It depends on the format they’re in. I’m not a Linux expert, but my understanding is that not every Linux distribution uses the same format for apps. For some, it’s as simple as double-clicking a download. For others, it seems like there are more steps involved, and in some cases it seems easier just to run the Windows version using Proton than to try to get a Linux version for a different distro working on SteamOS.
To install a DRM-free Windows app, you would add the installer to Steam as a non-Steam app, set it to run using Proton, run it, and then add the program it installed as a non-Steam app (after which you can remove the installer). A little clunky, but not impossible.
(I’ve read ways of adding a “run in Proton” right-click shortcut in desktop mode, but it seems more complicated to me.)
Have you installed games from launchers other than Steam that only have Windows binaries? For example if I access games via the itch.io app some will be windows only. Do you know if those be installed on a Steam Deck? I presume they can via Proton but I’ve been looking for useful guides and they seem sparse so far. Do you know any good resources for tips on installing non Steam games?
I get it now. So the Itch App itself is a native Linux app, so you can’t install Windows games from within the App. I read there is a way to force it, but it’s easier to download the windows package and just add the executable to Steam, which you can then run in Proton. Pretty neat.
I’m reading so much on this thing just to understand what is, and isn’t possible.
It’s also so new that things are changing week to week.
When the Steam Deck first arrived, things like Heroic Launcher and Primehack were much tougher, but now they’ve been added to the desktop mode’s “Discover” store so they’re very easy to install. I had to set up all my emulators “by hand,” but now there are tools like EmuDeck that automate most of it. Persona 4 Golden went from completely broken to getting the green checkmark last week, Valve worked to get Elden Ring working better, and Microsoft provides instructions on how to stream games via Xcloud.
Part of the fun of the device is seeing how it grows and what people pull off with it. But there’s also a dark side of things moving so fast: Recently I made the mistake of clicking an “update” dialog in desktop mode that I’d already clicked in gaming mode, and when the machine attempted to apply an update it had already applied, it got stuck in an endless boot loop. I had to make a recovery device on a USB stick and reinstall the OS. Thankfully the “reinstall SteamOS” option retained all my data (including apps and saves and stuff), but it was a pain!
What’s sort of ironic is that I spend all this time hacking away at it for fun, but then I usually end up playing games in my Steam library!
It was 100% Valve’s fault that I ran into the problem: It notified me of an update to install, I did what it asked, and I got in a boot loop. From that perspective, it was not easy to avoid.
But I only saw that message because I was in desktop mode messing with stuff. I would never have encountered the problem through “normal” usage of the device in gaming mode. And you could argue that in desktop mode I should have been more careful, as I would on any PC. So maybe from that perspective, it should have been easy to avoid. And it’s the first time that’s happened to me even though I’ve been hacking away at this thing with some regularity for weeks now.
The lessons I took from that were:
Don’t trust system updates in desktop mode. Always update the system from gaming mode.
If you plan to hack around with stuff in desktop mode pretty often, you might just go ahead and set up a recovery device ahead of time. That way if something goes wrong you can plug it in, boot from it, and fix the issue. (Plus you have the option of using the Steam Deck to create the recovery device, which isn’t an option once you need the recovery device… that may be a factor for folks who don’t have an alternate PC handy.)
Will do. I’m unclear, based on the instructions, if I can write the recovery file to USB from the Steam Deck itself, or if I need to use a second device to handle that step.
Ha! I’m just regurgitating what I’ve found in the subreddit. I suspect whatever knowledge I have so far is pretty niche… there’s a lot of discussion about juicing the device for the best performance in really intense modern games, and you can probably tell from the lists of games I’ve tried that I’m just not that kind of gamer. There are also times where I can tell what I want differs from the norm… I set up Primehack differently than the three different guides I found, because the end results just seemed a bit off to me.
I guess that’s another part of the device’s appeal: Its openness means I don’t have to follow a guide to the letter. If I find a way that works better for me, I can pretty much follow that without restriction.
We are not so different in what we want from the Deck. I’m in it for the indies and retro games. One of the things I am most excited to play is Psychonauts because I want to finally see if the QoL updates improve my feelings about the Meat Circus but also because I am inclined to think playing handheld will allow for a more enjoyable experience.
I’ll be honest I’m pretty excited about its openness as well. Although I love my New 2DS that I magicked up to be my retro handheld, I love that the the Steam Deck is just that much easier to tinker with.
I’m just going to help you avoid some of the struggle I had setting it up:
Install like normal via Steam.
Try running the game once. If it works fine for you (controls are good, etc.), then Valve must have fixed something! Hooray! If not, follow these steps.
Make progress in the game until you’re able to save your game for the first time. After that, feel free to exit.
Switch to Desktop Mode.
Navigate to your Home directory, then .local, share, and Psychonauts. (Make sure hidden files are visible if you don’t see .local.)
If you see a DisplaySettings.ini file, go ahead and edit it (if you don’t have a text editor yet, KWrite is available in the Discover app and is really straightforward). If you don’t have one, go ahead and create it so it looks sort of like this:
(The game’s graphics settings are buggy in my experience, so this bypasses the need to use them.)
Save and close that file, returning to the Psychonauts directory. Navigate to the Profiles directory, where you should see a file named Profile {X}- {Name}.ini, where {Name} is whatever name you entered.
Go ahead and open that file in your text editor as well, and edit its contents to be the following:
(This step makes sure the camera isn’t inverted, it sets a joystick deadzone so you won’t drift around all the time, and it sets up the necessary controls for the right stick to function as you’d expect it to.)
Save the file.
Return to gaming mode.
Open Psychonauts.
Press the Steam button, and navigate to where you can configure your controller. Use the controls you set up in the ini file (in the [Input] section) to map them as you’d like where necessary. (I find this reference very helpful.)
That’s it! Now you can enjoy the game.
Note that even if you uninstall the game, your settings will remain in the .local directory, so you’ll only need to do this over if you completely reset your system or delete those files.
Bonus tip if you read this far: When configuring your controller, try setting one of the unused buttons to repeatedly tap the button you use to farm arrowheads with the dowsing rod. Now you don’t have to break your fingers when that part of the game arrives! (I use this for pretty much any game that has rapid tapping actions.)
Has anyone installed a screen protector on their Steam Deck? I tried an iVoler glass protector, the same brand I used for my OLED Switch, but it severely reduces touch sensitivity so I had to remove it. I am exchanging it for another brand, and hopefully the next one will produce better results. However, if anyone has success with a particular brand, I’d love to hear about it.
That’s kind of crazy what you have to do to get Psychonauts running well!
The worst thing I’ve had to do so far is go into the INI file for The Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition and change the resolution down to 1280x800. The game just kept crashing because it had a 1440p resolution in the file, and it couldn’t scale down I guess. That file was very deep in the folder structure though: /home/deck/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/32360/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/Application Data/LucasArts/The Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition/Settings.ini
I’m thinking that if I uninstall and reinstall the game, I’d have to do it all over again.
I’ll keep that in mind, I have that game installed but haven’t started playing yet!
On Windows I’ve noticed any files I edit myself tend to stick around after I uninstall a game, but I’m not sure if that’s true of Linux or not. (The reason I’m sure the Psychonauts files stick around is because its configuration files are in an uncommon place in the user directory instead of with the Steam app where they should be.)
(If anyone reads this and just wants to play Psychonauts on Windows with proper gamepad support, PsychoPad is the way to go. I just couldn’t get it to work on the Steam Deck.)
So here’s a weird one, I can’t connect to WPA2 Enterprise networks. You can only access advanced settings in desktop mode. However each time I enter the complete advanced settings the system forgets my username and password. I’ve searched online and everyone seems to have the same issue. It seems most are waiting for Valve to release a patch fix. It’s not a big deal because I can connect to ethernet if I’m on campus in my office but it would be nice to have WiFi flexibility.
Monkey Island works great after you edit this file:
/home/deck/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/32360/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/Application Data/LucasArts/The Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition/Settings.ini
There’s a line for resolution that you change to:
resolution=1280x800
