Dont buy the garbage dock

[SoloDolo]

It takes me 20 minutes a day trying to get this garbage to display to my monitor or to recognize peripherals. they helped troubleshoot a couple times until my warranty was up then denied me a refund. DO NOT BUY THIS GARBAGE DOCK FROM VALVE.

[deaddoof]

Go to the bios and change usb from drd to xhci. Deck have some driver problems with usb drd.

It takes me 20 minutes a day trying to get this garbage to display to my monitor or to recognize peripherals. they helped troubleshoot a couple times until my warranty was up then denied me a refund. DO NOT BUY THIS GARBAGE DOCK FROM VALVE.

Is it a monitor or TV? Does it use HDMI? HDMI is created by the same genius who created the SONY rootkit. They had a bright idea to add DRM to HDMI signals.

It turns out they are perfectly happy when you have a black screen for normal task. Apparently, having two monitors on the same usb c port is pirating. Pretty much affects any MST dock.

Your TV thinks you are a pirate.

[Misfit]

its the latest updates, worked fine before.
already rolled the deck back, it got better, but the dock still has massive issues since the firmware update.
takes multiple restarts to get the external display to work.
starts fine with the deck logo on screen, then its a gamble if he will connect to the display again during boot.
if he does it works fine, but an official peripheral really should work more reliable.

the whole dock thing is something that valve didnt seem to care much about, just look at the lack of options for gaming mode. i cant even change my hardware keyboards language settings. there are no options for a docked mode at all.

[deaddoof]

Originally posted by Misfit:

the whole dock thing is something that valve didnt seem to care much about, just look at the lack of options for gaming mode.

What do you mean don't care about? The problem is that Valve cares about display technology. Display technology is where innovation measures in years because the sheer amount of bugs between application and display. The display itself might have more bugs than you believe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2mnbyRgXkY&t=25695s

I guess Valve is learning their lesson about innovating display technology. Most hardware is if you attempt the way you want it to.

i cant even change my hardware keyboards language settings. there are no options for a docked mode at all.

Valve did screw themselves over with the 64 GB steam decks

[SLAINE]

I am very upset too.

We bought the official dock just because we thought:
"Hey lets spend 99€ instead of ~40€ for some third party dock, thus we do not run into compatibility issues with cheap hardware..."

now it is the EXACT opposite.
the dock just did not work with our TV. tried so much, firmware, plugged in/out power sup. even did a rain dance...
if i read "go to the bios" ... NO! this is supposed to work. why should the customer try hours of changes, hacks, downgrades, upgrades, to get something to work?


bought a cheap third party dock, and it is instant plug & play!!!

steam support just like: "no refund possible. rofl"

i feel scammed.

[ingramli]

Originally posted by SLAINE:

I am very upset too.

We bought the official dock just because we thought:
"Hey lets spend 99€ instead of ~40€ for some third party dock, thus we do not run into compatibility issues with cheap hardware..."

now it is the EXACT opposite.
the dock just did not work with our TV. tried so much, firmware, plugged in/out power sup. even did a rain dance...
if i read "go to the bios" ... NO! this is supposed to work. why should the customer try hours of changes, hacks, downgrades, upgrades, to get something to work?


bought a cheap third party dock, and it is instant plug & play!!!

steam support just like: "no refund possible. rofl"

i feel scammed.

To make things worse, there are some serious fanboys running around to defend the company and its devs, coming up numerous reasons that why things could go wrong which are not their fault, which don't make our life or feeling any better, it is almost like voluntary PR representative of the company (or may be he get paid? I have no clue nor do I care...)

[deaddoof]

Originally posted by ingramli:

To make things worse, there are some serious fanboys running around to defend the company and its devs, coming up numerous reasons that why things could go wrong which are not their fault, which don't make our life or feeling any better,

I want companies to open up the firmware. I defends devs who are willing to open themselves up to criticism like providing docs and source code. Open yourself up to criticism. The conversation changes.

it is almost like voluntary PR representative of the company (or may be he get paid? I have no clue nor do I care...)

Some of us defend our own way of life and freedom. Freedom is a good cause to fight for. Freedom is neither cheap nor easy either. Our values clash because you do not value freedom. We are in this mess because of a lack of freedom.

[ingramli]

Originally posted by 76561198074753063:

Some of us defend our own way of life and freedom. Freedom is a good cause to fight for. Freedom is neither cheap nor easy either. Our values clash because you do not value freedom. We are in this mess because of a lack of freedom.

Freedom? My deck is in a mess since 3.5.X released to stable. I don't have the freedom to return to 3.4.X branch, is that what you call freedom? While I do agree Valve did a decent job on their game store, the deck is entirely different story.

[deaddoof]

Originally posted by ingramli:

Originally posted by 76561198074753063:

Some of us defend our own way of life and freedom. Freedom is a good cause to fight for. Freedom is neither cheap nor easy either. Our values clash because you do not value freedom. We are in this mess because of a lack of freedom.

Freedom? My deck is in a mess since 3.5.X released to stable. I don't have the freedom to return to 3.4.X branch, is that what you call freedom? While I do agree Valve did a decent job on their game store, the deck is entirely different story.

Why is your definition of freedom have entitlement in it? Why do you assume you can ask Valve to change their infrastructure to solve your one specific problem? Freedom is a two way street.

Seriously....

https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/1B71-EDF2-EB6D-2BB3

About your problem, create a 3.4.x recovery image and select reinstall Steam OS. Be sure to check the recovery image because there is a number 4 listed. Valve has been refreshing their images.

https://steamdeck-images.steamos.cloud/recovery/

Be sure to grab the image with kernel version below 6.1

 Reinstall Steam OS
- This will reinstall SteamOS on the Steam Deck, while attempting to preserve your games and personal content.

Classic Linux distro separates home from the system partitions because it makes back up and restore much easier. I never used Steam OS recovery this way because I am a clean install type, but majority of Linux distro support it. Hopefully, Valve follow home partition convention.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/partitioning#/home

[ingramli]

Originally posted by deaddoof:

Originally posted by ingramli:

Freedom? My deck is in a mess since 3.5.X released to stable. I don't have the freedom to return to 3.4.X branch, is that what you call freedom? While I do agree Valve did a decent job on their game store, the deck is entirely different story.

Why is your definition of freedom have entitlement in it? Why do you assume you can ask Valve to change their infrastructure to solve your one specific problem? Freedom is a two way street.

Seriously....

https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/1B71-EDF2-EB6D-2BB3

About your problem, create a 3.4.x recovery image and select reinstall Steam OS. Be sure to check the recovery image because there is a number 4 listed. Valve has been refreshing their images.

https://steamdeck-images.steamos.cloud/recovery/

Be sure to grab the image with kernel version below 6.1

 Reinstall Steam OS
- This will reinstall SteamOS on the Steam Deck, while attempting to preserve your games and personal content.

Classic Linux distro separates home from the system partitions because it makes back up and restore much easier. I never used Steam OS recovery this way because I am a clean install type, but majority of Linux distro support it. Hopefully, Valve follow home partition convention.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/partitioning#/home

I have already re-image my deck previously with earlier recovery image, but it automatically update to latest stable build during setup, there is simply no workaround I am aware of.

[deaddoof]

Originally posted by ingramli:

I have already re-image my deck previously with earlier recovery image, but it automatically update to latest stable build during setup, there is simply no workaround I am aware of.

Damn it. Pretty valid complaint. Every distros have release philosophy for reason. At some point, user demands become unreasonable and the world has to move on. See Xorg. However, force updates without a methodology can easily confuse the user. The goal is to bring a sense a predictability to the user. Steam OS does not have one because Valve is pretty much dipping their feet.

https://gitlab.com/evlaV/jupiter-PKGBUILD#-thoughtsopinions-

I'd advocate the openness of Valve and the Steam Deck, but I unfortunately cannot attest to that. SteamOS 3.x is a terrible (and I honestly think worthy of the title "worst") distribution of Linux (e.g., SteamOS 3.x doesn't comply with Arch Linux or GNU/Linux philosophies), with Steam (proprietary and DRM) front and center, all else is secondary (or nonexistent); this unfortunately includes the (free/libre) open source software community, who are the very foundation which SteamOS is built upon. Look at the polarity between SteamOS 3.x / Steam Deck Gaming mode versus Desktop (and Recovery) mode to see where Valve's focus lies. The majority of Steam Deck updates enhance Steam / Gaming mode. 'Switch to Desktop' is the bottom/last Power option (excluding 'Cancel'). 'Return to Gaming Mode' (the mode the system (always) boots to) is the first (primary) Desktop option. SteamOS 3.x / Steam Deck is buttery smooth and pleasant in Steam / Gaming mode, compared to rough/painful (to say the least) in Desktop mode.