access the UEFI settings,
• Hold down Volume Down and press the Power button to access the UEFI boot menu (called "Boot Manager" in Valve's documentation),
• Hold down ⋯ ("Three Dots" button under the right touchpad) and press the Power button to access Valve's bootloader menu,
• Hold down Volume Down+Power+⋯ ("Three Dots" button under the right touchpad) to reset the UEFI settings to their defaults (keep the two buttons other than Power held after the first blink of the LED: the LED will blink during the operation and stop once done, then release the buttons).

firmware boot menu

Hold [...] button (the one with three dots on the front of the deck) and while holding it, press and hold POWER button, wait for the sound, release ONLY the POWER button until the menu appears and release [...] to boot into

bios boot menu

Hold - (the volume down button) and press and hold POWER. The procedure follows the same as the firmware menu procedure.

boot option menu

Hold + (the volume up button) and press and hold POWER. The procedure follows the same as the firmware menu procedure.

install ssh server

It should be installed by default. If not you can install it:

sudo pacman -S openssh

Tell the steamdeck to enable the ssh server when it boots.

sudo systemctl enable sshd

You can manually start the ssh server with the following:

sudo systemctl start sshd

This is Debian Linux basics; applies to the Steam Deck. Linux.

OS Package Management

The command line package management tool for the Steam Deck is "pacman".

To see what packages are installed type:

sudo pacman -Q

The system is read only for the partition where operating system packages are stored. This means that pacman will not be able to install packages unless you make a modification to change the partition to writable.

If you do want to make edits to the read-only image, you can do that with a single command:

sudo steamos-readonly disable

Steam Deck BIOS

TPM aka Trust Platform Module

TPM has been added to Steam Deck BIOS. It is in the bios under:

Advanced -> Peripheral Configuration

Mentioned on Steam: Enable Secure Boot for games with kernel level Cheats on Windows like Fifa or Valorant

This feature is only needed if you want to try to put Windows 11 on your Steam Deck which is neither supported nor advisable. Leave the feature disabled.

IOMMU

The I/O memory management unit (IOMMU) is a type of memory management unit (MMU) that connects a Direct Memory Access (DMA) capable expansion bus to the main memory. IOMMU is a generic name for technologies such as VT-d by Intel, AMD-Vi by AMD, TCE by IBM and SMMU by ARM. To take advantage of it IOMMU has to be initiated by UEFI/BIOS and information about it has to be passed to the kernel.

To check on the Steam Deck go to the CLI and type

sudo dmesg | grep -i -e DMAR -e IOMMU

This is mostly useful for virtualization such as virtual machines, using software like virtualbox. You can disable it on your Steam Deck.

Troubleshooting

Steam Deck Black Screen After switching to desktop

aka: Steam deck blackscreen switching to desktop

USB Keyboard required. or try "Steam" button + X to bring up the virtual keyboard

1. Go to the command shell (instructions on this page) and login.
2. rm -rf ~/.local/share/kscreen/*
3. CTL-ALT-F1 to go back to Big Picture Mode and then try to switch to desktop.

steam deck not recognizing external monitor

THIS IS AN OPEN ISSUE / UNRESOLVED PROBLEM - because a common factor, the HDMI communication protocol including CEC, is likely at the root of the issue and under different scenarios ( TV, Monitor, cable, adapter, dock ) it may require a different workaround.

One potential culprit might be related to HDMI-CEC on the Steam Deck.

• For all of the people on forums suggestion "Turn off CEC" they are not referring to a setting on the Steam Deck, rather it is in the TV, which is not helpful for people using LCD monitors that do not support CEC or CEC configuration options.

On an installation example which HDMI to a Steam Deck dock, the TV would not display, and Display Configuration on the Steam Deck would not show 2 monitors until the monitor MODE was toggled though all the inputs and back to HDMI. In this case the cable was HDMI on both ends.

On another example connecting a D-PORT monitor to a 3-rd party dock with an HDMI to D-PORT cable, the Monitor was not detected.

If you are using an HDMI to D-PORT or D-PORT to HDMI depending on your dock and display, you may experience problems as the adapter (the cable itself has an adapter built in) is not pasing CEC or some other necessary part of the protocol. In the example where the user has a 3rd party dock with HDMI and attempting to connect to a monitor with D-PORT, it simply would not work. The same monitor had an old VGA connection, and using an HDMI to VGA adapter cable did work.

Suggestion: If you have to use an HDMI to D-PORT adapter try to find one that blocks CEC. (not guaranteed to work)

In desktop mode you want to have your display properties open when you connect the external display. This way you have a clear visual indication of detection. The display properties will show either one or two monitors. If you only see the one display in the properties dialog then your external monitor is not being detected.

reset the graphics APU/driver

With the deck off (not sleep) press and hold the Volume down button (Vol-) & quick access button [...] then press power. When you hear it chirp let go of only the power button and wait till you see the Steam logo, then let go of the other two buttons. It will take some duration to boot so be patient. You will see the Steam logo for several minutes. This will reset the graphics APU/driver.

The application 'kded5' has requested to open the wallet

A dialog box appears:

The KDE Wallet System
The application 'kded5' has requested to create a new wallet named 'kdewallet'.  This is used 
to store sensitive data in a secure fashion.  Please choose the new wallet's type below or 
click cancel to deny the application requet.
[ ] classic blowfish encrypted file
[*] Use GPG encryption, for better protection

Followed by:

Seems that your system has no keys suitable for encryption.  Please set-up at least one encryption key, then try again.

It would be nice to remove annoyances like this however KDE Wallet is a core part of KDE, it's in the package kdebase-runtime.

Disable KDE Wallet System:

Drop to command shell (howto mentioned elsewhere on this page) and type the following:

sudo nano ~/.config/kwalletrc

Then enter the following

[Wallet]
Enabled=false

Control-o to save the file (write out)

Control-x to exit

Then restart the system.