Category: Linux

SSH Into Your Steam Deck

I have a dock for my Steam Deck but often it is just easier to login and transfer files remotely. It is quick and easy to set up and once done makes transferring files and other tweaks a breeze.

Setting up SSH.

  • Enter Desktop Mode by holding the power button and selecting Switch to Desktop.
  • Click the Application Launcher and select Konsole.
  • Set a password for the default user “deck”by entering “passwd”and entering the password you want to use on the Steam Deck.
  • Start SSHD
sudo systemctl start sshd
  • Enable SSHD to run after you reboot.
sudo systemctl enable sshd

If at some point you want to disable SSHD, enter the following commands.

sudo systemctl stop sshd
sudo systemctl disable sshd

Once you completed all the steps above you will be able to access your Steam Deck. Most of the time I use Filezilla to transfer files.

  • Host is the IP address of your Steam Deck.
  • Username is "deck" by default.
  • Password is the password you just set in Konsole.
  • Port is "22" by default.

If you don't know the IP address of your Steam Deck follow these steps.

  • Press the STEAM button
  • Select Settings
  • Select Internet
  • Select your network
  • Your IP address is listed below.

Simple Steam Deck Mods

I recently got my Steam Deck and in addition to playing a ton of games, I also made a few modifications.

A new skin.

One of the few things I dislike about the Steam Deck is the smoothness and lack of grip. I added a skin from https://dbrand.com/shop/steam-deck-skins/details and it feels much better. I won’t go into the details of applying the skin since the videos they provide are better than I could, but I do have a few tips.

  • Take your time. What they did in the 12 minute video took me just over an hour.
  • Use heat. It will make the material more pliable and easier to work with.

A custom boot screen.

I also added a custom boot video and I’ll share the steps below.

  1. Change System Update Channel.
  • Press the STEAM button and scroll down to Settings
  • Select System
  • Set Beta Participation to Preview
  • Update and restart the Steam Deck
  1. Go to Desktop Mode.
  • Hold the power button until the menu appears
  • Select Switch to Desktop
  1. Create the file to store your videos.
  • Open Dolphin by clicking the file icon on the bottom left side of the screen
  • Select the hamburger icon (3 lines) and select Show Hidden Files
  • Navigate to ~/.steam/root/config
  • Create a folder called “uioverrides” and open it.
  • Inside the uioverrides folder, create a new folder named “movies”.
  1. Get you video ready.
  • Rename the video you want to use as “deck_startup.webm”
  • Move that file to the movies file you created earlier. I use FileZilla to transfer the file.
  1. Restart your Steam Deck and watch your new boot animation.

I get my videos from https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeckBootVids/ and https://steamdeckrepo.com/. I’m currently using https://steamdeckrepo.com/post/ZYqjP/handheld_history_ultimate_edition_home_ui

To the best of my knowledge you can use any video under 10 seconds. There are also rumors that Steam is adding the ability to add videos in the Steam Points Shop.

How I’m Learning Vim

Recently I have been learning Vim and this how I’ve been doing it.

Vimtutor

Vimtutor is just what it sounds like, an interactive tutorial that teaches Vim. In about 30 minutes you can complete the tutorial and have a basic understanding of how Vim works. You will be nowhere near an expert after the tutorial but you will be able to function if you have to use Vim. If you already have Vim installed, all you need to do is enter “vimtutor” in the shell prompt and follow the instructions on the screen. I did this daily for about a week until I was comfortable with everything there.

$ vimtutor

Learning the Vi and Vim Editors – Arnold Robbins and Elbert Hannah

I get it. Learning from books isn’t cool anymore. There are blogs, videos, online classes, and so many ways to find the information you need. Why read a book? Here’s why. A lot of blogs and videos will only give the basics. A book is more robust. You will be exposed to things never covered in a 5 minute video. Even if the information exists online, would you even know what to google to find that extra information?

Videos

I know I just spoke poorly of videos but hear me out. I don’t actively watch videos. I have them on in the background and listen as I’m working on other things. Every now and then I hear something that peaks my interest and then I may look further into the topic. That’s how I learned about the relative numbers setting.

Games

It’s not my thing but if learning by playing games is you style, the link bellow has a few options for you.

Vim Games – Games You Can Play with the Vim Editor

I’m Learning Vim

But is it worth it?

I want to preface this post by mentioning that I am not a developer. I’m just an enthusiast who enjoys learning new skills so keep that in mind while reading.

I have recently started learning Vim. I have access to other text editors but I want to learn this one. Every post on the internet mentions that you will not be taken seriously in the Linux community if you don’t use it. Like bro, do you even Vim? I hope to one day be part of the Linux elite.

Since I started this journey I’ve made some observations, good and bad, about Vim. Enjoy.

Vim is unnecessary for my needs.

One of the selling points of Vim is that it’s available on many systems and sometimes it’s the only thing available. I don’t go out to various job sites and I’m not in an office where I’m limited to the tools provided to me. I have sudo privileges on all my machines and can install whatever I want.

They claim it’s efficient.

This may be true but I’m not there yet. I’m getting better but there is a steep learning curve. I’m not sure if I am disciplined enough to see this to end.

It’s open source.

This makes me happy.

Vim is customizable.

Once I learned a bit about customizing my editor using the .vimrc file I began liking Vim a lot more. Just having relative number lines makes navigation so much easier. Mine is very simple. I haven’t scratched the surface of what can be done. I plan on doing a post focusing on .vimrc in the near future.

It’s kind of fun.

As frustrating as Vim can be I am having fun learning it. Vim is a lot different than anything else I used before. It’s challenging but not impossible.

So that’s where I’m at right now. These are just some of my early opinions and I’m sure they will change as I continue learning. To answer my original question, is it worth it? I don’t know yet but I’m going to continue the journey and I will keep you date.

Heavymetalhero.net Origin Story

A few months ago I decided I wanted to learn Linux. I already had Linux Mint installed on a old MacBook Pro but I wanted to really learn Linux. I wanted to learn the command line, Vim, and all the other skills to make me a 1337 h4x0r.

One day I was browsing Reddit and came across r/linuxupskillchallenge. It’s a 21day challenge that exposes you to different Linux concepts throughout the month. On January 30th I completed the challenge.

The challenge encouraged setting up a server for the course and when it was over I couldn’t stomach the idea of taking my beautiful new server offline. I wanted to do something with my server and become a legit system admin. Apache2 was already installed from the challenge so I added the rest of the LAMP stack. After many problems with MySQL it was good to go. I installed WordPress and here we are.

So now I have a WordPress site. What better way to learn than on a live server in front of the entire world.