Handheld Boot Into Desktop Mode

Issues & Assistance
1

I’ve been working on setting up my install of CachyOS so I can swap from Desktop Mode on my monitor into Game Mode on my TV. I almost got it down just how I want it but I have one small problem. The version of Handheld Mode that I installed is causing my PC, everytime I log out of or restart my computer, to autoboot into Game Mode and I don’t want it to.

It’s a minor nuisance but those things tend to add up and I’d like to make it so my PC boots into Desktop Mode instead while still allowing me to swap into Game Mode using the “Return To Gaming Mode” shortcut.

I’ve noticed that whenever I change the behavior on the login screen from “Auto Login With Big Picture” to anything else it’ll just change right back to “Auto Login With Big Picture.” I’m wondering if that’s connected to my problem. Thanks in advance.

2

Hellooo! Anyone? Come on, guys, if we wanted “pure steam deck experience”, we would stay on steam os, but a lot of people nowadays use the device as an actual portable computer. Do something about this sith finally! Eve fecking bazzite can do that!

“user support” my ass

3

Hang on there, you have to remember this is a free service. Yelling at people in general isn’t very nice or productive; and that goes double if the service in question is free.

If people don’t know then people don’t know. I suppose a good way to find out would be to ask the folks at Bazzite how they did it, it might be as simple as some file configs to swap around. Either way, it’s best not to get too angry about it.

4

Agreed.

And their first post and not even on their own thread.

But I’ll just ignore that bit this time.

( Oh and your opening post was your first, so welcome. )

If its the thing causing this then .. well .. its the source.
What exactly was installed?

5

Thank you.

I used the Handheld Mode download from the CachyOS Package Installer. The fix I did to specify the screen was actually supplied from Bazzite: Steam Gaming Mode Quirks and Workarounds - Bazzite Documentation . Specifically the part about specifying the correct monitor for Gaming Mode.
Turns out that worked on CachyOS; bit of a blind guess honestly but it worked.

I don’t know if that’s connected though, because the real issue is that it’s affecting the mode CachyOS boots into at launch/log in independent of monitor choice. It’s a minor nuisance but those tend to pile up and I’d like to fix it if possible.

6

I am guessing this means cachyos-handheld.

If so then it brings in some files to your SDDM conf;

So we may want to override that behavior with our own file, ex;

/etc/sddm.conf.d/zz-zoverrides.conf

[Autologin]
Relogin=false
Session=
User=

( Yes, the file name matters, as it will dictate the order in which the various confs are loaded. )

7

Hey, sorry for not getting back to you for over a week. I had to go to the other side of the US for a bit so was away from my PC.

I did what you said and, yep, that worked and fixed my issue. So thanks for that.

I’ve almost got it how I want but I have one last thing. The “steamos-gamemode.desktop” button located in etc/skel/Desktop just takes me to the login screen and I have to manually swap to Big Picture Mode to enable the Game Mode session.

Is there a way to make it so that way the button takes me to Game Mode automatically without the login? Or is that just fundamentally incompatible with the Desktop Mode fix? Because if I can only have one or the other I’d rather have the Desktop login but if I could fix that it’d be perfect.

8

Yeah, that thing is just a glorified ‘logout’.

( Really .. the code is just equal to a Plasma menu > Log Out )

Without being coupled with some sort of automatic login logic for another session - its even more pointless than it already is.

We might be able to write something else though…

9

Glad to know, won’t waste my time with that button anymore. Thank you.

10

So whats the solution?

11

Best thing to do is to use /usr/lib/os-session-select plasma-persistent
But this doesn’t allow to use the “Return to gaming mode” icon on the desktop.

12

This was very helpful for me. Thank you!. I just have one other question if it isn’t too much trouble. Is it possible to auto login to the plasma desktop? if so how?

13

Plasma autologin should be available right through the System Settings KCM for SDDM ( System Settings > Appearance & Style > Colors & Themes > Login Screen (SDDM) ) - from there you can click on the Behavior button at the top and it will provide an option on the resulting page to “Automatically log in” as a specific user and a specific session.

If you need the config file equivalent it would be something like;

/etc/sddm.conf.d/zz-custom.conf

[Autologin]
Relogin=true
Session=plasma
User=fergieferg