Lists of useful tools, software, mods, websites and other resources
These are lists of some tools and software that are useful for Steam Deck and can enhance your experience with it, as well as all the websites and other such Steam Deck resources I know.
I made these lists for the wiki on Reddit's SteamDeck sub and I thought it was a pretty useful to keep around. I wanted to dump them here for everybody to preserve them and to maybe find a new home for this Steam Deck resource.
Let me know what you think.
List of tools and homebrew
Below is a list of tools and homebrew that can enhance your experience with the Steam Deck. Since the Steam Deck offers most things that a normal Linux desktop environment can, tools are included that can be found in the Discover store (including from non-default repositories) and have proven to be an especially good fit.
BCML (a modding tool voor Breath of the Wild for WiiU) can be difficult to get running on Steam Deck, because it uses an immutable filesystem and the version of Python installed by default is higher than what BCML supports. This script helps people install it.
A graphical and themeable emulator front-end that allows you to access all your favorite games in one place, which is installed by Emudeck and Retrodeck, but can also be used by itself.
This project aims to make modding and playing Bethesda games on Linux as easy as possible. It does that by providing installers which automatically setup a working experience for the user.
Steam ROM Manager is a super flexible tool for adding non-Steam games to steam in bulk and managing their artwork assets. It can be installed with Emudeck, but can also be used by itself.
Filelight is an application to visualize the disk usage on your computer by showing folders using an easy-to-understand view of concentric rings. Filelight makes it simple to free up space!
Syncthing is a file synchronization tool like Dropbox, except that it can work with your own machines and without a server. This
can be very useful for keeping non-Steam and emulator save games in sync or backed up.
Heroic is an Open Source Games Launcher. Right now it supports launching games from the Epic Games Store using Legendary and GOG Games using our custom implementation with gogdl.
Installs the latest GE-Proton and several non-Steam launchers under one Proton prefix folder and adds them to your Steam library. Reddit release post for v2.7
Steam Tinker Launch is a versatile Linux wrapper tool for use with the Steam client which allows for easy graphical configuration of game tools, such as GameScope, MangoHud, modding tools and a bunch more. It supports both games
using Proton and native Linux games, and works on both X11 and Wayland.
[This application does not seem to be maintained any longer.] Crankshaft is a Steam client plugin manager and framework that lets you install and create plugins to add more functionality
to your Steam client.
Chiaki4deck is a fork of Chiaki, adding features for the Steam Deck. It is a free and Open Source Client for PlayStation 4 and
PlayStation 5 Remote Play. It can be used to play in real time on a PlayStation as long as there is a network connection.
Like AnyDesk, allows remote desktop connections to your Steam Deck. Disabling read-only on the filesystem is required to install, but otherwise works very well.
Use your phone as a keyboard and mouse, and copy/paste between devices (apps for iOS and
for Android available.) Gained improved support for
Linux and Steam Deck in December 2022.
An open source TeamViewer alternative, remote desktop software. Works out of the box, no configuration required. Use the AppImage from the nightly build.
Replace the Deck startup video file with a file of the user's choice. Randomizer provides two features: individual random set and on-boot randomization. Reddit release post
CoreKeyboard is an X11-based virtual keyboard. It has the advantage over Valve's built-in keyboard to offer access to special keys such as Ctrl, Alt and function keys.
Great on Deck browser extension for Chrome or Firefox
See what games are verified for the Steam Deck and which medal they have on ProtonDB in the Steam store.
Qbert generates a root overlay where you can install whatever software you need without messing your filesystem.
NOTICE: something is broken atm, Qbert is not creating a correct overlay so basically the software is not working as intended.
An application to help you keep track of the different games you have on your SD Cards. If you ever found yourself wondering if you already have a game installed on a different SD Card then this is for you. Reddit post by u/ddotthomas.
On this Steam page, you can find a list of Valve hardware and their serial numbers. You can click on the Steam Deck in the list to view a list of its
hardware components.
Boiling Steam is dedicated to covering the world of PC Linux Gaming since 2014. The site often reports on the Steam Deck, as the search results the link points to show.
overkill.wtf primarily focuses on the Steam Deck, with a hint of Switch, PC gaming and whatever else we find interesting at that moment--but mostly Steam Deck.
Unofficial Steam Deck compatibility website. Verification, performance reviews and tweaks for Steam Deck.
Emulation guides, Epic Games Store, Ubisoft Connect games and more.
A website where you can upload and share community-made Steam Deck boot videos (plus in the future, other things like themes and an app to automatically apply them to the Steam Deck)!
SyncThing is great. I have it on all my computers and a VPS. At least two clients need to be online for them to be able to transfer data, of course, so that VPS comes in handy. Something like a Raspberry Pi would work.
I sync all my emulator save games with it, for instance.
On the SteamDeck, in Desktop mode, I installed the SyncThingy app via the package manager and followed the instructions to set it up as a service that starts at boot time, so it will even work in Gaming mode.
Once that was running, I went through the process in SyncThing to synchronize my PC and the Steam Deck, which does take a few clicks and confirmations on both the PC and the Steam Deck, but after that it just started copying the game folders automatically.
After a game had sync'd to the Steam Deck, I added it to Steam, switched back to Gaming mode and played it for a bit. After saving my game, I checked on the PC to see that the save files that added to the game folder on my Steam Deck also now showed up on my PC.
SyncThing is hands down my favorite software ever.
People often recommend shit like Nextcloud for personal file hosting where you need to set up a server and have everything connect to that. There is no central server in SyncThing (unless you manually set up the syncing rules to create something like that).
Not only is setting up SyncThing stupidly easy because you don’t have to setup a server (it is so easy it has a damn QR code reader button, if your device has a camera you can have one device show a QR code and the other scan it and boom they are connected that’s it), it also means you don’t have to maintain a server as a central nexus point indefinitely. You can add and remove devices from sharing a folder in any way you want. The original device that shared the folder can be long gone and it is no problem. I don’t know if people intuitively grasp how much easier that makes retaining important file folders longterm, especially if you are disorganized, chaotic and prone to losing, destroying or not properly maintaining things like I am lol.
A raspberry pi works great as a SyncThing device that you can leave always on to catch your other devices when they connect to the internet briefly and sync their folders, but if the folder is small enough and your phone has the space, your phone works even better. SyncThing works on both Android and iOS (with the paid app mobiussync).
Honestly SyncThing is a stunning piece of software, the kind that actually legitimately changes your life when you get used to using it, and thank god it isn’t locked into some corporations silo to only work with that companies products.
As a pro tip, this kind of file sharing between devices that may not both happen to be online at the same time for long periods can create issues where both devices have an updated version of a file from when they last connected (which is one of the reasons that having an always on device like a raspberry pi or phone is nice). This is a potentially a hard problem, but SyncThing handles this great with a sync conflict resolving utility where you are prompted what to do for each sync conflict.
Something I recommend to further mitigate potential issues is for folders with a relatively small amount of files, go into the folder options and set it so SyncThing keeps the last 10 or so versions of a file (if it’s all small files go crazy and do 20 who cares). That way if you do make a huge mistake and lose a critical updated file you can just grab it from the backups. The amount of previous versions of files SyncThing keeps is set per folder on each device separately, so when sharing a folder, your device with a huge amount of storage can be set to retain many older versions of files and your smartphone with little available storage can be set not to retain any or very few.