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Starting Fresh on a Steamdeck
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Fresh-Steamdeck-Setup.md

Steam Deck - Clean Install and Config

Context

  • I have a 1TB Steamdeck OLED. The steps here should world for any steamdeck. That said, YMMV (Your mialge may vary)
  • This is primarily for my own benefit, but feel free to comment if you see any errors, have some suggestions, or great ideas.

Step One - Fresh Install of Steam OS

  1. Start with the Steamdeck Recovery page located here
  2. You will need a USB stick of at least 8GB and potentially a USB-A to USB-C Adapter so you can plug it into your steam deck
  3. Follow the instructions on the page and get your steamdeck wiped an the clean OS installed
  4. Once done and booted back into SteamOS:
    1. Press the Steam Button
    2. Tap/Click Power
    3. Switch to Decktop

Step Two - Any Desk Remote Desktop

  1. On your home Computer. Install Anydesk

  2. Anydesk is available for just about any OS. You only need the Free version

  3. Once installed on your home PC, open Anydesk

  4. Click the menu icon in the top right and click Set Password.

    image

  5. Choose a complex password (Store this in your password manager of choice)

  6. Set the permission profile for unattended access

    image

  7. OPTIONAL: Got to https://my.anydesk.com/ and create a free account and log in using the desktop app

  8. On Your Steamdeck, open the Discover store and search for Anydesk

    image

  9. Install it and open it up

  10. Repeat steps 4-6 on the steamdeck anydesk app

  11. If you performed step 7. when you look on the steamdeck, you should see your profile visiable. If not you should just see your desktops Anydesk ID

    image

  12. Click the 4 dots next to your PCs name and click "Add to Favorites"

    image

  13. In your favorites, click the 4 dots next your favorited machine and click Rename

    image

  14. Give it a meaningful name and save

  15. Repeat steps 12-14 on your PC to favorite and rename your steamdeck

  16. Now you can remote it, enter the apssword and have it remember it in the future for easy remote access

  17. Dock your steamdeck, ensure it has a network connection, remote in from your PC and move on to the next task

Setting your admin/sudo password

  1. Open the start menu, got to Settings -> System Settings

    image

  2. Click on Users in the left menu

    image

  3. Give your user a Name

  4. DO NOT CHANGE THE USERNAME. SteamOS will throw a tantrum if you change the Username to anything other than deck

  5. Enter your Email address and click Change Paasword

  6. Set this to a nice complex password, save the password in your Password manager of choice

  7. You now have the ability to use sudo in the konsole

Setting up tailscale

  1. Follow the instructions found here

  2. Setup the Tailscaled service to start on boot using

    systemctl enable --now tailscaled

  3. Ensure you log into your Tailscale Admin Console on one of your Signing nodes and Sign the steamdeck

  4. In the Konsole, run the following command to ensure tailscale is updated (and that you can update it)

    sudo tailscale update

  5. You shoul see a response like:

    already running stable version 1.76.6; no update needed

  6. If that works, sudo tailscale set --auto-update to enable auto updates

  7. Next go into the Discover store and install the plugin Trayscale to give you a UI interface into Tailscale

    image

  8. You should now be able to see all the device on your Tailnet

Installing One-password (if thats your password manager of choice)

  1. On the steamdeck, browse to the 1password download page for the flatpak
  2. Follow the instructions to download and install the flatpak
  3. Be aware of the limitations as of 2024-11-15
    1. You’ll need to lock and unlock 1Password in your browser separately from the app.
    2. You won’t be able to unlock 1Password or 1Password CLI with system authentication.
    3. You won’t be able to use the SSH agent.

Other Apps

  1. Open the discover store and Install
    1. Chrome

45FPS Mode

  1. Ensure you are in "Steam Deck" mode not "Desktop" mode
  2. Pres the ... button on the right side of your steamdeck
  3. In the menu, go down to the ⚡ Icon
  4. If not already toggled, tap Advanced View
  5. Locate the Frame Limit slider and set to `45 FPS (90Hz)
  6. This gives you the same refresh rate but have the FPS, which is plenty for 90% of games and much friendlier on resources

Preparing your Steam Deck for App Images the right way

  1. We want to use App Image launcher for app images

  2. This will allow us to have a clean way to install app images so they behave more like installed apps and not portable apps

  3. Go to the github page for App Image Launcher and find the latest release. As of 2024-11-16 this was v2.2

  4. Download the file that has the following suffix -x86_64.AppImage

  5. Open your Downloads folder and move the file to the home directory

  6. Open up the Konsole and type ls and press enter

  7. You should see the file you just downloaded. If you do. run the following

    chmod +x appimagelauncher-lite-2.2.0-travis995-0f91801-x86_64.AppImage
./appimagelauncher-lite-2.2.0-travis995-0f91801-x86_64.AppImage install

  8. Note: If, when following this guide, you downlaoded a different version of the above file, you will need to alter the command to match the file name

  9. You should see that the App Image Launcher was successfully installed

    Installing AppImageLauncher Lite
Created symlink /home/deck/.config/systemd/user/default.target.wants/appimagelauncherd.service → /home/deck/.local/lib/appimagelauncher-lite/systemd/appimagelauncherd.service.
AppImageLauncher Lite has been installed successfully.

  10. Once the command has run successfully, you should have a new folder in your Home directory called "Applications". You an confirm this by typing ls -l and pressing enter

    -rwxr-xr-x 1 deck deck 42373160 Nov 16 09:18 appimagelauncher-lite-2.2.0-travis995-0f91801-x86_64.AppImage
drwxr-xr-x 2 deck deck     4096 Nov 16 09:37 Applications
drwxr-xr-x 2 deck deck     4096 Nov 14 23:27 Desktop
drwxr-xr-x 3 deck deck     4096 Nov 14 23:42 Documents
drwxr-xr-x 2 deck deck     4096 Nov 16 09:36 Downloads
drwxr-xr-x 3 deck deck     4096 Nov 15 00:03 Github
drwxr-xr-x 2 deck deck     4096 Nov 14 23:27 Music
drwxr-xr-x 2 deck deck     4096 Nov 14 23:27 Pictures
drwxr-xr-x 2 deck deck     4096 Nov 14 23:27 Public
drwxr-xr-x 2 deck deck     4096 Nov 14 23:27 Templates
drwxr-xr-x 3 deck deck     4096 Nov 14 23:42 Videos

  11. you can now remove that app image file. type sudo rm appimage and press tab to auto complete the command, the press enter. You will likely be prompted for your sudo password

  12. Now, any AppImage you drop into that folder will automatically be converted and available to add as an application in Steam.

ProtonUp-QT

  1. ProtonUp-QT lets you Install and manage Proton-GE for Steam and Wine-GE for Lutris with a graphical user interface.

  2. Browse to: https://davidotek.github.io/protonup-qt/

  3. Scroll down and click the download button

    image

  4. Move the ProtonUp-QT app image into the Applications folder in your home directory.

  5. Once moves, double click to run

  6. You will be asked What you want to you wish to do with this file? Tick the box that says Do not ask this again and click Execute

    image

  7. You should be presented with a screen that looks like this. You now have a way to install and easily manage your Proton/Wine versions

    image

  8. Now when you find a game isn't working as well as you would like. You can look that game up on Protondb and see what has been working for people, and then grab that specific release of proton so you can run it with your game. E.g Final Fantasy VII Intergarge which seems to work best on Proton 9.0-3

  9. You can find a video guide Here

Decky Loader

  1. On your Steamdeck, in decktop mode, open your browser and visit decky.xyz

  2. Click download at the top of the screen

  3. Find the decky_installer.decktop file in your downloads and move it to the desktp (SteamDeck requires many apps to be installed from the desktop)

  4. Once the file is on the desktop, double click to start the install

    image

  5. Click Continue and enter your sudo password

  6. I recommend selecting release and prerelease can contain unstable and broken code as the beta versions are being worked on.

  7. Continue through the installer until it completes.

  8. Now that the install is complete, you can right click on the installer file and move to trash

  9. Return to Steam game mode and press the ... button on the right of your SteamDeck under the track pad

  10. In the menu that shows up, click the plug icon to bring up the plugin menu

    image

  11. From here, click the store icon next to the cog wheel

  12. Now that you are in the store. Install any and all plugins that interest you. I will have a list of my favorites below

Deck Loader Plugins

  1. Animation Changer

    • Easily changing boot/suspend animations

  2. Auto Flatpaks

    • Manage, notify, and/or automatically update your steamdeck flatpaks without DesktopMode.

  3. Auto Suspend

    • Automatically notify and suspend your steamdeck on low power.

  4. Battery Tracker

    • Track battery history for your Steam Deck as well as power stats.

  5. Bluetooth

    • Access to your bluetooth devices quickly

  6. CSS Loader

    • CSS Loader is a styling engine for Steam, allowing you to customize both desktop Steam and big picture mode! (typically requires a reboot after installing)
    • Round Theme
    • Hero Art Theme
    • DeckText - Everything enabled except Footer
    • Better Achievements - Rare Shine Animation: Everywhere - Achievement Icon Radius: 3px

  7. Brightness Bar

    • Displays a brightness bar when the brightness is changed.

  8. BT Wake Conrol

    • Allows to selectively disable and/or enable Wake-on-Bluetooth capabilities for your Bluetooth devices.

  9. Deck MTP

    • Enabling MTP transfer over USB

  10. Decky Cloud Save

    • Based on Rclone (Reboot after installing)

    • Setup Instructions

      1. Go to Desktop Mode

      2. Open the Konsole and navigate to the install directory

        ~/homebrew/plugins/decky-cloud-save

      3. Next, run the following command

        ./bin/rcloneLauncher config

      4. In the first menu select New remote (type n), press enter

      5. When asked for name, enter backend - IMPORTANT!

        If remote already exists, delete previous one before creating the new one.

      6. Enter the number specific to your storage of choice. In my case 5 for Backblaze B2

      7. You will be asked for an Account ID or Application Key ID

      8. Provider specific details can be found on the rclone website

      9. Backblaze Application Key

        • B2 supports multiple Application Keys for different access permission to B2 Buckets.
        • You can use these with rclone too; you will need to use rclone version 1.43 or later.
        • Follow Backblaze's docs to create an Application Key with the required permission and add the applicationKeyId as the account and the Application Key itself as the key.
        • Note that you must put the applicationKeyId as the account – you can't use the master Account ID. If you try then B2 will return 401 errors.

      10. After following the instructions for Backblaze. Securely store your keyID, keyName and applicationKey is your password manager of choice

      11. Back in your SteamDecks konsole. Enter the keyID and press enter

      12. Next your will be asked for the applicationKey, type/paste that and press enter

      13. Nexy you will be asked about hard_delete. I recommend pressing enter for (default) which is to NOT delete the remote store. This is the safer choice.

      14. When asked Edit advanced config? press enter for No (default)

      15. When asked Keep this "backend" remote?type y for Yes (default)

      16. Finally type q for quit config and load back into big picture mode

      17. You can now go back into Steam game mode and open your Decky Loader menu and press Sync now

  11. KDE Connect

    • Alls you to run KDE connect in Game Mode

  12. Decky Notification

    • Apps available for iOS and Android

  13. Discord Status

    • Requires Discord to be installed
    • Discord can be installed from Desktop Mode by searching for it in the Discover Store

  14. HTLB aka How Long to beat, for Deck

    • show you game lengths according to How Long To Beat

  15. Magic Pods

    • Monitor the battery level of your AirPods and Beats. Easily switch between noise cancellation modes and enjoy the magic.

  16. Power Tools

    • Steam Deck power tweaks for power users.

  17. ProtonDB Badges

    • Display tappable ProtonDB badges on your game pages

  18. SteamGridDB

    • Download and share custom video game assets and personalize your gaming library.

  19. Tailscale Control

    • Activate/Deactive Tailscale whilst in Game Mode

Still need to write up

  1. EmuDeck
  2. Sync Thing + Deckyloader Plugin
  3. Moonlight / Sunshine for streaming
  4. Greenlight for xcloud?
  5. Obsidian
  6. Spotify
  7. Cryo Utilities 2.0+
  8. Chiaki4deck
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