Can moderators can sticky/pin posts here? If so this probably should be stickied/pinned/whatever the fuck you call it here.
this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2023
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Steam Deck
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A place to discuss and support all things Steam Deck.
Replacement for r/steamdeck_linux.
As Lemmy doesn't have flairs yet, you can use these prefixes to indicate what type of post you have made, eg:
[Flair] My post title
The following is a list of suggested flairs:
[Discussion] - General discussion.
[Help] - A request for help or support.
[News] - News about the deck.
[PSA] - Sharing important information.
[Game] - News / info about a game on the deck.
[Update] - An update to a previous post.
[Meta] - Discussion about this community.
Some more Steam Deck specific flairs:
[Boot Screen] - Custom boot screens/videos.
[Selling] - If you are selling your deck.
These are not enforced, but they are encouraged.
Rules:
- Follow the rules of Sopuli
- Posts must be related to the Steam Deck in an obvious way.
- No piracy, there are other communities for that.
- Discussion of emulators are allowed, but no discussion on how to illegally acquire ROMs.
- This is a place of civil discussion, no trolling.
- Have fun.
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I think it's called featuring. Yep, it has been featured.
I'll bring this up to the others.
It might be a good idea to remove r/steamdeck_linux from the list. I restricted that subreddit a while ago, and this community serves as it's replacement.
I don't know, it seems you disabled new posts, but there might still be good information that is readable there?
yeah i suppose, fair enough
Great list, but remove Crankshaft. It's basically dead now, and pretty much everything it could do is now possible in Decky, including video capture.
I added a disclaimer. Might still be useful for historical purposes, or when the project becomes alive again, as open source project sometimes do.
Should at least change the link to the GitHub repo then, as the site is dead and the domain could be picked up by somebody malicious.
You're right. I changed it.
If anything, this highlighted for me how hard it still is to edit large posts on Lemmy! Also, I went to another instance multiple times without realizing it after I clicked "Show context", which made it impossible for me to edit the post, because I was on a different instance!
This will take some getting used to and/or fixing!
Yeah. Even for Reddit, Discord, and now Lemmy, for long posts I usually draft them in a separate text editor first, preferably one with markdown code highlighting and autosaving. Saves me a lot of pain. Then I just copy and paste.
I used to do that sometimes. But I guess Reddit Enhancement Suite had improvements that made it bearable to edit large texts. I hope more and more of RES gets into lemmy-ui.
Wow thank you!
This little snippet covers how to get Syncthing to run in background on boot regardless of Desktop environment (so that you've got full synchronisation even in default game code), might be worth adding it under the link to Syncthing. :)
I don't know, I felt that such things move into the realm of guides, and many of these things are either general Linux skills, as well. Also, it costs a lot of time and effort to do this for a large number of software.
Basically, lists such as these help you to find what is available, but the specific documentation for those tools can help you further when needed.
Of course, I know my way around Linux, so those kinds of guides would be more aimed at low to medium technical users, which again, take a lot of time to write.
Well heck, that is quite the list. Thank you!
Thanks a ton! What a great list!
Great post. I wish valve would make it easyer to manage storage (other) on the deck though. The 64gb is giving me a headache...
Since the Steam Deck is just Linux, I simply use Linux tools for that. I like the command-line, so I mostly use gdu there. It helps to learn the structure of the file system. Of course, there are GUI tools available and on the list, as well.
But some people don't like going to the desktop, so I guess some sort of tool within game mode would be nice for them.
The Steam Link Linux App Flatpak/on Flathub should be added.
I've been looking for a way to replace my Steam Link with the Steam Deck as a PC Desktop Streaming Target. And the Steam Link Linux app should be the solution.
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Fantastic list! I’m gonna try out SyncThing this weekend 👍🏻
SyncThing is great. I have it on all my computers and a VPS. At least two clients need to be online for them to be able to transfer data, of course, so that VPS comes in handy. Something like a Raspberry Pi would work.
I sync all my emulator save games with it, for instance.
That was actually pretty easy to setup.
I installed SyncThing on my Windows PC using https://github.com/Bill-Stewart/SyncthingWindowsSetup and set it up to monitor a folder which contains the non-Steam games I want to sync to my SteamDeck.
On the SteamDeck, in Desktop mode, I installed the SyncThingy app via the package manager and followed the instructions to set it up as a service that starts at boot time, so it will even work in Gaming mode.
Once that was running, I went through the process in SyncThing to synchronize my PC and the Steam Deck, which does take a few clicks and confirmations on both the PC and the Steam Deck, but after that it just started copying the game folders automatically.
After a game had sync'd to the Steam Deck, I added it to Steam, switched back to Gaming mode and played it for a bit. After saving my game, I checked on the PC to see that the save files that added to the game folder on my Steam Deck also now showed up on my PC.
SyncThing is hands down my favorite software ever.
People often recommend shit like Nextcloud for personal file hosting where you need to set up a server and have everything connect to that. There is no central server in SyncThing (unless you manually set up the syncing rules to create something like that).
Not only is setting up SyncThing stupidly easy because you don’t have to setup a server (it is so easy it has a damn QR code reader button, if your device has a camera you can have one device show a QR code and the other scan it and boom they are connected that’s it), it also means you don’t have to maintain a server as a central nexus point indefinitely. You can add and remove devices from sharing a folder in any way you want. The original device that shared the folder can be long gone and it is no problem. I don’t know if people intuitively grasp how much easier that makes retaining important file folders longterm, especially if you are disorganized, chaotic and prone to losing, destroying or not properly maintaining things like I am lol.
A raspberry pi works great as a SyncThing device that you can leave always on to catch your other devices when they connect to the internet briefly and sync their folders, but if the folder is small enough and your phone has the space, your phone works even better. SyncThing works on both Android and iOS (with the paid app mobiussync).
Honestly SyncThing is a stunning piece of software, the kind that actually legitimately changes your life when you get used to using it, and thank god it isn’t locked into some corporations silo to only work with that companies products.
As a pro tip, this kind of file sharing between devices that may not both happen to be online at the same time for long periods can create issues where both devices have an updated version of a file from when they last connected (which is one of the reasons that having an always on device like a raspberry pi or phone is nice). This is a potentially a hard problem, but SyncThing handles this great with a sync conflict resolving utility where you are prompted what to do for each sync conflict.
Something I recommend to further mitigate potential issues is for folders with a relatively small amount of files, go into the folder options and set it so SyncThing keeps the last 10 or so versions of a file (if it’s all small files go crazy and do 20 who cares). That way if you do make a huge mistake and lose a critical updated file you can just grab it from the backups. The amount of previous versions of files SyncThing keeps is set per folder on each device separately, so when sharing a folder, your device with a huge amount of storage can be set to retain many older versions of files and your smartphone with little available storage can be set not to retain any or very few.
Godly post. Sticky?
For Chiaki, could we add a link specifically to Chiaki4Deck? Last I checked Chiaki was in maintenance mode and wasn't accepting edits to fix issues with trackpad swipes and some other deck specific improvements. Someone from the community forked Chiaki and made chiaki4deck, available on the discover store to remedy these issues.
I have replaced Chiaki with Chiaki4deck.
Awesome! Thanks!
Well since its a software-sharing post, I'd like to add some handy video downloaders. Crunchyroll downloader Amazon Prime Video Downloader, U-Next downloader, FANZA Downloader, Paramount Plus Downloader, Discovery Plus Downloader
I’m using Heroic Launcher for my Epic/GOG/Amazon games right now. Now that I’ll have to reinstall again when the new OLED Deck arrives, is there a better option or should I keep it.?
https://swethatanamala.substack.com/p/how-i-ran-llms-on-steam-deck-handheld
I am going to probably make a post/video about using the setup Swetha lays out in this article after I have fiddled around with this setup to have enough good advice to collect into a post, but it is worth linking to this awesome guide here as well on how to run a LLM/AI locally on your steam deck (meaning an internet connection is not needed and no data leaves your device period). There are a million ways to do this but what is so clever about Swetha's is that because the whole setup is contained within a distrobox ubuntu instance that lives in your home directory, updates to your Steam Deck won't break everything (Steam-os is an immutable operating system which can cause headaches with having to re-setup things after every update).
Also because this method relies on using a llama.cpp through a terminal, there is no reason this workflow couldn't be done with a terminal program open in Gaming Mode on the Steam Deck (or through Decky Terminal, but I can't figure out how to easily paste text in and out of it ughh).
Edit you can also just install jan from here as an app image https://jan.ai/ and load in .gguf files you download from huggingface.co
Swetha recommends getting a model that is less than 4 gigabytes and loading it into the GPU, but I haven't found a >4 gig model that actually gives that useful information yet. I have had success with running these models on the CPU
https://huggingface.co/TheBloke/Mistral-7B-Instruct-v0.1-GGUF
In particular I found the sweet spot to be these specific models:
mistral-7b-instruct-v0.1.Q5_K_S.gguf Q5_K_S
mistral-7b-instruct-v0.1.Q5_K_M.gguf Q5_K_M
This one runs too slow on the CPU to be useful at least with the settings I am currently using:
mistral-7b-instruct-v0.1.Q6_K.gguf Q6_K
I like the handy chart that comes along with this release of mistral models as it gives you a good starting point from which to figure out generally what size model is practical and optimal for your computer.
This reddit thread had some good general information on how to download AI models from hugginface.co and run them
https://www.reddit.com/r/LocalLLaMA/comments/18hzun0/sharing_a_simple_local_llm_setup/
Specifically this quote from that reddit thread is useful
Steps:
Install llama.cpp, the steps are detailed in the repo.
Download an LLM from huggingface.
For those not familiar with this step, look for anything that has GGUFin its name. You will probably find that on TheBloke's page. If you are not sure which one to choose, start with one that has lots of likes or downloads, or browse this community for impressions and feedback. Once you find the model you like, go to its page, click on Files and versions` and then choose a file that ends with .gguf and download it. If you are not familiar with the sizes, go for Q4_K_M and make sure the size of the file seems to be something that can fit in your GPU or CPU memory.
Here is a guide to installing and using distrobox on the Steam Deck. The usefulness of using distrobox is that distrobox sets up little mini environment you can install programs too that is outside the context of the immutable SteamOS operating system. Thus, after updates, software or setups you install in a distrobox environment will remain the same. Distrobox is more than just a simple bifurcation between the main SteamOS and a virtual environment, it provides tools to set up the ability to connect programs between the two for advanced setups (though you can ignore this stuff and just use the defaults).
What Distrobox does (quote)
Simply put it's a fancy wrapper around podman, docker or lilipod to create and start containers highly integrated with the hosts.
The distrobox environment is based on an OCI image. This image is used to create a container that seamlessly integrates with the rest of the operating system by providing access to the user's home directory, the Wayland and X11 sockets, networking, removable devices (like USB sticks), systemd journal, SSH agent, D-Bus, ulimits, /dev and the udev database, etc...
It implements the same concepts introduced by https://github.com/containers/toolbox but in a simplified way using POSIX sh and aiming at broader compatibility.
All the props go to them as they had the great idea to implement this stuff.
It is divided into 12 commands:
distrobox-assemble - creates and destroy containers based on a config file
distrobox-create - creates the container
distrobox-enter - to enter the container
distrobox-ephemeral - create a temporal container, destroy it when exiting the shell
distrobox-list - to list containers created with distrobox
distrobox-rm - to delete a container created with distrobox
distrobox-stop - to stop a running container created with distrobox
distrobox-upgrade - to upgrade one or more running containers created with distrobox at once
distrobox-generate-entry - to create an entry of a created container in the applications list
distrobox-init - the entrypoint of the container (not meant to be used manually)
distrobox-export - it is meant to be used inside the container, useful to export apps and services from the container to the host
distrobox-host-exec - to run commands/programs from the host, while inside of the container
source: https://github.com/89luca89/distrobox/blob/main/docs/README.md#what-it-does
Guide For Installing Distrobox On The Steam Deck
https://github.com/89luca89/distrobox/blob/main/docs/posts/steamdeck_guide.md
Quckstart Guide
https://github.com/89luca89/distrobox/blob/main/docs/README.md#quick-start
Distrobox Guide Homepage
https://github.com/89luca89/distrobox/tree/main/docs#readme
note because distrobox is a process that can be run by command line, you could presumably launch distrobox in a terminal window in Gaming Mode and keep everything for that session within that steam Big Picture window no problem. I am gonna have to keep experimenting with this, I will update with progress.
An Easy Way To Copy A Controller Layout Configuration From One Game To Another
I have unfortunately not been able to figure out how to load controller configurations that I have shared to steam into games that weren't the original game I made that controller config in. I click on the controller layout and it fails to load and reverting back to the layout I already had selected.
My recommendation for getting around this is adding the file manager Dolphin as a non-steam game to steam as well as "Corehunt" (which you have to download from Discover, it is made by the same people that made CoreKeyboard). Or you can just use Dolphin and Corehunt in desktop mode.
https://flathub.org/apps/org.cubocore.CoreHunt
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Go to the game you want to copy a controller layout into. Edit one of the default controller layouts, just make a random change to it, rename the controller layout to a unique name like TARGET_game then export the file as a personal save (or a personal shareable save I can't remember which).
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In Corehunt, search for the file, Corehunt should find the file fairly quickly (it is muchhhh faster and more thorough than the other file search programs I have used on the Steam Deck so far). Note the file path.
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If needed, also search the name of the controller layout you want to copy into the game (name that layout something you can search for easily too).
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Navigate to the file path for your controller layout you want to copy, click split view in dolphin and then open up the controller layout for the game you want to copy the controller layout into (that contains your "Target_game" file) and.... drag and drop copy!
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Done!
Note... you can also look up your steam deck's file path to controller layouts in a guide or documentation but the filepath is really annoying and one of the folder steps is your steam user-id.... so I actually think this explanation is much more concise and easy to do. Just let Corehunt find the folder location for you and then pin it to Dolphin's sidebar so you can quickly jump to it again.
Steam games should name themselves according to the name you have in Steam, but sometimes the folder name is just a number (the steam game's id number or something).
Sure, CoreHunt is nice, but I still prefer ANGRYsearch or just good old fd or find from the command line
never heard of angry search!, I will have to try it
I'd actually recommend Filelight instead to view disk usage, as it fits better with Plasma which is used on the deck.
The other one, that is suggested in this list, is made for Gnome, and will stick out more against other applications.
I edited the post and added Filelight. I personally prefer gdu on the command-line, it's awesome.
Wow, this is awesome. Thank you for posting it over here for those of us trying to avoid the Reddit.
What use is linking Steam Link store page when it can no longer be bought? Should at least be disclosed and put into context.
There is a link somewhere on that page, which links to the download for the app. That's why I used it, I guess. I changed it to the Flatpak link.
There's a link to the app page which then has the download. The first is incredibly hidden, and the second is quite bloated too.
The Steam Link app page may be useful for the other download links too - for Steam Deck to other device steaming. But I think the direct Flatpak link is fitting by itself too for other Steam device to Steam Deck streaming.
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