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Steam Gaming Mode

General Information¶

For Handheld PC users only: View our Handheld Wiki for post-installation setup, workarounds, and known issues on handheld hardware.

Steam Gaming Mode requires a modern AMD graphics card or an Intel Arc graphics card. Nvidia is not supported.

What is Steam Gaming Mode?¶

Steam Deck UI Tour by Linux For Everyone

Bazzite utilizes Steam Gaming Mode by forking ChimeraOS’s gamescope-session and modifying it to fit the needs of our operating system. Steam Gaming Mode is also referred to as "gamepadUI" and "gamescope-session" but Bazzite documentation will usually refer to it as "Steam Gaming Mode" most of the time.

Steam Gaming Mode is what SteamOS on the Steam Deck is built around. A simple interface that is controller-friendly built around Steam's "Big Picture Mode" UI/UX. The minimal session only runs the bare minimum in the background, so most of the hardware resources is going towards the game being played. Gamescope is the main ingredient in Steam Gaming Mode which gives users options to set a framerate cap, resolution scaling options, etc.

What are the HTPC/Handheld Images?¶

Note: The Steam beta client is not supported, please revert to the stable client before reporting issues.

Bazzite for Steam Deck hardware, Home Theater PC setups, and other Handheld PCs like the Lenovo Legion Go and Asus ROG Ally.

It is intended to be a controller-friendly environment and give users a "console-like" experience similar to SteamOS for the Steam Deck. It is intended for both handhelds and home theatre PC setups. Bazzite is similar to SteamOS by sharing many packages that SteamOS includes, so it is ready to game as soon the installation process is finished.

This documentation may not cover specific areas with the assumption that the user is already aware of SteamOS and how it works. If you are unfamiliar with something that cannot be found in our documentation, then research your specific question with "SteamOS" or "Steam Deck" as keywords in your search. Otherwise, ask your question on our forums or Discord.

Common Questions & Issues for Steam Gaming Mode¶

View the current Gamescope issues.

How do I open the on-screen keyboard?¶

Note: Steam must be running to access the keyboard.

By default it is bound to the Steam + X on the Steam Deck.
For other handhelds it may require turning on Desktop Controls and configuring it manually.
- After that it is usually a combination of X (or equivalent) + one of the specific buttons your handheld has and it may also not be configured for your device out of the box.

Update and Changelog Inaccuracy¶

Note: Updates will also look for and upgrade Linux applications like installed Flatpaks.

Steam Gaming Mode¶

The update indicator is not accurate and will most likely look it's stuck at "99%" for a long time. This is due to the update component not containing a live progress indicator, so it cannot hook into Steam Gaming Mode properly. After a while, the update progress bar will appear done and ask for a reboot.

Desktop Mode¶

In Desktop Mode, run our System Update tool for an accurate update visual if you are unsure if your system has actually updated properly in Gaming Mode. When the update has finished, it will output what has completed successfully. Alternatively, open a host terminal and enter:

ujust update

Changelog¶

The changelog is specifically for SteamOS by Valve, so the upgrade for Bazzite may not apply.
Read the Universal Blue announcements for major changes and features.

View a changelog to the next update in the terminal by entering:

ujust changelogs

How do I access GRUB?¶

GRUB used to be hidden by default, but new installations have defaulted to showing it.

Keep in mind, other handhelds and controllers may not be able to unhide GRUB without a physical keyboard connected, but a ujust command can be performed to unhide it permanently.

Enter this command in the terminal to have it appear every boot:

ujust configure-grub

Select "unhide" to have GRUB appear on boot.

View the Rollback Guide for more information.

Ctrl+2

Change physical keyboard layout for Steam Gaming Mode¶

As of writing, gamescope-session has no way to change the physical keyboard layout and will default to the US layout.

If you want to change the layout for Gamescope, you can set the environment variable XKB_DEFAULT_LAYOUT=no replacing no with the correct layout for you. Add this to ~/.config/environment.d/10-gamescope-session.conf

If the file or folder does not exist then create it.

This works on desktop mode including running Nested Gamescope and also works for Steam Gaming Mode, but it has its own quirks: altgr + 2 to write "@" on the Norwegian layout will still not work, but the basic keyboard layout will always work, altgr is luckily not needed for normal typing on the norwegian layout, however altgr has been reported to work on the French layout, but your mileage may vary.

Why do specific Decky Loader plugins not function on Bazzite?¶

Some plugins are built specifically for SteamOS or the Steam Deck, and won’t necessarily work on Bazzite or non-Deck hardware.

For example, the DeckMTP plugin only works on the Steam Deck and will not work on alternative hardware.

How do I use SteamDeckGyroDSU on hardware that isn't the Steam Deck?¶

You cannot use SteamDeckGyroDSU outside of the Steam Deck, but you can try disabling Steam Input and it may work depending on your hardware and use case.

How do I disable certain "Steam Deck" features that conflict with my setup?¶

Scenarios:

Example 1: Keyboard and mouse is not working for this title.
Example 2: The game’s launcher for adjusting video settings or adding mods does not launch.
Example 3: Certain features/options are not available for Steam Deck.

Open the game's properties on Steam and enter this launch option:

SteamDeck=0 %command%

How do I specify the correct monitor for Gaming Mode to use? (HTPC only)¶

Go into desktop mode and open ptyxis our terminal and run

mkdir ~/.config/environment.d
nano ~/.config/environment.d/10-gamescope-session.conf

Then add this to the file:

OUTPUT_CONNECTOR=DP-1
change DP-1 to the correct output.
You can find your display outputs on KDE using the command

kscreen-doctor -o

You can find your display outputs in GNOME using this command

gnome-randr

Save with CTRL + X then pressing Y followed by ENTER

How do I specify which GPU that Steam Gaming Mode should use?¶

Open a TTY session with an external physical keyboard using this keyboard combination:
Ctrl+Alt+F4

export-gpu

Alternatively, in Desktop Mode, enter in a host terminal:

/usr/bin/export-gpu

Select the GPU to use for Steam Gaming Mode.

"Something went wrong while displaying this content" Error¶

This is most likely due to a broken Decky Loader plugin you have installed. Uninstall the broken plugin. Specific CSS Loader themes can also cause this issue.

Audio output not working (Default Device)¶

This issue happens usually with HDMI TV audio.

Go into Desktop Mode and into the system settings to adjust the sound settings. Disable devices that do not match the sound output that you're using. An example of this is disabling all the things that aren't HDMI for your TV audio.

Why is VRR not working on my VRR-compatible display?¶

Most of the time this is because you're connecting the device via HDMI which does not support VRR on Linux. Here is the source of that information.

Stuck at the Bazzite logo¶

Attention: Try rebooting your device first before proceeding with the next steps.

Resolve this by opening a TTY session with an external physical keyboard using this keyboard combination and entering this command:
Ctrl+Alt+F4 and mv ~/.local/share/Steam ~/.local/share/Steam1
This command will rename the Steam directory to Steam1, and it will force Steam to reinitialize and create a new directory
You can move your games from the renamed Steam1 directory to the new Steam directory if you had any installed previously on your internal storage
Exit the TTY session by entering this keyboard combination: Ctrl + Alt + F2

I lost my "Return to Gaming Mode" shortcut¶

You can restore this shortcut by creating a text file called Return.desktop and adding these specific lines to it:

KDE¶

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Return to Gaming Mode
Exec=qdbus org.kde.Shutdown /Shutdown org.kde.Shutdown.logout
Icon=steamdeck-gaming-return
Terminal=false
Type=Application
StartupNotify=false

GNOME¶

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Return to Gaming Mode
Exec=gnome-session-quit --logout --no-prompt
Icon=steamdeck-gaming-return
Terminal=false
Type=Application
StartupNotify=false

Save it and place it in the Desktop directory.

Valve's Official SteamOS Guide¶

Note: Not all of the information will be accurate in regards to Bazzite.

Valve wrote a guide for the Steam Deck which may have some relevant information in regards to Bazzite.

See also: Gaming Guide

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