Any desktop-mode tips for a new Steam Deck owner? (discuss.tchncs.de)

submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de to c/steamdeck@sopuli.xyz

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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:

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)
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?
Is it possible to re-enable the read-only filesystem after installing a package, to safeguard it from accidental changes?
Any other tips, tricks or warnings you'd like to share.

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[-] thingsiplay@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 days ago

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?

As far as I know, a new update of SteamOS will revert these changes back. However Steam has builtin support for Nix package system, where you don't need to disable readonly filesystem and changes to this directory / package system stays intact even after an update. Two articles explaining how to do this at https://sadatdaniel.dev/2023/11/install-nix-package-manager-on-your-steam-deck/ (2023) and https://chrastecky.dev/gaming/persistent-packages-on-steam-deck-using-nix (2025). Check if a certain package is available under https://search.nixos.org/packages . Now, I never did that, as I never had a need for. I can't say if this helps you with the specific package, but it might be useful for you to look into this.

this post was submitted on 07 Jun 2026

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