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Comments on Can I set up a regular machine like the Steam Deck?
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Can I set up a regular machine like the Steam Deck? Question
The Steam Deck comes with an OS which is basically a customized Arch, plus Steam, Plasma and some extra programs.
The Steam Deck mounts most system dirs as read only, so for example it's not possible to install things with pacman. I believe it's because Valve ships updates as disc images. I don't care about replicating this part.
Otherwise, is it possible to set up something similar on a regular desktop computer? My goal is to build a game computer, connect it to the monitor in my living room, and control it mainly with a gamepad, attaching a keyboard as needed. I like how the Steam Deck (when connected to a TV and gamepad) boots straight into a Steam UI where most things are gamepad compatible, and has an option to boot into "Desktop Mode" where you can use the gamepad as a mouse and pull up an on screen keyboard. I like that it is based on Arch linux which is a practical distro.
I saw also something called SteamOS, but this seems to be something different. It's based on Debian, not Arch. Though perhaps this is a better option for using your own machine.
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