Bought the device a few days ago and wanted to share the experience of running a Bevy game on it. I developing an open source life simulation game called Project Harmonia. The game is at the prototype stage: you can build walls, place objects and move around, but no no actual gameplay loop.
Bevy engine supports it natively since it's just a regular x86 with GNU/Linux. So nothing special was needed! I compiled the game via Cargo and it works.
The game runs great. I get stable 90 FPS (90Hz is the refresh rate of the device) consuming only 13.1 W. The UI is a little big and controls aren't adapted well for gamepads, but I will fix it later.
The console itself is also a nice machine for development. Next I will write about the setup I use.
As you may know, it runs SteamOS with KDE and based on ArchLinux.
Packages mostly mirror official ArchLinux repositories, but there are some additions and everything is compiled by Valve. So you can even install SuperTuxKart or GNOME 😃
Another difference from vanilla ArchLinux is immutable file system. You can make it writable via a single command in terminal, but each update wipes all changes made to the system. Home directory remains untouched.
Because of the immutable filesystem, I decided to try Flatpak. It installs packages into the user's home directory. Therefore, such apps won't be removed after an update.
But I faced some limitations due to containerization. For example, the Firefox extension for KeePassXC does not work because apps can't interact with each other. And it's not suited for installing stuff like compilers or libraries. So I decided to explore other options.
Next, I tried to create a script that I planned to run after each update. It installs all the packages I need through the system package manager.
But packages on SteamOS are older then in Archlinux. For example, Neovim on SteamOS is 0.9, but on ArchLinux it's 0.10, so I had to downgrade my configuration. And it causes incompatibilities with AUR. For example, I couldn't install Crow Translate because of it.
Another problem with such script is that Valve nuked /usr/include directory to free space. All packages are present, but the folder is missing. It makes sense for a gaming device, but I need it to compile packages from AUR.
It can be solved by reinstalling all packages that put files into /usr/include. But it causes another problem 😃 Allocated space for / is limited and you quickly run out of space after restoring headers and installing a couple of packages.
Then I decided to try Distrobox. It creates containers that tightly integrated with the host system. It even comes pre-installed on the Steam Deck.
And I like it a lot! It is very easy to use and combines the advantages of both approaches. All packages will persist across updates and I have access to all packages that I have on my regular PC. Graphical apps look native and can interact with each other.
The game on photos was compiled on the Steam Deck 🥰
Why did half the world decide SMS needed to be replaced with a proprietary app
SMS is even worse in terms of openness. You won't find a modem that runs open source baseband firmware. It's because the radios are subject to several regulations which means customers can't be able to modify that firmware.
Vimm's Lair is a site dedicated to console videogame nostalgia.
And looks like Rockstar Games decided to take the ROM down. Wondering why only for PS2, why only San Andreas and why only NTSC. Because PAL, other platforms and other GTA games for PS2 are unaffected.
Yes, I just kept the original title of the video.
Screen sharing is different thing, there is no fragmentation there.
But in order to take screenshot I had to write different code:
For KDE. It also requires special line in desktop file for security reasons.
Global shortcuts are even worse. It also DE specific and users have to manually register them in DE settings. In order for your application to support this, it should export such functions via the Dbus interface. And all this incompatible with Windows (my app is cross-platform), so I had to provide in-app interface for global shortcuts too that works for Windows and X11 users.
What I don't like about Wayland is that many things are specific to individual DEs. Like global shortcuts or taking screenshots. In my app I have two different solutions for taking screenshots in GNOME and KDE using XDG portals. It causes fragmentation.
Didn't know about Sponsorblock, cool!
Have you considered using Arch on which Manjaro is based?
This way you won't have issues with AUR. It's not hard to install, you can use archinstall helper if you want, it's available in the default installation media.
Thanks! I enjoy this platform.
The only thing that is missing from Reddit for me is a mobile-friendly app for GNU/Linux (I used Headlines for Reddit). But browser version is so great, I use it from the phone with no issues.
I daily drive GNU/Linux on my Phone (PinePhone Pro), I would say it usable, but Android is way more practical.
Also not a lot of devices can run GNU/Linux and have fully functional HW due to missing drivers. And only 3 phones of them can run mainline kernel.
Waydroid works fine, I use it for banking apps, but it's a bit slow on my specific device.
I never reinstall and always recover. Even when migrating from notebook to PC I just dd-ed it and fixed fstab. My current system is 5 years old :)
Wow, 1M it's a lot! I wish we could have more organizations like this in more countries.
I would recommend generating your passwords and storing them in a local password manager like KeePassXC. This way, you only need to remember one password from the database itself and you will not worry if any website leaks its database since all your passwords are unique.
Can't wait to review PRs from my Mastodon or Lemmy account 😁