this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2024
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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:

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[–] [email protected] 56 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Add a keyboard, mouse and monitor, which are already required for every other pc, and you can do everything on the steam deck that you can on any other pc. The steamdeck just has the additional functionality of working without those if you so choose.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (3 children)

and you can do everything on the steam deck that you can on any other pc

Ok, how do I use rsync on the deck then? (/s, but I'd still love to know)

[–] [email protected] 34 points 3 months ago (1 children)
  1. Turn on
  2. Open desktop mode (in power menu I think)
  3. Open terminal
  4. Type rsync <source> <destination>
  5. Press enter
[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Wait, its installed by default? I assumed I had to install it, which would not be possible, because its immutable and there is no rsync flatpak (I think).

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

You can just install a distro of your choice on it that might or might not be immutable if you want. In the end, yes, it is a PC

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

SteamOS is immutable, so you can't install system-wide apps on there, only flatpaks, appimages etc.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago (3 children)

You can install system wide apps by turning off immutabe mode and configurating something. I might be talking out my ass though cause I have done this but I don't remember if it persisted across updates.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago (2 children)

You can for sure! It’s just I wouldn’t go around recommending that to just any person because they then might get a little crazy with the freedom, brick their Steam deck install, and then try to say that the Deck is a POS.

Bad word of mouth is always a lot more damaging than spreading the good word that it’s a solid system.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago

Good point. Though the deck actually keeps a backup. Updates are done to a second partition and if it fails to boot for some reason, it automatically rolls back to booting from the previous good installation. That's why it's really hard to completely brick the system.

But also why with every update all the modifications you did are reverted. Not that big of a deal once you know about it though, I just have a script that installs and configures everything after each update.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

People should know its an option they can. Explore. Especially since this person was using it as a reason to call the steamdeck not a PC.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

I agree 100%! I just know that the average Joe doesn’t look at these things the same way we do. :/

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

You don't need to turn off anything, you can install whatever package you want, but they'll be overwritten by some updates

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

(IIRC) the changes are reverted after each update so you'd have to re-install every app.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Are you not aware of "Desktop mode"? Hold down the power button for a few seconds, click "switch to desktop mode," and you're literally using a fully functioning Linux PC.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 3 months ago

Just... do it? It's just a normal Linux underneath.