SteamOS + Linux Mint 19/Cinnamon hybrid - anyone interested?

[jonbitzen]

Hey Folks,

For my own entertainment and use I wrote a script which turns Linux Mint 19 into a fairly credible SteamOS hybrid.

The gist of it is that once you're done running the script and performing a few other setup steps, you have something like SteamOS (boots to Steam automatically using steamos session, exit to desktop via the powerbutton in the SteamOS interface), but it has a modern Ubuntu package repository backing it.

The key thing I think most people would get out of it is control over their drivers. You can enter a desktop session with your own username (not the default "desktop") and change the driver to whatever you want (I have it install the nVidia PPA by default) using the driver tool that comes with Ubuntu/Mint distros.

Plus a few other nifty things - for example you can enter a desktop session as the steam user, and configure the steam client to do a few things that the regular big picture/SteamOS interface wont do without a lot of wrangling.

For example you can add an alternate folder as your main steam game library. Then when you go back to regular BP/steamos mode, your games will install to the alternate folder first. So for example I have the OS booting off an SSD, and I have a big mechanical HDD for my games.

Another thing I was able to do by using the desktop steam client as the steam user, was to change the options to allow all the games available for Proton to show up - whether whitelisted or not.

When you reboot in steamos mode, all those options you set are honored in the BP/steamos mode. For example when you go into disk management, you'll be able to select between your steam game library folders.

Other benefits - I have home-server type stuff running easily. I'm currently running my home SMB share, my scm server (it's a local SCM management program with a web interface to create and manage git, svn, and hg repositories), and my Plex media server. It's nice because previously I had two machines, and now I have only one. I can use the other for something else, or sell it for upgrades :)

I've tried to do many of these things with straight SteamOS and I found the results unsatisfying.

If there's enough interest, I can post some additional details on how it all works, and maybe I can either post the script here, or create a space for it on Github.

Thanks,

jonbitzen

[dubigrasu]

Sure it would be useful, honestly I'd like to see most of the distros having an (optional of course) SteamOS mode (and no, not talking about setting the desktop client to run the BPM, but the actual SteamOS session running in steamcompmgr).
You might want also take a look at this: https://github.com/ShadowApex/steamos-ubuntu
That being said, some of the things you mentioned can be easily done on SteamOS too, by just disabling autologin (you can do that in desktop mode > settings).

[Mohandevir]

You might also consider using this:

https://github.com/thor27/steam-login

It's not a 1:1 imitation of SteamOS-compositor (some little details differ and it's based on lxqt, I think) but It adds the options of loging in and out of steam user account, while in SteamOS-BPM, and you gain the sleep mode option... To use at your own risks. :)

[Mohandevir]

Personnally, I prefer Ubuntu minimal install with steam and desktop accounts. I have to remove GDM3 in favor of lightdm so that switch to desktop works (need to add user desktop to group nopasswdlogin) and with SteamOS-compositor, it's a 1:1 experience with SteamOS.

Still, It's always good to have alternatives, since many prefer Mint to Ubuntu, and SteamOS-Compositor is a great place to be, when gaming from the couch.

[Mohandevir]

Originally posted by dubigrasu:

Sure it would be useful, honestly I'd like to see most of the distros having an (optional of course) SteamOS mode (and no, not talking about setting the desktop client to run the BPM, but the actual SteamOS session running in steamcompmgr).

Personnally, I would like to see all the required stuff being included into the Steam client install, just like Kodi did with it's DE environment. Could be a checkbox during installation.

"All is there and installed, feel free to use it if you will"

[jonbitzen]

Thanks all of you for your comments. You've given me a few things to think about.

I think I may work on generalizing this to also work on Ubuntu 18 with Gnome desktop for a start, and then turn it into a package in a PPA. And possibly add a GTK3 based GUI to handle any simple pre-installation user options. I'm going to have a look at the other work you guys linked and see what I can glean and/or combine into my own efforts.

Thanks again!

jonbitzen