Steam Machine after-build Update

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Hi there again! Following up with the prior blog post here. I have a few fixes for my Steam Machine build that I may have experienced some anomalies with after initially building it and installing ChimeraOS that I’ll address here. Also, the Steam Deck might get Nix package support soon, so I’ll give some thoughts on that here.

Regarding that Steam Machine that I mentioned finally building in my last update here, I've made a few fixes that seemed to be necessary.  
After the initial install, it seemed the system was experiencing some lag.

I went ahead ahead and updated the ASRock Fatality AB350 board from P6.60 to P7.00, then finished by updating to the recent P7.40 release found here. I utilized ASRock’s quick flash utility, which doesn’t require an OS to flash the BIOS, which was nice.

After updating the BIOS, and then redoing the Battle.net install utilizing Proton instead of running it through Lutris, since the steam shortcut can no longer be made utilizing that method in ChimeraOS, Diablo IV is now showing up in the Steam Big Picture mode.

In other news, I’ve been following along with a recent Nix comment made here. This gives me hope that we’ll be seeing a dedicated “/nix” directory added by default to SteamOS soon by the developers.

My Steam Deck "deckscript" has been sitting idle for a little while, due to constant changes in SteamOS from Valve wiping out any installed pacman packages. I've expanded more info on how I plan to migrate the bash script to one that mainly installs nix packages and flatpaks, plus grabbing enhancements, in the pull request here.


Here's a short little recording below, of what happened when I tried to set up the Nix package manager on the Deck via the terminal.
I'll be able to make more progress on this once that new SteamOS release comes out and gives us a predefined `/nix` directory in the future.

I’ll also be working on migrating my Fedora post-install script and the same with my Pop!_OS script over to Ansible roles or playbooks in the future, as I’m getting back on the train that was slowly learning about that. I’m mainly learning about it at night, so it may be a little while. Pull request for that is linked here.

I’ve also gone ahead and set up Syncthing between my ChimeraOS Steam Machine (that I renamed to Illyria) as well as my desktop and gabegear-named Steam Deck. This helps me sync Yuzu save data and keys, as well as aids me in creating a serverless cloud-sync between devices for Steam games that don’t support cloud saves. More info on getting setup is available at their site here.

Short sweet June update

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Greetings there! I’ve mainly been slowly gathering supplies to turn my Framework Laptop 13, the OG model shipped in 2021, to a Tablet. I don’t have many picture updates here, other than this one of all the stuff on the desk waiting for me to do something with it. I’ve been working a little on my Steam Deck script too, which I’ll discuss further in this post.

Having been pouring a fair few hours into Diablo IV, tinkering with Steam Deck theming, cleaning the place (minus workbench) and job hunting, I haven’t gotten around to it. I’ll be following WhatTheFilament’s guide here on how to turn the old mainboard into a tablet. He was kind enough to send over his 3D-printed enclosure as well, as my AnkerMake3D doesn’t have a large enough bed.

On the Diablo IV front, I can confirm it works perfectly fine on both Steam Deck and Desktop Linux installs through the Battle.net Lutris installer. You just install Lutris via your GUI software store or via terminal through your package manager and then install Battle.net. Once that’s installed, open ‘er up and install Diablo IV.

Part of my Deckscript that I’ve been working on over on my Github here will install Lutris and all these other fun little utilities automatically for you…but do note that the pacman packages noted there may need to be reinstalled when there’s a new SteamOS stable update if you’re on the stable update channel. Most are by default.

ChimeraOS Testing on the Win600, The Job Hunt Continues

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Hello again there! Here goes another blog post. Not much happened in April, so not much to say. I’m still on the hunt for an ethically-paying remote job due to the possible implications catching COVID or other blood-related infections could mess with my Hemochromatosis.

Anyway, if anyone is hiring Linux Support Engineers or Customer Support people remotely, I’m available!

In other news, I was sent an Anbernic Win600 lower-end handheld by a generous friend recently. They wish to keep anonymous, so I’ll respect their wishes. This little guy has an AMD Athlon 3050e Silver in it. I went ahead and upgraded the RAM From 8GB at 2666mhz to 16gb at 3200mhz though. As I don’t have any 2242-sized M.2 drives, nor the funds currently to grab one, I’ll keep this little guy at its stock 256gb storage.

It originally came with Windows 10, which was a terrible experience. The system wouldn’t power on until it was fully charged, about 2.9 hours on the cable it came with, and then it took 10 minutes to “power through” the Windows boot-up.

There’s my little Crucial RAM upgrade there. Note that you should always unplug batteries when working on electronics. Also, that fan is practically always-on…going to need to see if I can get a better thermal pad for this 6W APU.

After plugging in a flash drive, I went into the boot menu on the Anbernic Win600 to see if I could load my Ventoy USB. If you try to change boot selection without anything else plugged in, it seems you’ll have a bad time. I ended up trying three different USB-C hubs before ending up on one from Cable Matters that worked. After plugging in a keyboard and mouse (no HDMI output in boot menu or installation) I successfully went into Ventoy and chose my ChimeraOS installer, as this experience will be a hell of a lot better than Windows. You can check out their website here.

After getting the image to boot, with a dock plugging the device into a keyboard and mouse as well as Ethernet and power, it went ahead and booted then ran through the automated installer.

I’m comfortable leaving that QR code here, as I ended up refreshing it, and then logging in via the Steam app. This is what the welcome screen for ChimeraOS looks like! Once you’re booted up and signed in, all the controls work perfectly fine! The only somewhat not-intuitive aspect of this is that the Windows button on the right acts as the Steam button and the Home button on the left acts as the *** triple dot button you’d usually find on the Steam Deck for Quick Settings.

In my testing with this little guy, it can’t really handle too many large 3D games, but I played the following games perfectly fine when locked anywhere between 30fps and 60fps on this amazing screen:

  • Vampire Survivors

  • Factorio

  • Core Keeper

  • Monster Crown

  • Graveyard Keeper

  • Cave Story

  • Hades

  • Cult of the Lamb

More Progress on Switchbuntu, Job Hunt and Living Room Steam Machine

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Hello all! I recently went to SCaLE 20x in Pasadena, California. It’s a wonderful mostly-community-led and -oriented event in Southern California. Here’s a fun pic of me helping out at the Lutris booth!

I also met some super cool people at the Ubuntu booth! Aaron Prisk and Monica were so cool to talk to. I ended up setting up my Nintendo Switch with Ubuntu on it as a side-showcase at their booth. I’ll definitely be helping out again with the Lutris booth next year and bringing even more cool projects! I met quite a few people at that event and I’ll also be following up with the companies I’ve talked to, to see if I can finally get another remote tech job!

Side note; The Division 2 has some cool events going on right now. With GE-Proton7-49 and above, you’ll be able to play it just fine on both Steam Deck, and any Linux installs you have! This won’t run on the Ubuntu 18.04 Nintendo Switch, but on the other hardware I’m using daily, it runs fine!

I’ve added the above image, accompanied by a terminal session recording, to my Nintendo Switch Ubuntu project page here if you’re interested in learning more about how that’s going. Seems something may have been taken away in recent Steam updates, as I can’t get the application opened via the Switchroot wiki instructions.

Some last things before I end this blog post here for now!

Ubuntu on my Switch, Pastel Miyoo Mini, and the Job Hunt continues...

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Greetings, fellow geeks. I’ve recently received an RCMLoader/jig combo kit for my OG Nintendo Switch. I’ll be walking through the process I went through to get Ubuntu 18.04 (the only one NVIDIA supports here) running on my Nintendo Switch on my project page over here if you’re interested.

I’ve also recently received limited edition decals and buttons from SakuraRetroModding to Kirby-ify my Miyoo Mini, so I’ve gone ahead and done that and loaded more PICO-8 cartridges on there.

Here’s a little teaser image of what I’ve been documenting over on my Nintendo Switch Linux project page. Looks like the community contributors have come an awfully far way now! There are some libraries from 20.04 or newer releases that would really help where I’m trying to get with this effort, but I suppose compiling and installing things on the older Ubuntu 18.04 release works just as well. Ubuntu 18.04 seems to be the focus of that Switchroot project due to NVIDIA having drivers for that specific release, but not for newer ones that use a similar ARM/NVIDIA setup as the Switch.

Despite the decal being slightly askew, which I can fix later, here’s an image of my Miyoo mini I’ve recently dazzled up a bit! I acquired a limited run of pastel buttons from SakuraRetroModding on Etsy for this guy, updated OnionOS and added some Kirby games to finish the feel. I’ve mainly been playing through Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland, Megaman Battle Network Blue Moon, Cave Story (Dokutsu Monogatari) and Advance Wars on here. I was happy to learn that most of these ROMs are available if you search the lovely Archive(dot)Org website! Gosh I love the game archiving community.

Here you’ll see that I’ve added a few more PICO-8 carts to this OnionOS install. Turns out there was a newer iteration of PCraft for PICO-8 consoles (or fake8 on OnionOS) that you could actually save your game in and fight a boss in.

That’s about all I have for this last bit of February! My job hunt is ongoing and I’m open to any and all remote opportunities for Linux-friendly companies! I have built up more of a focus in customer support and hardware support in that industry as of late, and am definitely open to anyone wanting to talk or interview!

Here are a few notable things I’ve found in the past two weeks: