My experience with the Deck, triumphs and defeats

[ba0701]

This is going to be long, but I do feel the need to spend my opening comments commending Valve on what they have accomplished with the Deck.

I have had a few days to experience this incredible machine at this point, first couple of days as a handheld due to waiting on my dock to arrive.

Those first days were filled with joy and wonderment. I have been playing games on handhelds since the 70s, with the likes of Matell handheld football games and buying the original GameBoy on launch week.

I love handheld systems, and the posibilities they represent. The Deck is the culmination of decades of handheld gaming, and some incredible innovation by Valve. The graphics presented on this device are simply stunning, so clean and sharp, and the controls really feel amazing. The quality of the hardware used far exceeds the likes of modern day peripherals like Scuf controllers, where in many cases they use the cheapest parts available with no consideration towards their customers or concern for getting their return business. Valve has designed and built the Deck with the clear knowledge that their customers will likely be working on the insides of this system, even making all parts available for purchase from iFixit. They should be commended for taking their end user's penchant for self repairs and modding into consideration, not something we see often, certainly not at this level.

As with any newly designed product, I have experienced some troubles. One of the main ways I plan on using the Deck is from the couch downstairs, using the TV as a monitor, where due to circumstances beyond my control I have to spend the vast majority of my time, away from my PC which is upstairs.

I purchased a Dock to help facilitate this, a 100W power supply for said dock, and due to the dock only having 2x USB 3.2 ports, I also purchased a USB hub. I have preordered the Jsaux "Upgraded Dock for the Steam Deck", but in order to use use the Deck as I had initially hoped while I waited, I also purchased an Anker USB C Hub 655. I chose this dock due to having 4K60, and 2x USB A 3.2 ports. The dock, dock power supply, USB hub, and all cables arrived yesterday, so I set out hooking it all up. Since I plan on using the Deck from the couch, connected to a 1080P TV, a wireless keyboard, mouse, and game controller are a must. I use the Razer Turret K&M, and an Xbox One Elite controller Series 2 on my PC, so I simply relocated these devices to the Deck. I immediately began to have some trouble getting anything to work correctly.

To begin with I am only sitting approximately 8' from the deck itself, so distance should not play a role. Both the K&M began to function intermittently, often locking the Deck up completely, and never working at the same time together. The Turret K&M use the same USB receiver, simplicity being the primary reson why I chose to use both Turret devices, I typically only use the Turret keyboard and either a Razer Basilisk Ultimate or a Logitech G903 Lightspeed.

So, I tried to use the other mice, while using the Turret keyboard, and the problem persisted. I then found that I experienced the issues when only using any of the devices by themselves. I tried all possibly configurations of these devices, connected to both the USB hub, which was connected to the dock, and while having the recievers plugged into just the dock, removing the hub from the equation entirely. No joy, the issues persisted.

Next I connected the Xbox One Elite Series 2 controller directly to the Deck using Bluetooth, thinking that I could simply use the Deck in Big Picture mode like a console, and found the controller would only function intermittently as well, usually ending with total loss of control, as whatever I was controlling would, out of nowhere, begin pointing down while spinning in circles. This too would eventually lead to the Deck freezing up, requiring a hard reset. Trying it along with all other hardware configurations, as well as while having just two devices connected to the Deck, the dock to facilitate moving the Deck video to the TV, and the controller so that I can control what is on the screen, and the results were always the same.

There can be a lot of reasons for what I am experiencing, all the way down to the hardware I am trying to use simply being incompatible with this device. I am trying to rule them all out, but it will take time.

Has anyone else encountered like results with the same hardware, and more importantly has anyone found a workaround or fix for these issues?

[ba0701]

Just a quick update, I just tried the Xbox One Elite 2 controller with just the Deck, no dock, no other devices connected, just the two devices pair with Bluetooth and operating approximately 6 inches away from one another. Same exact problems, so issues related to the controller are not related to any other devices. I have a few other Elite 2 controllers, and some Series 1, as well as other ways to try and connect them. More to come...

[ba0701]

Further updates, having tried a different Series 2 Elite controller, the newest one (Halo special Ed.), that one works perfectly. My other Series 2 controllers are all original Series 2 launch controllers, so something seems to have changed with them.

Now, onto testing other keyboards and mice, of which I don't have any other wireless mech keyboards, and not sure that I have any wired mice either. More to come...

[Bee🐝]

I'm kinda invested in this experiment now.

BTW, is it just the Bluetooth or do wired peripherals through the USB hub cause similar issues?

[ba0701]

Originally posted by Bee:

I'm kinda invested in this experiment now.

BTW, is it just the Bluetooth or do wired peripherals through the USB hub cause similar issues?

I haven't tried any wired peripherals yet, only wireless. So far I have connected a set of Sony headphones (worked perfectly, other than an occasional pop and hiss, and the occasional dropping of audio that is ever so brief and far between occurrences) and the Series 2 controllers through Bluetooth, the mice and keyboard all connect to their own dongles. Wired KB is next on my list to try.

[ba0701]

Ok, so the latest. I have moved the hub away from the deck (just in case there could be some interference, a lot of stuff in the general vicinity, like the Deck, dock, a console, and the TV), and I have connected the Turret keyboard dongle, a dongle for a Razer Basilisk Ultimate Hyperspeed, and a dongle for an 8bitDo wireless arcade stick (might end up moving it to Bluetooth, depending on performance). Everything is now functioning. The mouse and keyboard are no longer working intermittently, and have not frozen the deck up. After I can get some burn in time, I will report back my findings.

Couple of things off the top. First of all, whoever created wireless had to have been married, my wife is the primary driver for trying to get all wireless devices working. At this point she is pleased, happy wife happy life.

Second, I hope that Razer might decide writing drivers for their devices, for Linux. I, of course might just simply be unaware of some that exist, but at this early stage I am unable to change the RGB colors on the mouse and keyboard, and am currently stuck with constantly changing colors.

In case anyone is interested, I cannot recommend the Razer Turret enough. I have a lengthy review of it on Amazon, comparing it and every other popular lapboard on the market. It is the best I have found for use with my PC and, if you're so interested, Xbox One (I don't use it there, so can't comment on it)

Now onto testing, more to come...

[WarnerCK]

Originally posted by ba0701:

Second, I hope that Razer might decide writing drivers for their devices, for Linux. I, of course might just simply be unaware of some that exist, but at this early stage I am unable to change the RGB colors on the mouse and keyboard, and am currently stuck with constantly changing colors.

I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for Razer to pull their finger out. However, you might have luck with OpenRGB:
https://flathub.org/apps/details/org.openrgb.OpenRGB

On a normal distro you'd also have the option of OpenRazer, but I don't think that would work on SteamOS with its immutable filesystem.

I've not used either, since I try to avoid RGB stuff, and my mouse can be configured (including its RGB) with Piper.

[ba0701]

Originally posted by WarnerCK:

Originally posted by ba0701:

Second, I hope that Razer might decide writing drivers for their devices, for Linux. I, of course might just simply be unaware of some that exist, but at this early stage I am unable to change the RGB colors on the mouse and keyboard, and am currently stuck with constantly changing colors.

I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for Razer to pull their finger out. However, you might have luck with OpenRGB:
https://flathub.org/apps/details/org.openrgb.OpenRGB

On a normal distro you'd also have the option of OpenRazer, but I don't think that would work on SteamOS with its immutable filesystem.

I've not used either, since I try to avoid RGB stuff, and my mouse can be configured (including its RGB) with Piper.

Thank you so much for that, will definitely check those out! Would be great if Razer put some memory in their devices, allowing profiles to be saved on the device like Logitech does. Perhaps one day. Thank you, very much, again!

[PopinFRESH]

IMO Razer is the worst and most overrated peripheral company; and I don't get why they along with others just default to RGB rainbow puke when their software doesn't explicitly load a profile. Just toss a tiny amount of NVRAM on the thing and keep the last settings there.

I'd also concur with WarnerCK, we will all probably be long dead before Razer would bother making drivers and/or control software for any variant of Linux. You should definitely be able to install OpenRazer (using the same package for Arch) but you'd need to temporarily disable the filesystems write protections... and this is something that will get broken with every SteamOS update. IMO get a keyboard that doesn't require any special drivers or software to function properly on Linux. For mouse, either Lightspeed Pro X or G502 both have programable controls and the G502 has 5 on-board memory profiles. Both have worked well for me on major Linux distributions without any additional drivers or software.

[ba0701]

Originally posted by PopinFRESH:

IMO Razer is the worst and most overrated peripheral company; and I don't get why they along with others just default to RGB rainbow puke when their software doesn't explicitly load a profile. Just toss a tiny amount of NVRAM on the thing and keep the last settings there.

I'd also concur with WarnerCK, we will all probably be long dead before Razer would bother making drivers and/or control software for any variant of Linux. You should definitely be able to install OpenRazer (using the same package for Arch) but you'd need to temporarily disable the filesystems write protections... and this is something that will get broken with every SteamOS update. IMO get a keyboard that doesn't require any special drivers or software to function properly on Linux. For mouse, either Lightspeed Pro X or G502 both have programable controls and the G502 has 5 on-board memory profiles. Both have worked well for me on major Linux distributions without any additional drivers or software.

I have a Logi G903 Lightspeed, love that mouse, will try it later today. The Turret keyboard, however, will be much more difficult to replace for me I'm afraid. I have the Xbox version, though it's never been plugged into one yet. Having tried every lapboard I could find, I have not found anything that is equal in funtionality yet, though the Corsair K63 is close so I may move back to it. My situation, unfortunately, requires my use of a lapboard.

Thank you for the heads up on the file system write protections. I was an MCSE 2x, but am fairly new to Linux.

[WarnerCK]

A good site for learning about Linux gaming and the Steam Deck is https://www.gamingonlinux.com/

They've also got a YouTube channel, forum, and Discord in case you're after specific guides or specific help.

[ba0701]

Originally posted by WarnerCK:

A good site for learning about Linux gaming and the Steam Deck is https://www.gamingonlinux.com/

They've also got a YouTube channel, forum, and Discord in case you're after specific guides or specific help.

Bookmarked, thank you very much for that!