We do often include affiliate links to earn us some pennies. See more here.

We're going into ridiculous territory of tweaking now and the possibilities are seemingly endless on what you can do with the Steam Deck. You can even run the Desktop Mode inside of Gaming Mode.

Thanks to a Reddit user, the script is pretty simple and only needs you to add the commands into a text file, set it as executable and add it to Steam as a Non-Steam game. From there, you can launch and switch between desktop mode and games running in the background and it actually works. It's far from perfect with some issues where the desktop mode may freeze up so you need to quit it with certain games, and sometimes the mouse won't go to the very bottom but hey — this is the kind of awesome stuff you can do with Linux right?

Here's a brief demo:

YouTube Thumbnail
YouTube videos require cookies, you must accept their cookies to view. View cookie preferences.
Accept Cookies & Show   Direct Link

Love it. If you try it, don't blame me if you break something. Just wanted to highlight something mildly amusing and also somewhat useful too.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
16 Likes
About the author -
author picture
I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
See more from me
The comments on this article are closed.
3 comments

Ehvis Jun 23, 2022
View PC info
  • Supporter Plus
But now I want gaming mode inside desktop mode inside gaming mode. Deckception!
mr-victory Jun 23, 2022
Quoting: EhvisBut now I want gaming mode inside desktop mode inside gaming mode. Deckception!
Close Steam, open a terminal and type
gamescope -- steam -steamos3 -gamepadui
TheRiddick Jun 25, 2022
You could probably just do something similar by making a custom shortcut that executes a command, I presume this is just launching plasma xserver basically. Things will get much easier when it all moves to wayland, once that is 100% ready.

I don't know what app you can setup to make custom shortcuts in the steamOS default mode, probably a terminal way of doing it.
While you're here, please consider supporting GamingOnLinux on:

Reward Tiers: Patreon. Plain Donations: PayPal.

This ensures all of our main content remains totally free for everyone! Patreon supporters can also remove all adverts and sponsors! Supporting us helps bring good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!

You can find even more ways to support us on this dedicated page any time. If you already are, thank you!
The comments on this article are closed.