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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 6th, 2023

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  • This is interesting to me for my use case scenario, specifically SteamOS.

    What I’m trying to do is run an emulated Everquest server (lookup EQEmu). The community there has several methods of installation of the server, Windows, Linux, and Docker. The hurdle to overcome is the immutable file system, specifically when it comes to the database (MariaDB). I think I may have found a work around via Linux brew and installing MariaDB through that (which I’ve done, I just have to make the final connection). However the Docker setup, when running it on a separate distro is stupid easy. If they make this a Flatpak, it can potentially be the solution I’m looking for.

    Really the end goal is creating a Single player Everquest. I have a dual boot with it operating via Windows, but would much prefer to have it on the SteamOS side of the house.


  • Edit: My bad. I did the thing where I read like the first two sentences and didn’t read the rest. Reading the rest of the reply basically acknowledged my refute.

    The majority of this waste is coming from businesses that now need to upgrade. That’s why there are IT departments to figure it out for the tech illiterate. As long as they can open their email client, a text editor and excel, you’ve overcome 90% of what a business needs for their computers.

    You are right, Grandma Jones with her 800x600 resolution screen, 10 downloaded tool bars and Microsoft Edge ain’t going to get it, but Grandma Jones is still using XP, a CRT and a Gateway Computer she bought back in 2006





  • I’ve seen virt-manager recommended in similar situations like mine. I’ll explore it - at first my thought was it may not be ideal as I’ll most likely need to overcome the immutable file system that comes with SteamOS. You can bypass it, but it isn’t ideal as anything written into the innate read only section of the OS is wiped on update. But thinking about it more, I may be able to use distrobox as a way to bypass it. Thanks for the recommendation, I’ll report back with my findings. I also appreciate you mentioning the qemu user mode networking with gnome boxes, that makes sense.



  • Yes - went from my 512 LCD to the LE OLED. I already upgraded the nvme to a 2tb in the LCD, so I just swapped it out.

    Screen is definitely more impressive, but that wasn’t the main reason I upgraded. It was the better battery life that made it worth it. The other efficiencies, upgrades to the controls, were icing on the cake, but battery life far and above was the thing that made it worth it. But as many have said, the screen is damn impressive.

    There wasn’t a single shred of buyer’s remorse. But I also play on it every day and tinker with it non stop. So depending on how much you utilize your deck may effect whether it’s worth it for you or not.


  • Bought the 512gb LCD via preorder, got a 2tb for it, upgraded/skinned it with personalizations, then got the LE OLED when it went live.

    For me, personally, I thought it was well worth it. However I use it daily. I have a fully functional rig with 3080, but just find myself constantly tinkering with my deck and like being able to take it on work trips constantly with minimal impact to my carry on weight. Beyond the screen, the battery life is the real winner here in combination with the enhancements. But I also had the money to spend on it. If you’re tight for cash, then it’s probably best to wait. Or you could try selling to offset cost. Just really depends on what you want to do for extra battery life and the like.







  • Yeah I had the exact same thought - “huh, transparent case and charging led” - but I hear they’re going to come out with an update to adjust the intensity of it, so that may help that.

    I also upgraded from OG 512 - personally love the OLED so far. Screen is really nice, battery life will be great to have on my business trips, and the clickiness of the Steam and … buttons is a definite improvement. Do you need any of these things? No… but they are really nice things.


  • I think most folks touched on the main ones as well as what you posted. The Librem 11 could potentially be something else to look at, but not sure about the German layout and price is above budget. Theoretically you could also look at doing a Steam Deck with a bluetooth keyboard, although the screen may be a bit on the small side, but would be well within budget even with buying a separate keyboard.

    Personally I haven’t had much experience with Linux based tablets. I would say the guy who mentioned converting the surface 3 to a Linux tablet would probably be the best bet for the set of requirements you’re looking at


  • So I wanted to follow up on this with what I did, and think I found the solution. This way if someone like me trawls the internet looking for something that is the same problem, they might have resolution.

    Basically I isolated the problem to podman. What it looks like is I had an existing podman directory pre-3.5.1 update and it had issues with distrobox. So what I did;

    Went to .local\podman - deleted the contents of that folder.

    Then followed the emudeck distrobox guide to reinstall podman to .local\bin\

    Made sure to rename the podman launcher to simply “podman”.

    I also edited the .bashrc in home\deck which looks like it had leftovers from the previous podman to have the following (per guide)

    #Uncomment the xhost line below if you know that you are using xhost #xhost +si:localuser:$USER export PATH=$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH

    I only re-installed podman, and left distrobox alone. You may also have to use the following commands, as I did;

    sudo touch /etc/subuid /etc/subgid

    sudo usermod --add-subuid 100000-165535 --add-subgid 100000-165535 $USER

    For reference, this is the guide - https://emudeck.github.io/community-creations/steamos/third-party-emulation/?h=distrobox#how-to-set-up-distrobox

    Hope this helps some stranger out there figure things out



  • No - strictly because I gutted windows update via a Windows Lite tutorial. Basically it’s an evergreen Windows OS that I’m using, so I never have to worry about Windows messing the boot. SteamOS will sometimes bork it, but I use Clover as my dual boot solution and it’s fairly easy to recover.

    The trouble with a stock Windows OS is the frequent updates, to the point of your question. I do believe there are ways to mitigate it, but does require a bit of prep and being aware of windows And its updates.


  • I have 0 regrets upgrading to 2tb. I now have a dual boot setup with windows taking 1tb and SteamOS taking the other 1tb, and then a 1tb SD card for the SteamOS side. Makes life sooooooo much easier, no longer having to play musical games for what I want on my deck. Can have a modded FO new Vegas list, modded morrowind list, and another couple dozen games with space to spare (ranging from Cyberpunk to terraria). And on the windows side, plenty of room there to play with my different server emulators, VMs and the like. It’s truly ideal and will give you substantially more freedom.


  • I would say wait for a sale, but easy for me to say since I already have my deck since over a year ago. If you’re strapped for cash or just working within a budget for the year, then yeah you can easily save at least 50 or more bucks on one. If money isn’t really an object and you got upcoming travel plans where you can capitalize on the steam deck’s mobility, then it’s worth it at current price too. I have easily spent over a grand on the steam deck from the actual unit (512 version at 650), 2tb SSD, 1tb SD card, case, dock, skins, back pad accessories, 1tb usb flash drive with usb c/usb a, etc.

    So all to say, if you like tinkering/making it your own, and are trying not to blow out your budget entirely, may be worth to save. I am glad I got the anti glare screen as I’m still not up for replacing the screen myself, but if the lowest model had the same screen, would have gotten that one and just swapped the SSD.