Steam Deck - Tips and tricks

1.First checks

Congratulations, you’ve just received your Steam Deck! Here’s a few things you can check to make sure everything is working as expected:

• Check and apply updates
• Settings
  • Controller
    • Test Device Input
    • Calibration & Advanced Settings
      • Reduce deadzones until the joysticks starts registering movements when immobile. Then increase the deadzone by one step.
  • Downloads
    • Allow download during gameplay
• Test for dead pixels
  1. Go to Desktop mode
  2. Go to https://lcdtech.info/en/tests/dead.pixel.htm

2.Troubleshooting

2.1.Audio issues

Everytime the Steam Deck is rebooted, the audio stops working because it defaults to a nonexistent “External speakers” instead of the regular “Speakers”.

1. Go to Desktop Mode by holding the power button and selecting the option
2. Open the System Settings
3. In the Hardware section, open the Audio page
4. In the Playback Devices find “Rembrandt Radeon High Definition Audio Controller”
5. By default, its “Profile” should be set to Pro Audio. Change it Off
6. Restart the device

2.2.Wi-Fi issues

The Steam Deck keeps losing connectivity. I’m getting the following error: Steam servers can’t be reached.

This is likely to be an compatibility issue between the Steam Deck and particular Wi-Fi access points/brands or particular wifi network configurations. Follow these steps to fix it:

1. Start the device in gaming mode and open the Settings
2. In the System tab, turn on Developer Mode
3. Navigate to the Developer tab and disable “Enable WiFi Power Management”
4. Restart the device after making these changes

2.3.Annoying KDE Wallet popups in desktop mode

Edit /home/deck/.config/kwalletrc
Add Enabled=false at the end of the file

3.Desktop Mode

3.1.Set sudo password

Go to settings / users / select user and change password

3.2.Add nested desktop to gaming mode

Right click on /usr/share/applications/steam/steamos-nested-desktop/steamos-nested-desktop.desktop and press add to steam

3.3.Transfer Firefox profile

Transfer profile folder and profiles.ini file to /home/deck/.var/app/org.mozilla.firefox/.mozilla/firefox/

If you want to see the list of profiles, run flatpak run org.mozilla.firefox -P

3.4.Remap keyboard

Using X11 XKB, start by dumping the current keyboard layout using this command

xkbcomp $DISPLAY my_keyboard.xkb

After modification, reapply using:

xkbcomp my_keyboard.xkb $DISPLAY

3.4.1.Additional tools and tricks

Display currently pressed key codes using:

sudo showkey

3.5.Access serial ports

I’m testing serial port through

flatpak install org.thonny.Thonny

Add yourself to the uucp group

sudo usermod -a -G uucp deck

3.6.Crack zip password

distrobox enter debian

sudo apt install libssl-dev

git clone https://github.com/openwall/john --depth 1 --single-branch
cd john/src/
./configure
make -s clean && make -sj4

cd ../run/
./zip2john test.zip > hash.txt

./john --format=zip --incremental hash.txt

3.7.LaTeX

3.7.1.Install Tex Live

Download the installer from https://mirror.ctan.org/systems/texlive/tlnet/install-tl-unx.tar.gz Extract the file and run the installer in the terminal

./install-tl

Press D to change the installation directory to /home/deck/.local/share/texlive/2025 Press I to install the packages

3.8.Webdev

3.8.1.Podman & distrobox

Since SteamOS version 3.5, the deck comes with podman and distrobox preinstalled. This makes installing apps, tools, and library in a sudoless/immutable OS feasible. This also enables you to use various package managers such as apt (Debian/Ubuntu), pacman (Arch), yum (Fedora).

Read more about Toolbox https://containertoolbx.org/

View full list of compatible container distro here https://github.com/89luca89/distrobox/blob/main/docs/compatibility.md#containers-distros

3.8.2.Install NVM (node)

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.7/install.sh | bash

3.8.3.Install bun

curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash

3.9.Add AppImage to start menu using AppImageLauncher

chmod +x appimagelauncher-lite-2.2.0-travis995-0f91801-x86_64.AppImage
./appimagelauncher-lite-2.2.0-travis995-0f91801-x86_64.AppImage install

3.10.Python

3.10.1.Install PIP

python -m ensurepip --upgrade
echo 'PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc
PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

3.10.2.Install Packages

In your dev repository

1. First, create the virtual environment with:

   python3 -m venv venv

2. Source the activate file inside the bin directory using the source command:

   source venv/bin/activate

3.11.VSCode / VSCodium

Set window.titleBarStyle to custom

4.Decky Loader

https://github.com/SteamDeckHomebrew/decky-loader

4.1.Play games from other platform than Steam

• https://github.com/moraroy/NonSteamLaunchers-On-Steam-Deck
• Heroic game launcher

5.Emulation

5.1.Install Emudeck

• Download the Emudeck image for SteamOS https://www.emudeck.com/EmuDeck.desktop

5.2.Nintendo Switch

Get firmware at https://prodkeys.net/yuzu-firmware/
Get prod.key at https://prodkeys.net/yuzu-prod-keys/

5.2.1.Configure Gyroscope on Yuzu

• Install gyroscope in Emudeck
• Restart Steam deck
• In desktop mode, open Yuzu
• Open yuzu config, controls, motion
• Hit Test
• Close window and press Motion 1
• Give the device a little check
• Enjoy

5.3.Resources

https://emudeck.github.io/cheat-sheet/
https://romsfun.com
https://nopaystation.com/browse