[web-hugo.git] / content / posts / deckpc-day-one-experience.md

---
title: "DeckPC - Day one experience"
date: 2022-09-10T19:47:33+03:00
tags: ['steam', 'steamdeck', 'handheld', 'linux', 'deckpc']
description: "This series of blogposts will be about documenting my experience with using Valve's Steam Deck as a regular Linux desktop with its preinstalled SteamOS environment."
aliases: ["/deckpc-day-one-experience.html"]
type: blog
draft: false
---

This series of blogposts will be about documenting my experience with using Valve's Steam Deck
as a regular Linux desktop with its preinstalled SteamOS environment.

## The dock
I admit I didn't pick the most *quality* dock for this use case and cheaped out a bit and rushed
to purchase without much more investigation than amount of ports. The dock I ended up purchasing
was from China and bought from AliExpress. It features a single 4K@30Hz HDMI port, an USB-C power
delivery port and 3x USB 3.0 ports. The first hurdle I faced from lack of research was the inability
to support my PC monitor's native refresh rate of 144Hz, but instead be capped to 1080p@120Hz.

Regardless of this setback, it still feels as smooth to my eyes, so it isn't going to be a dealbreaker
or a dispute, return, refund type of deal.

## Peripherals
My original premise in the idea blogpost was that I would be using a KVM switch for my peripherals.
That idea is scrapped, all of the peripherals are now connected to the dock instead and PC is currently
in an idle state until the electricity prices become sane in Estonia - they recently put vast majority
of people on hourly billing cycle based on the current exchange pricing, so it is in my best interests
to save electricity where possible to avoid having to see an outrageous bill. I may revisit this once the
prices are sane again.

What I ended up connecting was nothing spectacular, really, just an USB keyboard, mouse and a microphone.
I also connected my speakers through my display to a spare 3.5mm slot, if necessary I can also get up to 4x
USB ports there for use.

## Out of the box hurdles
The first hurdle I had when entering desktop mode with the dock was that the display was without any taskbar
or icons - that was a relatively easy fix of going to the settings on Deck's built-in display and marking my
PC's display as the primary, not a huge deal, but something to keep in mind for anyone reading who happens to
be unfamiliar with Linux.

The next hurdle I had was applications from Discover (so flatpaks) being unable to open any browser links at all.
This one was a lot harder to get to the bottom of with combined help of based.quest matrix chat, it took about 50
minutes to reach a workaround which was documented in a [SteamOS issue](https://github.com/ValveSoftware/SteamOS/issues/775#issuecomment-1129427573).

## The unresolved
I make no secret that I use an offline password manager [KeePassXC](https://keepassxc.org/) and one of its features
is the browser integration. Unfortunately, the browser integration currently does not work between flatpak versions
of Firefox and KeePassXC. There is some movement on Mozilla's end, but KeePassXC has raised their hands on their end.

Despite this setback, it is still possible to use the password manager - just not without browser integration detecting
login fields and prompting you to fill relevant credentials for you, that now needs to be done manually.

## How do I like it
I often forget that I even use the Steam Deck instead of my PC. It only makes me realize when I am putting some load on
the machine or try to play a game and find performance to be noticably worse than my PC. That should not discredit
Deck's performance, though. It is amazing what this device can do in just 15W and I am extremely happy this experiment
hit off mostly clean without many issues. I feel confident in being able to just leave my PC on hibernation for the
winter ahead where electricity prices are merciless as I know the Steam Deck will be able to deliver on my expectations
for daily tasks.

I will be making follow-up posts on this experiment going forward, documenting new hurdles and workarounds to anyone
else with a Steam Deck looking to use it as a premiere desktop experience.

Thanks for reading,
- Cernodile
Commit	Line	Data
7ba37647 JM	1	---
	2	title: "DeckPC - Day one experience"
	3	date: 2022-09-10T19:47:33+03:00
	4	tags: ['steam', 'steamdeck', 'handheld', 'linux', 'deckpc']
	5	description: "This series of blogposts will be about documenting my experience with using Valve's Steam Deck as a regular Linux desktop with its preinstalled SteamOS environment."
	6	aliases: ["/deckpc-day-one-experience.html"]
	7	type: blog
	8	draft: false
	9	---
	10
	11	This series of blogposts will be about documenting my experience with using Valve's Steam Deck
	12	as a regular Linux desktop with its preinstalled SteamOS environment.
	13
	14	## The dock
	15	I admit I didn't pick the most quality dock for this use case and cheaped out a bit and rushed
	16	to purchase without much more investigation than amount of ports. The dock I ended up purchasing
	17	was from China and bought from AliExpress. It features a single 4K@30Hz HDMI port, an USB-C power
	18	delivery port and 3x USB 3.0 ports. The first hurdle I faced from lack of research was the inability
	19	to support my PC monitor's native refresh rate of 144Hz, but instead be capped to 1080p@120Hz.
	20
	21	Regardless of this setback, it still feels as smooth to my eyes, so it isn't going to be a dealbreaker
	22	or a dispute, return, refund type of deal.
	23
	24	## Peripherals
	25	My original premise in the idea blogpost was that I would be using a KVM switch for my peripherals.
	26	That idea is scrapped, all of the peripherals are now connected to the dock instead and PC is currently
	27	in an idle state until the electricity prices become sane in Estonia - they recently put vast majority
	28	of people on hourly billing cycle based on the current exchange pricing, so it is in my best interests
	29	to save electricity where possible to avoid having to see an outrageous bill. I may revisit this once the
	30	prices are sane again.
	31
	32	What I ended up connecting was nothing spectacular, really, just an USB keyboard, mouse and a microphone.
	33	I also connected my speakers through my display to a spare 3.5mm slot, if necessary I can also get up to 4x
	34	USB ports there for use.
	35
	36	## Out of the box hurdles
	37	The first hurdle I had when entering desktop mode with the dock was that the display was without any taskbar
	38	or icons - that was a relatively easy fix of going to the settings on Deck's built-in display and marking my
	39	PC's display as the primary, not a huge deal, but something to keep in mind for anyone reading who happens to
	40	be unfamiliar with Linux.
	41
	42	The next hurdle I had was applications from Discover (so flatpaks) being unable to open any browser links at all.
	43	This one was a lot harder to get to the bottom of with combined help of based.quest matrix chat, it took about 50
	44	minutes to reach a workaround which was documented in a [SteamOS issue](https://github.com/ValveSoftware/SteamOS/issues/775#issuecomment-1129427573).
	45
	46	## The unresolved
	47	I make no secret that I use an offline password manager [KeePassXC](https://keepassxc.org/) and one of its features
	48	is the browser integration. Unfortunately, the browser integration currently does not work between flatpak versions
	49	of Firefox and KeePassXC. There is some movement on Mozilla's end, but KeePassXC has raised their hands on their end.
	50
	51	Despite this setback, it is still possible to use the password manager - just not without browser integration detecting
	52	login fields and prompting you to fill relevant credentials for you, that now needs to be done manually.
	53
	54	## How do I like it
	55	I often forget that I even use the Steam Deck instead of my PC. It only makes me realize when I am putting some load on
	56	the machine or try to play a game and find performance to be noticably worse than my PC. That should not discredit
	57	Deck's performance, though. It is amazing what this device can do in just 15W and I am extremely happy this experiment
	58	hit off mostly clean without many issues. I feel confident in being able to just leave my PC on hibernation for the
	59	winter ahead where electricity prices are merciless as I know the Steam Deck will be able to deliver on my expectations
	60	for daily tasks.
	61
	62	I will be making follow-up posts on this experiment going forward, documenting new hurdles and workarounds to anyone
	63	else with a Steam Deck looking to use it as a premiere desktop experience.
	64
65	Thanks for reading,
66	- Cernodile