Question about these forums.....

NimrodX · 2023-12-28 10:03:52

Greetings. I'm kind of new to Arch specifically, and basically only got into it because of using SteamOS on a Steam Deck. (I'm usually more into Ubuntu LTS type stuff rather than rolling upgrade distros.)

I know the rules say "go ask the specific community about specific variants", but I'm actually having a difficult time finding a proper technical community for SteamOS. I guess this isn't surprising since it's not really an open project and isn't run like one.

If anyone could either point me to the right place or let me know if it's ok to discuss SteamOS stuff here that would be helpful. Right now I'm primarily trying to see if I can get xrdp working somehow, which seems to mostly be an Arch thing with some specifics about how X/wayland/sddm is set up in SteamOS.

schard · 2023-12-28 10:27:27

Non-authoritative answer, as I am not a Staff member.

1) There is currently no support for Steam OS here.
2) Your proper go-to address would probably be the Valve support.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2023-12-28 10:35:44

https://steamcommunity.com/groups/steam … ussions/1/

NimrodX · 2023-12-28 11:33:07

Ok, well I'll keep looking then. Problems are:

1) There's no support for SteamOS at Valve unless you're just installing Steam games.
2) So valve support won't do anything and it's up to everyone to reverse-engineer SteamOS essentially.
3) Forums on Steam have basically zero third-party developer participation so aren't terribly useful. Someone there tried to refer me "here" (that is, "the whole Arch community").

BTW, the Arch Wiki currently has a Steam Deck page and a SteamOS page for some reason.

seth · 2023-12-28 13:39:36

BTW, the Arch Wiki currently has a Steam Deck page and a SteamOS page for some reason.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Steam_Deck wrote:

Warning: This article discusses use of the Steam Deck with plain Arch Linux, not SteamOS. While the latter is an Arch-based distribution, it has several packages that differ from the official repositories, and is not supported by the Arch Linux community.

The steamdeck is a piece of HW and there's a wiki page for Steam, Valves software that you can install in various linux distros, including archlinux.

Neither is SteamOS and SteamOS isn't archlinux either and if there's a wiki page about SteamOS except for https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Arch-b … ons#Active which lists a bunch of derivates that are also all not archlinux, please link that here.

The point is that archlinux is a pretty much a distro for curious individualists who intend to tailor-fit their system and understand (mostly…) how it's setup and works.
SteamOS is as much archlinux as is manjaro, endeavouros or ubuntu: "not".

There's nothing wrong with that, but we're also not running Valves customer service for a bunch of end users who then ask stuff like "and where exactly can I find this fstab thingy"; if you're unhappy with Valves service, quit your contract.
If you want to install your own archlinux system and then run steam on it you can ask for help here any time.
And no: you cannot "convert" steamos into archlinux, that misses the point mentioned above.
=> https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Installation_guide

WorMzy · 2023-12-28 14:08:18

As noted, the Steam Deck is a piece of hardware, and you can install Arch Linux on it, which is supportable by this community, hence the presence of this page (note the red warning message at the top of the page). The OS the Steam Deck comes with is SteamOS, which may be based on Arch Linux, but is not supportable by this community. We are not the authoritative people to ask where to seek support for that OS.

Mod note: Moving to Forum and Wiki discussion.

twelveeighty · 2023-12-28 16:06:36

NimrodX wrote:

I'm actually having a difficult time finding a proper technical community for SteamOS.

Once upon a time there wasn't a technical community for Arch but volunteers created one. It didn't fall out of the sky one day. Why don't you roll up your sleeves and work on creating a technical community for StreamOS yourself? If you want to get Arch support, then install Arch on your device using the Installation Guide.

ugjka · 2023-12-28 16:43:01

These forums here are strictly for Archlinux, but there are more generalized linux forums out there that could probably give you support

https://www.linuxquestions.org/
https://www.linux.org/forums/
https://unix.stackexchange.com/

There also reddits and what not

Good luck

NimrodX · 2023-12-29 04:34:28

WorMzy wrote:

As noted, the Steam Deck is a piece of hardware, and you can install Arch Linux on it, which is supportable by this community, hence the presence of this page (note the red warning message at the top of the page). The OS the Steam Deck comes with is SteamOS, which may be based on Arch Linux, but is not supportable by this community. We are not the authoritative people to ask where to seek support for that OS.
Mod note: Moving to Forum and Wiki discussion.

Ok, makes sense. Only reason I'd even think to try here was there's some stuff that's high overlap (like right now I'm trying to figure out sddm well enough to try to make xrdp work as closely to however sddm is set up as possible) but still of course has the oddities of a different distro.

I've also got this Pinebook Pro, but I'm not sure what I want to do with that yet. It came with Manjaro, and I'll probably just stick with that since the fact that it came with Manjaro suggests that they're the main ones interested in making the specific hardware work.

I guess I'm getting a bit too old and busy to create my own install of everything from scratch myself anymore......

twelveeighty wrote:

NimrodX wrote:
I'm actually having a difficult time finding a proper technical community for SteamOS.
Once upon a time there wasn't a technical community for Arch but volunteers created one. It didn't fall out of the sky one day. Why don't you roll up your sleeves and work on creating a technical community for StreamOS yourself? If you want to get Arch support, then install Arch on your device using the Installation Guide.

I'm considering that, though first I want to write up a "teardown" document describing everything that's different between SteamOS and a typical Arch install with KDE Plasma and X/wayland. (I was trying to figure out where this should live. Some sort of wiki seems to be the way to go, but it sounds like the arch wiki isn't a good spot. A dedicated wiki might be needed, but I haven't found everything yet so still not sure. Trying to avoid jumping to reimplementing the wheel etc. as sometimes happens.)

ugjka wrote:

These forums here are strictly for Archlinux, but there are more generalized linux forums out there that could probably give you support
https://www.linuxquestions.org/
https://www.linux.org/forums/
https://unix.stackexchange.com/
There also reddits and what not
Good luck

Yea Reddit is probably my next stop since that looks promising but I'll check those out as well. Thanks.

Last edited by NimrodX (2023-12-29 04:41:11)

Nebulosa · 2023-12-29 06:06:01

NimrodX wrote:

I'm considering that, though first I want to write up a "teardown" document describing everything that's different between SteamOS and a typical Arch install with KDE Plasma and X/wayland. (I was trying to figure out where this should live. Some sort of wiki seems to be the way to go, but it sounds like the arch wiki isn't a good spot. A dedicated wiki might be needed, but I haven't found everything yet so still not sure. Trying to avoid jumping to reimplementing the wheel etc. as sometimes happens.)

You should try make this on a Github: https://docs.github.com/en/communities/ … bout-wikis

Arch Linux

#1 2023-12-28 10:03:52

Question about these forums.....

#2 2023-12-28 10:27:27

Re: Question about these forums.....

#3 2023-12-28 10:35:44

Re: Question about these forums.....

#4 2023-12-28 11:33:07

Re: Question about these forums.....

#5 2023-12-28 13:39:36

Re: Question about these forums.....

#6 2023-12-28 14:08:18

Re: Question about these forums.....

#7 2023-12-28 16:06:36

Re: Question about these forums.....

#8 2023-12-28 16:43:01

Re: Question about these forums.....

#9 2023-12-29 04:34:28

Re: Question about these forums.....

#10 2023-12-29 06:06:01

Re: Question about these forums.....

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