Universal BlueUB
Universal Blue•2y ago
zany130

systemd service to run apps headlessly in gamemode

I am trying to run some apps headlessly in steam game mode (pcloud, openrgb, discord, and jamesdsp)

all these apps except openrgb should ONLY be run headlessly when in steam game mode, otherwise they start up as normal by kde's autostart.

so far this is what I have

cat .config/systemd/user/openrgb.service
[Unit]
Description=OpenRGB control

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/home/zany130/AppImages/openrgb_8682f8.appimage --profile MyRGB --server
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=1
SuccessExitStatus=3 4

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target
╰─❯ cat .config/systemd/user/gamescopeApps.service 
[Unit]
Description=headless apps to run in gamescope session

[Service]
Type=forking
ExecStart=/home/zany130/Scripts/startGamescopeAppsBazzite.sh
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=1
SuccessExitStatus=3 4
╰─❯ cat Scripts/startGamescopeAppsBazzite.sh
#!/bin/bash
flatpak kill me.timschneeberger.jdsp4linux
killall pcloud
sleep 10s
/usr/bin/xvfb-run flatpak run me.timschneeberger.jdsp4linux &
/usr/bin/xvfb-run flatpak run com.discordapp.Discord  &
/usr/bin/xvfb-run /home/zany130/AppImages/pcloud_082454.appimage &


and then I just modifed the Return.desktop file on the desktop to

cat Desktop/Return.desktop 
#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Return to Gaming Mode
Exec=systemctl start return-to-gamemode.service & systemctl --user start & openrgb.service systemctl --user start gamescopeApps.service
Icon=steamdeck-gaming-return
Terminal=false
Type=Application
StartupNotify=false

so my services are started when I switch to steam game mode but gamescopeApps.service persits into the kde session as well which I don't want (since kde is starting these same apps with its autostart)
Solution
so went back to my original idea with a few changes

first I actually had a typo with & in the Return.desktop file

so what I did was add a Requires=openrgb.service and After=openrgb.service to the gamsecopeapps.service so I don't have to chain so many &

the finally result looks like this


.config/systemd/user/openrgb.service

[Unit]
Description=OpenRGB control

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/home/zany130/AppImages/openrgb_8682f8.appimage --profile MyRGB --server
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=1

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

cat .config/systemd/user/gamescopeApps.service

[Unit]
Description=headless apps to run in gamescope session
Requires=openrgb.service
After=openrgb.service

[Service]
Type=forking
ExecStart=/home/zany130/Scripts/startGamescopeAppsBazzite.sh
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=1

cat Desktop/Return.desktop

#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Return to Gaming Mode
Exec=systemctl start return-to-gamemode.service & systemctl --user start gamescopeApps.service
Icon=steamdeck-gaming-return
Terminal=false
Type=Application
StartupNotify=false


cat Scripts/startGamescopeAppsBazzite.sh

#!/bin/bash
flatpak kill me.timschneeberger.jdsp4linux
killall pcloud
sleep 10s
/usr/bin/xvfb-run flatpak run me.timschneeberger.jdsp4linux --watch &
/usr/bin/xvfb-run flatpak run com.discordapp.Discord  &
/usr/bin/xvfb-run /home/zany130/AppImages/pcloud_082454.appimage &


the reason why it was autostarting in plasma for me before is because I had the gamescopeApps.service previously enabled with the default.target all I had to do was systemctl --user disable gamescopeApps.service and it was fixed no more auto starting in plasma

now jamesdsp, pcloud, discord, and openrgb are all started headlessy when ever I switch to gamemode from the desktop

and I have my system setup to auto start to plasma instead of game mode with ujust _toggle-autologin

so I will always run the desktop file anyway to go into gamemode. no need to complicate things and make it "achtually" start with gamemode
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