Table of Contents

Build your own SteamOS

Launch

For best results, launch with Gamescope, so apps can launch inside of Steam. You may want to tweak the command line options depending of your setup.

Important gamescope flags

NameDescription
-eEnable Steam integration
--backendSelect the backend (usually drm, wayland, sdl or headless)
--expose-waylandImportant for launching native Wayland clients
-fFullscreen
-gGrab the keyboard
-W, -HWindow width and height
--helpCheck out the rest of the options

Launch from a display manager

/usr/share/wayland-sessions/steam-big-picture.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Steam Big Picture Mode
Comment=Start Steam in Big Picture Mode
Exec=/usr/bin/gamescope -e --expose-wayland --backend wayland --prefer-vk-device --disable-layers -- env WLR_RENDERER_ALLOW_SOFTWARE=1 steam -tenfoot -steamdeck
Type=Application

You can use drm or wayland for the backend option. Then you can configure SDDM to autostart Steam:

/etc/sddm.conf.d/autologin.conf
[Autologin]
User=yuki
Session=steam-big-picture

Launch from desktop

Works better if the above doesn't work. Also, lets you easily access the desktop without having to quit Steam. Start a desktop session (such as KDE), create an icon with this desktop file, add it to ~/.local/share/applications/, and link it in ~/.config/autostart/:

~/.local/share/applications/steam-big-picture.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Steam Big Picture Mode
Comment=Start Steam in Big Picture Mode
Exec=/usr/bin/env WLR_RENDERER_ALLOW_SOFTWARE=1 gamescope -e -W 1920 -H 1080 -f -g --expose-wayland --backend sdl -- /usr/bin/steam -tenfoot -steamdeck
Type=Application
Icon=steam

You can use sdl or wayland for the backend option. Don't forget SDDM's autologin:

/etc/sddm.conf.d/autologin.conf
[Autologin]
User=yuki
Session=plasma