Allow option to make certain Steam Users match System Users

[Christian]

Preface that I don't have a Deck (yet) so I might be wrong about certain details. And before anyone asks: The default Steam Library could be moved to /var or another place so that multiple users can use the same library. There's also btrfs and symlinks tricks that could be done.

It has come to my attention that SteamOS currently has only one $HOME that is shared across every Steam User on the Deck UI. I understand why it is the way it is, but this isn't ideal in my opinion, as it severely limits what the device could be accomplishing if there was an option to tie certain Steam Users with System users.

A shared $HOME means shared game saves for the games that don't follow Valve's recommendation, which surprise surprise: Is a huge amount of games.

It hinders the usage of the Desktop Mode, as every Steam User will share the same desktop mode, which means bye-bye privacy. The solution to that is to use a password on Desktop Mode, but that in turns hinders multi-user, as only one user has access to a marketed feature of the device. And even then it doesn't seem perfect, from my understanding an DeckUI user could add an application, Firefox for example, to the Deck UI and access its contents, no?

Consoles have great multi-user support, Linux also has great multi-user support. The Deck is both but the current implementation hurts multi-user.

And a sort of bonus: It would make it easier to share the same /home across SteamOS and another Distro for heavy desktop usage. I know it doesn't officially supports dual boot (yet), but it would be really nice to have a distro installed for heavy desktop usage that shares the same /home as SteamOS.

[cambot11]

Originally posted by WS:

A shared $HOME means shared game saves for the games that don't follow Valve's recommendation, which surprise surprise: Is a huge amount of games.

I continue to see people run into this issue. Having shared saves runs contrary to the expectations of anyone who has used a console and expects saves to isolated by profile.

Even the official Steam Deck website says:

Can you have multiple Steam accounts on one Steam Deck?

Yes, and each account on a Steam Deck will keep its own local save data and settings.

So I can't blame people for expecting exactly that. I'm not sure what would be the best way to solve this issue (one being multiple Linux users like the OP suggests) but something needs to be done. I hope the software people at Valve can come up with something.

[Prezidentas]

If a developer can't follow steam recommendations, then it's the developer's fault.
SteamOS is not designed to be used for general computing purposes. And I highly doubt any major partition restructuring is gonna occur any time soon...

[Christian]

Originally posted by Red Star Gopnik:

If a developer can't follow steam recommendations, then it's the developer's fault.
SteamOS is not designed to be used for general computing purposes. And I highly doubt any major partition restructuring is gonna occur any time soon...

I would agree with that if it were another feature, but the problem with this particular issue is that SteamOS is based off Linux. The solution to this was solved a long long time ago, and it is present in virtually every distro. Again, adding multiple individual homes would fix the issue with saves, and would also make the Desktop Mode more usable, it would kill two birds with one stone. I'm not gonna pretend it is easy to make the changes, but it would make the system better.

[davidprieto]

+1.

[MidLifeDIY]

+1

I would love to see a new $HOME created for any new user to log in through SteamOS. As I intend on (shipped not yet here) using the Decks desktop I'd like users separate.

Family will use the device so it would be tidy that way. Just set the primary user as admin.

[TheFlyingCrocodile]

id like this too the $HOME should just be the steam username you login with so only you can use it

[d[-_-]b]

$HOME is just the directory the user , in this case the default (deck) , is placed.
If you use the useradd command you can setup a new user with its own home directory.
Since steam installs all its stuff in $HOME/.steam ... then each user has its own steam account.
So as proven, multiple users can be added in.
Then there is the gamemode and logging in to the accounts.
Well the displaymanager/loginmanager has configs /
such as /etc/sddm.d/steamos.conf
These has autologin setup.
Just turn this off..

your welcome

you can also have users share the same directory if you wish using group permissions.

however adding this to the OS sounds problematic since the whole rootfs gets wiped on each update. this includes the password files and configs mentioned
so you will have to make the changes and set permissions each time.
But people think that having this snapshot update system is alot better.

[TheFlyingCrocodile]

Originally posted by #/DragonKeeper:

$HOME is just the directory the user , in this case the default (deck) , is placed.
If you use the useradd command you can setup a new user with its own home directory.
Since steam installs all its stuff in $HOME/.steam ... then each user has its own steam account.
So as proven, multiple users can be added in.
Then there is the gamemode and logging in to the accounts.
Well the displaymanager/loginmanager has configs /
such as /etc/sddm.d/steamos.conf
These has autologin setup.
Just turn this off..

your welcome

you can also have users share the same directory if you wish using group permissions.

however adding this to the OS sounds problematic since the whole rootfs gets wiped on each update. this includes the password files and configs mentioned
so you will have to make the changes and set permissions each time.
But people think that having this snapshot update system is alot better.

thats why it would be nice for it to be a feature of the OS so its configured to not be wiped everytime you update, using your actual steam login for the user login would simplify this in my opinion

[Prezidentas]

Originally posted by GIRTH TheFlyingCrocodile:

Originally posted by #/DragonKeeper:

$HOME is just the directory the user , in this case the default (deck) , is placed.
If you use the useradd command you can setup a new user with its own home directory.
Since steam installs all its stuff in $HOME/.steam ... then each user has its own steam account.
So as proven, multiple users can be added in.
Then there is the gamemode and logging in to the accounts.
Well the displaymanager/loginmanager has configs /
such as /etc/sddm.d/steamos.conf
These has autologin setup.
Just turn this off..

your welcome

you can also have users share the same directory if you wish using group permissions.

however adding this to the OS sounds problematic since the whole rootfs gets wiped on each update. this includes the password files and configs mentioned
so you will have to make the changes and set permissions each time.
But people think that having this snapshot update system is alot better.

thats why it would be nice for it to be a feature of the OS so its configured to not be wiped everytime you update, using your actual steam login for the user login would simplify this in my opinion

you want your own Steam password to be stored locally on an insecure OS like SteamOS?
I guess they could hash it but still

[d[-_-]b]

Originally posted by GIRTH TheFlyingCrocodile:

Originally posted by #/DragonKeeper:

$HOME is just the directory the user , in this case the default (deck) , is placed.
If you use the useradd command you can setup a new user with its own home directory.
Since steam installs all its stuff in $HOME/.steam ... then each user has its own steam account.
So as proven, multiple users can be added in.
Then there is the gamemode and logging in to the accounts.
Well the displaymanager/loginmanager has configs /
such as /etc/sddm.d/steamos.conf
These has autologin setup.
Just turn this off..

your welcome

you can also have users share the same directory if you wish using group permissions.

however adding this to the OS sounds problematic since the whole rootfs gets wiped on each update. this includes the password files and configs mentioned
so you will have to make the changes and set permissions each time.
But people think that having this snapshot update system is alot better.

thats why it would be nice for it to be a feature of the OS so its configured to not be wiped everytime you update, using your actual steam login for the user login would simplify this in my opinion

Well to change this they would have to change how they update all together. Its not a simple change to allow this one thing. Its either the system is wiped on update or its not.

[Busted]

I was surprised that Valve has a generic single user for everything on the deck as well...

Seems.. Messy.. Unprofessional.

If Valve were a SysAdmin over a system and did this where all users share the same home directory... They'd be a terrible SysAdmin. Would be openly mocked by the Linux community..

Heck.. Even Windows has user directories separated so.. Yeah.. It's kind of embarrassing.

[d[-_-]b]

Originally posted by Busted:

I was surprised that Valve has a generic single user for everything on the deck as well...

Seems.. Messy.. Unprofessional.

If Valve were a SysAdmin over a system and did this where all users share the same home directory... They'd be a terrible SysAdmin. Would be openly mocked by the Linux community..

Heck.. Even Windows has user directories separated so.. Yeah.. It's kind of embarrassing.

Yeah it looks that way but its because of how they update, which insures that updates are how they are given, exactly. This makes sure that people that dont know how to use linux run into less problems i guess ? Helps to bring more people to linux with ease.
It does introduce this issue since accounts are part of the rootfs But im guessing that they expected it to be a one person (one account) device

[TheFlyingCrocodile]

Originally posted by #/DragonKeeper:

Yeah it looks that way but its because of how they update, which insures that updates are how they are given, exactly. This makes sure that people that dont know how to use linux run into less problems i guess ? Helps to bring more people to linux with ease.
It does introduce this issue since accounts are part of the rootfs But im guessing that they expected it to be a one person (one account) device

Valve forgot that people are sometimes parts of families that share a device in a household?

[maxRunner]

I suspect this was left out for expediency. Valve clearly didn't forget multiple accounts since multi-accounts work in game mode. They pretty much have to fix this because it's causing cloud sync errors.