-=Help needed=-
I’m trying to remote into my Deck desktop. I have tried a number of things, searched all day, and I can’t find anything that actually works.
Steam Link does NOT work as advertised. I can stream my PC (Win11) desktop TO my deck with a Fair connection and no issues. But my PC can NOT connect the other way, it always shows Slow connection and steamdeck offline. I’m on a wired home LAN and I’ve tried WiFi as well. I’ve watched “fix your SteamLink connection” videos and read everything but nothing changes it.
AnyDesk was pulled from Flatpak, so every search suggesting that option seems to be null and void. I don’t know if or how any other version of Linux AnyDesk might work, or how. And I can’t find anything other than “It’s on Discover”. Not anymore it isn’t.
KDE Connect doesn’t seem to do much other than let me transfer files. I can mouse click but not move the mouse. I don’t see many options here to get it to do what I need.
I want to remotely navigate the Desktop mode from my Windows PC. It shouldn’t be this hard. Anyone encounter or understand a solution that could explain it in better than one sentence worth? I’m trying to learn but it’s just brutal out there.
https://gist.github.com/x43x61x69/9a5a231a25426e8a2cc0f7c24cfdaed9 installs a VNC server on your steam deck, and add desktop icons to start and stop it whenever you need. run as root. from what i remember of the deck’s file architecture it’s quite possible the install gets wiped everytime you install an update. either don’t install them or just run the script when you need. to connect use a vnc client such as tigervnc and connect to your deck’s ip.
I’ve not had any issues with it wiping my stuff between updates. What I read, but not seen happen yet, is that after an update it sets it back to read only. So you have to run some commands to be able to install things from pacman instead of steam or the desktop “app store”.
Let me know if I got it wrong.
No, normally only flatpaks you install stay between updates (but only major updates wipe and it’s not clear in advance what is a major update). Basically, if you need to set it to not read only to install something then it will probably be wiped eventually. This script removes read only, installs the VNC server then re-adds the read-only, but I guarantee it will be wiped eventually. Good news is they say this script is safe to run multiple times, so worst case scenario you can simply run it again after the update.
It was a bit involved, so beware non-expirienced Linux users, but I found a method that gets DWService running in user mode and it works on SteamDeck. You need to unlock the System partition first, or use something like Rwfus(Untested), just for setup, but you can lock it again and get updates later as nothing important is left after you’re done.
Once you’ve got it setup it auto starts at boot. Has survived all SteamOS updates for months now. Screen share only works in Desktop mode, since DWService doesn’t support Game mode’s wayland yet, but other tools like the Terminal, File Browser, and Process Monitor work even in Game mode. They also have an Android client now, in addition to their standard Web client.
DWService is an online service though, not a direct client to client connection, so it’s up to you how much you trust them.
https://github.com/AG7GN/dwservice#optional-run-the-dwagent-as-a-regular-user-on-linux
Assuming moonlight is available on windows, have you given a shot at the Sunshine/Moonlight combo? Sunshine is the server, should be in Discover, and Moonlight is the client. It can be a little more finicky to set up compared to steam link, but when you get it working properly most users find it to be more dependable and stable. I’ve been using steam link for years and now moonlight is my go to.
