Return to Steam icon has disappeared

[Ghigi]

I guess the will to know everything got me to the point of messing too much with my SteamOS installation. What I now have is a sysem where I cannot access the user(s) account settings. My return to Steam icon has become Steam and if I click it it starts a Steam downloading as it did during the 1st installation. I can access Steam by the icon found in Applications but once I am in a fully working BPM, I cannot get back to the desktop for the password that was once working now locks the system as I enter it. Another thing I have done was trying to change the language of the SteamDesktop account, I accidentally choose....none apparently, now if I click on the avatar it flashes the window but it doesnt open it anymore. Time to say goodbye to my SteamOS installation I guess....

[GeeEl]

Hi Ghigi,

If you need to reset a user password you should be able to do it via a recovery mode boot.
Holding down the Escape key during boot should bring up a boot menu. The second option is booting SteamOS in recovery.

In recovery mode you'll be logged in as root (aka God) and can repair/break the system any way you like. A basic password reset on desktop should work with

passwd desktop

If you've messed up the SteamOS system instead of just the user area there's also a very useful "Restore system partition" (or somesuch, going by memory) option in the boot menu. That will replace your system (but not the /home area which holds your user settings/Steam client/games) with the backup taken at the end of the install.
This is useful if you get into a state where SteamOS won't start up at all, even in recovery mode.

If it helps here's an archive of my desktop user home folder from directly after install.

http://users.tpg.com.au/penfan/canned_desktop_home.tgz

You can de-archive it into a temporary folder and possibly compare desktop user files.

# cd /home
# mkdir /home/tmp
# cd /home/tmp
# tar xvzf whereever_you_have_the_.tgz

The shortcuts are .desktop files, and you can find them with

find . -name "*.desktop"

The .desktop files are just plain text. Your Return to Steam one will have a line:

Exec=/usr/bin/returntosteam.sh

In worst case you could boot to recovery and then rename /home/desktop as desktop.bak, then move the /home/tmp/canned_home/desktop folder to /home/desktop

I'd take that as a last resort though, as I could be an evil SPAM botnet operator - by replacing /home/desktop without knowing what's in it could end up with you running anything.

If you end up reinstalling I recommend making a quick copy of /home/desktop and /home/steam just after you finish the install.

You can also use the boot option for Clonezilla Live to create Ghost like disc backups to an external USB (pretty fast with USB3 and a freshly installed SteamOS, not so much with USB1 and a partition full of games).

Good luck!

EDIT: Incorrect path, added a little more on Return to Steam.

[Ghigi]

First and foremost thanks for the suggestions. As I am now, I think I can go with a Restore System Partition, since my SteamOS installation was still in testing phase (meaning 15 games and not that many changes to the desktop).

All I did was typing Steam in the terminal.....a new download started, the Return to Steam icon changed immediately and....bah, never mind....the real reason for me messing up with SteamOS is that....

I was sick and tired of having Steam Big Picture and the Debian Desktop as 2 separate entities....the password for instance: why do I need to type it each time I exit Steam and get back to the Debian Desktop ? Why the refresh rate setting that I, as unique user, decided to set for my screen is woking in the desktop and not in Steam (or vice versa) ? Why the keyboard layout (italian) is working in the desktop and not in Steam...and finally....why my mouse is laggin so badly when in Steam while in the Desktop is perfect ?

It is just me ?

[GeeEl]

Restoring the system partition might not do anything (if the settings are in the desktop user settings), so see how you go. It shouldn't do any harm though.

If you want to get out of BPM you can edit /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf and comment out the autologon user (spelling?). It's on line 104 last I looked.

You could then log in as the steam user to the desktop and start Steam from there (either regular or Big Picture).

Oops, late for work!

[Ghigi]

Ok, restoring the system made the account user settings back to normal (now if I click on the avatar the proper window shows up), still I have no "Return to Steam" icon, but I can live with that and either log out from the desktop or get back to Steam using the icon (or I should say program) located in Applications.

However, I cannot understand why I have these differences:

Desktop: 50Hz, italian layout for the keyboard and mouse set with a slight acceleration
Steam: 60hz, british layout for the keyboard and mouse lagging

Finally, any clue on why, when I exit Steam (to the desktop), I enter the correct password but the screen keeps a pitch black color ? If I alt+F1 I am back to the Desktop.

[GeeEl]

I'm not sure where steam BPM is getting its screen settings from. You could try getting into the gnome desktop as steam and seeing if changing settings there change BPM settings.

[Nomad]

Originally posted by GeeEl:

I'm not sure where steam BPM is getting its screen settings from. You could try getting into the gnome desktop as steam and seeing if changing settings there change BPM settings.

Yes, BPM gets it's settings from the steam account not the desktop account. On first login as steam when you download the client is the best time to set up any settings you want to carry over to BPM. They really need an option in BPM to be able to return to the login screen, so people can login to the steam account desktop if need be.

Also, the best way to switch back to BPM from the desktop is Ctrl+Alt+F7. This keeps the desktop running on F8 and makes going back and forth much easier. Note, you still have to "return to desktop" after booting into BPM any time the system is restarted, but once the desktop is loaded Ctrl+Alt+ F7/F8 are the way to go.

[GeeEl]

So is BPM and gnome are picking up display stings from the same place, or is BPM running inside a cut down gnome session?

[Ghigi]

Just to let you know that I am now on a fresh new SteamOS installation, this time I did it all with 150GB and not 350GB as that space was way too much for just 53 games, most of them being indie. I am now back to normal, with the Return to Steam icon.

[KingForKings]

just google it on google with ubuntu-users.com It must be CTL + Alt + F1 or F3 to get to the boot menu then look it up on a ubuntu page. I don't know the english page, but he german page is very good , but maybe there are other key-binedings - I'm using Ubuntu 14.04 LTS not Debian or other

[Balderick]

Since SteamOS beta release I have never had a working Return to Steam shortcut meaning the need to log out of desktop to get back to Steam is necessary.

[Ghigi]

As mentioned above by krnoykus, exit big picture for the first time using "exit to desktop", then once in the Desktop area use the CTRL+ALT+F7 to get back into Steam and CTRL+ALT+F8 to exit it.

[Balderick]

Originally posted by Kronykus:

Also, the best way to switch back to BPM from the desktop is Ctrl+Alt+F7. This keeps the desktop running on F8 and makes going back and forth much easier. Note, you still have to "return to desktop" after booting into BPM any time the system is restarted, but once the desktop is loaded Ctrl+Alt+ F7/F8 are the way to go.

Do appreciate there are situations where both steam@steamos and desktop@steamos running is desired but I think of steam@steamos and desktop@steamos as two separate environments; one being for gaming the other for desktop tasks or anythingelse, even comparable to a dualboot system in my (small) mind.
Not sure if the steamos behaviour i described earlier is by design (missing working Return to Steam shortcut) or not.

Would having both steam and desktop users running at same time mean less resources available to steam@steamos?

[Nomad]

Originally posted by 40-1PvtBalderick:

Originally posted by Kronykus:

Also, the best way to switch back to BPM from the desktop is Ctrl+Alt+F7. This keeps the desktop running on F8 and makes going back and forth much easier. Note, you still have to "return to desktop" after booting into BPM any time the system is restarted, but once the desktop is loaded Ctrl+Alt+ F7/F8 are the way to go.

Do appreciate there are situations where both steam@steamos and desktop@steamos running is desired but I think of steam@steamos and desktop@steamos as two separate environments; one being for gaming the other for desktop tasks or anythingelse, even comparable to a dualboot system in my (small) mind.
Not sure if the steamos behaviour i described earlier is by design (missing working Return to Steam shortcut) or not.

Would having both steam and desktop users running at same time mean less resources available to steam@steamos?

I guess it could be an issue for a system with really limited resources.... Linux in general is pretty good with resources though. I keep the desktop up. I like having quick access to a real browser and xbmc at the minimum.

Edit to add: they kind of are two seperate environments, if you consider seperate x sessions as environments. That's why one is on F7 and the other F8. If you try F9, for example, there's nothing there, but you could run another session there as well if you wanted.

[Balderick]

Recent update fixed the Back to Steam shortcut (steam-launcher) in applications list. Using this reveals same behaviour as ctrl + alt + (F7 or F8) with both tty's running...