Help with mods for Steamdeck

[Jlf2n]

I’ve been trying unsuccessfully for weeks to get Vortex and whatever else I may need to run mods working on my steam deck for Stardew Valley. I’ve watched a bunch of videos but none of them seem to address the issues I encounter, which is the constant “please choose a program to open the exe or application with

I got SMAPI installed fairy easy. But then it started asking me to install windows 10 or newer so I decided to back up a bit.

I then learned about Vortex, but when I download it it keeps asking me to choose a program to run it with. I couldn’t find anything on the web other than vague references of steam tinker launcher so I’ve been trying to install it hoping it could execute my files.

I found myself on Pikdums GitHub page trying to download the install.desktop link but it saves as an html and not as a desktop file like I see in videos.

Can anyone help me make sense of all this mess? I used to mod for all kinds of games back in the day but this is absolutely ridiculous in how hard it is. Guess I’m getting to old…

[a2sauce2]

Okay, so we got it working on my wife's Steam Deck. It took about a week of trial and error. No idea why it eventually worked, nor why it wasn't working. You will need to go to desktop mode to do this. Couple of things that worked for us:
1. Vortex doesn't work for Stardew Valley. Just... I have never had it work on any system. Erase it from existence.
2. Uninstall Stardew Valley.
3. Uninstall SMAPI.
4. Go to the smapi dot io website. Download that. I think we used version 4.0.7, but it might have been 4.0.8
5. Navigate to the Steam game folder for Stardew valley. Make sure all the old smapi files are erased. You want NOTHING there.
6. Install Stardew Valley from steam.
7. Run the SMAPI install.
8. Install one easy to check mod (The NPC locator is a great one that you can check on an unmodded save).
Here is the special sauce:
9. Run SMAPI from TERMINAL. That means booting into terminal in the appropriate folder, and typing in the command to start it. This makes sure that the log stays readable so you can see if anything failed/worked. If SMAPI is working, you should see it actually load the one mod you installed.
10. If it looks like it worked, you can load any game, and test your mod.
11. If it worked successfully, close the game.
12. Add the SMAPI boot file (StardewModdingAPI.exe) to steam using the Games menu to "Add a Non-Steam game to my library".

It should now work on game mode.
Things to worry about: Did Stardew install as the Linux version or the Windows version? You want the Windows version ran through proton. I know that sounds backwards.
If one version of SMAPI doesn't work, try another.
DO NOT USE VORTEX. THIS WILL BREAK EVERYTHING.
If all goes well, you can play unmodded Stardew by simply booting the regular steam game, and the modded version by booting the custom one you added.


Honestly, success seemed random. But we really wanted to play with mods together, and the deck is her only gaming computer. So we kept trying, and this process seemed to work for us. An external keyboard and mouse help a LOT for this.