Re:Persistent packages on Steam Deck using Nix
by bsimpson on Sunday February 09, 2025 @06:49PM
(#42995377)
So you can add Nix packages as non-Steam games and use Nix to setup persistent systemd rules/daemons, even though this isn't NixOS?
Re:Persistent packages on Steam Deck using Nix
by Rikudou on Sunday February 09, 2025 @08:39PM
(#42996065)
Haven't tried adding Nix packages as non-Steam games, but you can use Home Manager to create user systemd rules.
Re:Persistent packages on Steam Deck using Nix
by saghm on Monday February 10, 2025 @01:04AM
(#42997381)
I haven't tried it personally, but from what I can tell, if you have a binary you can give a path to (and setting up env vars if needed in the "launch arguments"), you should be able to add it as a "non-Steam" game, and anything set up to start automatically via systemd seems to be properly started up in game mode, so I don't see why this wouldn't work!
Not sure if I'm misunderstanding what you mean by systemd rules, but from what I understand, enabling a systemd service (either at the system or user level) is the most reliable way to make sure that something starts up in game mode as well as desktop mode. Because I find it useful to ssh into my Steam deck for a lot of things rather than trying to do it all via desktop mode (e.g. managing config files for Baldur's Gate 3 mods that aren't from the in-game mod installer), and I always turn off wifi on it whenever I leave my apartment with it to save battery, I enabled the sshd systemd service, and it's available even if I boot up directly into game mode. I haven't actually been able to find any other way outside of an enabled systemd service to make things start up automatically in game mode, which ended up being an issue for me when I wanted to autostart something through Wine that didn't have an option to avoid trying (and failing) to open a window.