I am a Steam Deck user, that I plugged on my tv but it starts to be a bit too weak for the games I want to play. So I built a new rig:
AMD Ryzen 5 7600X3D
AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16 GB
32 GB DDR5
1 TB NVMe SSD
Asus B850M motherboard with this stupid Mediatek Wi-Fi+Bluetooth chip that should finally have a driver in kernel 7.1
…that I want to use, almost exclusively on the TV with a controller in hand.
I was tempted to use the CachyOS handled edition, but every thread I found was saying not to use the handled edition on a PC (not sure why). I actually had a quick try but was struggling with my Wi-Fi driver.
So I installed the desktop edition, with the regular KDE desktop. I created my admin user and a “gamer” user that the whole family will use (using Steam account management for keeping everyone’s saves separated). The computer log in the “gamer” session at start and Steam starts automatically in big picture.
I want to have the most couch/controller-only experience. Now, here are the hiccups I have:
Startup is a bit slow, I can see the KDE desktop appearing, and then Steam Big Picture will load
Every time I want to connect a Bluetooth device (like my headphones), I need to exit Big Picture and use a mouse to click on the Bluetooth icon in the taskbar to connect to my headphones, then enter Big Picture again.
When the computer enters sleep, I can’t wake it up with my controllers (one Xbox S controller in Bluetooth and several Xbox 360 controllers with the Microsoft USB-Dongle). Again, I need to plug a mouse or a keyboard to wake it up.
Many games open launchers (Cyberpunk (I can disable it with options in the launch command), Red Dead Redemption), while they don’t on the Steam Deck (even without specifying the options)
Despite using Steam Input, I can’t get the Steam virtual keyboard on several games (Elden Rings to enter the mandatory character name) while it was not an issue on Steam Deck
The transition between big picture and the game windows is cluncky, often transitionning via the KDE desktop
What could I do to have a better couch experience?
@ This post is ai generated - That ISO ships with handheld-specific daemons (like Handheld Daemon for Legion/Ally controllers), battery-optimized schedulers, and power-button scripts that actively conflict with standard desktop hardware. You can achieve the native SteamOS experience on your Desktop Edition by installing Valve’s micro-compositor.
Open your terminal and run: sudo pacman -S gamescope-session-cachyos
Log out of your “gamer” account to return to the SDDM login screen.
Select the “gamer” user.
Before typing the password, look for the session dropdown (usually in the bottom-left or bottom-right corner). Change it from Plasma (Wayland) to Gamescope (or SteamOS).
Log in.
If you have auto-login enabled for the gamer account, it will automatically boot straight into this Gamescope session from now on.
Waking from Sleep
This is the only hiccup Gamescope won’t magically fix, because it is an ACPI hardware issue.
By default, Linux powers down USB ports during sleep. Waking a Linux PC via a Mediatek Bluetooth chip is notoriously finicky, but waking it with your Xbox 360 USB dongle is highly reliable once configured on your motherboard.
Reboot your rig and hit Del or F2 to enter your Asus B850M BIOS.
Press F7 for Advanced Mode.
Navigate to the Advanced tab, then find APM Configuration.
Enable Power On By USB (it may also be labeled as Wake on PCIe/USB or Resume from S3/S4).
Save and exit.
Your USB dongle should now remain powered and be able to wake the rig from sleep with a controller press.
The response above it AI generated but the thread is not.
I have installed the Gamescope Session and set the “gamer” user to start with it.
It seems to work as I intended (at least I can manage my Bluetoot devices from the Gamescope interface).
I didn’t bother with SDDM yet; I still have the default PlasmaSession session manager. The inconvenience is that if I choose “Return to desktop”, it will direct me to PlasmaSession, then the KDE desktop, and I have no way of returning to Gamescope without rebooting.