Steamdeck as a Desktop

Jan 16, 2023 | Linux
Steamdeck as a Desktop

No, do NOT modify the system. This guide shows you how to retain the system while adding package management and the things you need to make the steamdeck your desktop!

Adding NIX as your Package Manager

NIX is an amazing package manager and far better than the flatpak and other solutions I’ve seen. We create a home directory called nix and map it’s package manager to it, so on updates all our installed packages still work! Not familiar with NIX? Check out this article: https://christitus.com/nix-package-manager/

Install NIX on Steamdeck

You may need to make the system writeable with steamos-readonly disable, but DO NOT MODIFY EXISTING FILES!. When steam updates, you could lose your customizations! We will only be making new files.

Credit for this idea comes from https://determinate.systems/posts/nix-on-the-steam-deck#enabling-an-install

Create /etc/systemd/system/nix-directory.service

[Unit]
Description=Create a `/nix` directory to be used for bind mounting
PropagatesStopTo=nix-daemon.service
PropagatesStopTo=nix.mount
DefaultDependencies=no
After=grub-recordfail.service
After=steamos-finish-oobe-migration.service

[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=steamos-readonly disable
ExecStart=mkdir -vp /nix
ExecStart=chmod -v 0755 /nix
ExecStart=chown -v root /nix
ExecStart=chgrp -v root /nix
ExecStart=steamos-readonly enable
ExecStop=steamos-readonly disable
ExecStop=rmdir /nix
ExecStop=steamos-readonly enable
RemainAfterExit=true

Create /etc/systemd/system/nix.mount

[Unit]
Description=Mount `/home/nix` on `/nix`
PropagatesStopTo=nix-daemon.service
PropagatesStopTo=nix-directory.service
After=nix-directory.service
Requires=nix-directory.service
ConditionPathIsDirectory=/nix
DefaultDependencies=no

[Mount]
What=/home/nix
Where=/nix
Type=none
DirectoryMode=0755
Options=bind

Create /etc/systemd/system/ensure-symlinked-units-resolve.service

[Unit]
Description=Ensure Nix related units which are symlinked resolve
After=nix.mount
Requires=nix-directory.service
Requires=nix.mount
PropagatesStopTo=nix-directory.service
PropagatesStopTo=nix.mount
DefaultDependencies=no

[Service]
Type=oneshot
RemainAfterExit=yes
ExecStart=/usr/bin/systemctl daemon-reload
ExecStart=/usr/bin/systemctl restart --no-block sockets.target timers.target multi-user.target

[Install]
WantedBy=sysinit.target

Enable and start it all with:

sudo systemctl enable --now ensure-symlinked-units-resolve.service

Install NIX

sh <(curl -L https://nixos.org/nix/install) --daemon

Searching and Installing Packages

Search for packages @ https://search.nixos.org/packages Or you can use this from terminal: nix search nixpkgs packagename

Note: Look under nix-env and “On Non NixOS”

Install packages with nix-env -iA nixpkgs.packagename

Improving Performance

Change Swappiness 100 to 10 (Reduces use of Swap file)

echo "vm.swappiness=10" | sudo tee /etc/sysctl.d/99-custom-swappiness.conf

Change Swap File Size from 1G to 10G (Note:This will take up more space!)

echo 0
echo "# Disabling swap..."
sudo swapoff -a
echo 25
echo "# Creating new 8 GB swapfile (be patient, this can take between 10 seconds and 30 minutes)..."
sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/home/swapfile bs=1G count="8" status=none
echo 50
echo "# Setting permissions on swapfile..."
sudo chmod 0600 /home/swapfile
echo 75
echo "# Initializing new swapfile..."
sudo mkswap /home/swapfile  
sudo swapon /home/swapfile

Walkthrough Video

#Steamdeck