As easy as taking candy from a megacorp’s intellectual property
Rough Procedure:
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Download game of choice from fitgirl-repacks dot site from a separate (linux) computer. (Dont forget to seed folks!)
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Install it via lutris. I installed it on my linux PC so Lutris will automatically create a directory under ~/Games
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After fitgirl is done with her magic, take the entire directory installed under ~/Games, copy it over to a USB, and transfer it to your steam deck. You would probably need a USB to USB-C adapter for this one.
If you have no such adapter, no worries. What you could do is in desktop mode, install Decky, and from Decky install the terminal plugin (or you can skip installing Decky entirely and just use the terminal from desktop mode. But Decky is a really good plugin and want an excuse for more people to try it out!). SteamOS is by default an immutable distro so you can’t mess around outside your home directory unless you invoke some special linux incantations. Here is the procedure for that: https://christitus.com/unlock-steam-deck/
After you unlock & install the terminal on your steam deck, install and start openssh daemon so your steam deck can be an ssh server so other pcs on your local network can ssh into your steamdeck. From the top of my head the command should be:
sudo pacman -S openssh
sudo systemctl start sshd.service
Or something like that idk 🤷
After that do an “ifconfig” on your terminal emulator on the steam deck to find out the local address of your steam deck (should be something like 10.x.x.x, or 192.168.x.x or something (basically search up what an internal ip should look like)). After you successfully ascertain such code, try to ssh in to your steam deck, and if you can, do an rsync from your PC. (rsync -rl —progress ‘installed game directory’ deck@‘steamdeck internal ip’:/home/deck/Games)
Ok now that it’s done rsyncing, open up steam from desktop mode in your steamdeck, add non-steam game, and choose the exe file in your installed game folder. (Remember when installing from fitgirl, you can choose where to place the game directory? That should be where it is).
Ok now that’s done, try running it and see if it works. Ez. If you want community game layouts set up, copy & paste the game code from steam db as the “Shortcut Name” of your game, and community layouts should show up
Next steps are optional, but basically your installed game will just be blank in your steam library when you play it, so here are the steps to make piracy more ✨a e s t h e t i c✨
Remember you installed decky? Install the steamgriddb plugin from it, and highlight your new non-steam game, and there should be an option called “changed artwork” when you press the three horizontal line button on ur steam deck. Go ham.
Anyway here are the rough details of how i was able to make it work. Ive only tested it with fitgirl but theres no reason other repacks wont work.
LocalSend is a very convenient cross-platform file-sharing app. It’s in the steam deck’s discovery store. Would recommend it over any usb drives or ssh.
I like the simplicity of ssh personally and i like to go old school on things, but yes these and Syncthing are fine alternatives, and since theyre on the discover store u dont need to unlock your steamdeck :) any means necessary to get them files from point a to point b.
Yeah preferring ssh is very understandable. I mostly prefer LocalSend because it has an iOS app that comes in very handy from time to time (though that’s not relevant here)
Ohhhhhh neat!!
Syncthing is also a nice alternative.
Most of these steps can be skipped by installing the Lutris flatpak on the deck itself and using desktop mode (… Plus an external mouse and keyboard) to set up your pirated games directly from the deck.
Additionally, if you’re smart about it you can use syncthing as a ghetto “cloud” solution to synch your progress between PC and deck.
Hmm what steps can be skipped ? How would lutris help with the install process? I make steam run the game directly
Lutris is just for organization, and managing the Wineprefixes. I don’t even use it as an installer per se. I install manually with wine and then point Lutris to the right prefix and game executable.
Anyway, the steps outright skipped are:
- Having to unlock the FS for writing and set up SSH and (…) – This is a security liability if you CARE. I don’t, I just think it’s more effort than necessary.
- Transferring the game folder from a PC to the Deck, since you just. Do it all inside the deck itself.
It’s no big deal doing either of those, but I find it less of a hassle.
My procedure for pirated games, on both PC and deck is:
- On terminal, create a prefix by using
export WINEPREFIX=. Like/home/myuser/Games/NameOfTheGame/pfx - Run
winetricks -q corefonts– The fonts ensure the installer won’t have any rendering errors, plus running winetricks at least once forces wine to create the prefix’s folder structure. - Run the installer from the same terminal session, just doing
wine Setup.exe - Usually install to
/home/myuser/Games/NameOfTheGame/gamefor organisation’s sake, but this is unnecessary and requires dealing with Wine’s handling of your unix folders which is always slightly annoying.
From here, you could launch the game directly through Steam, but then Steam would create its own prefix, and some games require fiddling around with the things installed on the wineprefix (or with envvars or…), which is why I use Lutris as a middleman, as it ensures the game will run on the prefix I created, and if anything is missing, I can winetricks it. Lutris even offers a ‘create Steam shortcut’ option to make it all look neat on the Deck’s console mode screen.
ohhh. that sounds neat. I’ll try that next time
Oh and also, dont forget to “Force use compatibility tool” in steam to either proton 9 or proton experimental, check protondb on which to use :)
I’ve done a few full download and installs on the deck alone, but the separate pc and rsync over ssh is way faster at every step, assuming the second pc actually has the specs to do it faster. The install of a repack takes forever and a day directly on deck.
short ver: you can do it with just the deck but it’s so damn slow to install.
Yes i agree. Installing fitgirl packs on a separate pc, preferrably with a more powerful cpu with more cores than a deck, is way faster. And for some reason when i tried to install fitgirl on the Deck for elden ring through lutris, it didn’t work.
rsync itself is way faster than copying to a USB & copying from USB to steam deck as well.
Note there are some security implications when opening up your deck to ssh. Make sure when u “passwd” that you actually choose a strong password. Or you can just stop sshd.service after you’re done with the file transfer.
Also you probably shouldn’t do a pacman -Syu. Let the deck handle the updates.
It’s better to disable ssh password login and use keys instead.
^^ yes was gonna mention this too. The most secure option if you want to leave your ssh port on in your steam deck.
https://averagelinuxuser.com/how-to-use-public-key-authentication/
I have been doing this for awhile with deck friendly titles. Playing through Cassette Beasts, atm.
Ohh thanks for the game recommend! it looks dope
I didn’t mean to recommend so much as to feel involved.
I would really recommend Balatro and Schim. I also do most of my Switch emulation on the deck too.
What do you use for switch games?
I have used yuzu, ryujinx, and suyu.
Thanks for the ding dong shot
😉
As an addendum, and I’m kinda new to steam deck as well, but the official parlance seems to be “quacked games” for hum… games you didn’t exactly pay for. It might help someone do a search or understand some tutorial.
oh… um the “duck” pond where the “quacks” aren’t here officer…
Sorry, just trying to help.
Anyway, for the SD I prefer to download “portable games” whenever I find them. Just download the torrent directly to the steam deck, add to steam as a non-steam game, change compatibility setting, maybe run proton-tricks to add some requirement like DirectX.
I find using Lutris and Boilr a better way to add images and stuff to your non-steam game shortcut.
