Bazzite and Big Picture Mode
I've installed Bazzite and selected game mode. Now I'd like to know how to boot into the desktop first (but still be able to switch into Gaming Mode at will) instead of booting into Gaming Mode first. Is this possible?
23 Replies
Nevermind -- I am new to atomic OSes. I figured out how to "rebase" it, and I rebased it to "bazzite" rather than "bazzite-deck", and it now works - booting into the Desktop and generally being more "desktoppy". I can still run Steam (although the little icon on the desktop no longer boots to steam, the icon on the taskbar does still).
Very cool!
You could have just modified
/etc/sddm.conf and comment/uncomment few lines, it tells you what those lines do if you would want to also have gaming mode
You kinda dont have that option on desktop iso (so kind of late, but for future reference)I did a mini guide a while back for selecting full game mode or desktop at the login screen rather than booting directly into game mode https://discord.com/channels/1072614816579063828/1334405906246537236/1334551548507852840
Very cool. I just switched back to bazzite-deck to test this. But can it start up to Desktop, but NOT require any kind of password/login screen?
Unfortunately I don't think so, since the password prompt screen is what allows you to switch between environments, if you set it to auto login and you try to switch it will just auto login again.
Trying an experiment, so rebooting a few times here...
I guess you could change the sddm.conf file dynamically with a script. Haven't tried that though
good luck
Hm. No dice so far, but it really does look like there's some kind of option. Digging around in the configuration files, I see zz-steamos-autologin.conf which contains only "[Autologin]" and "Session=plasma-steamos-wayland-oneshot.desktop"
Okay, I created a file, "/etc/sddm.conf", and filled it with
This worked as I needed.
Can you get to gamemode though?
In other words, it booted right into Desktop. Now to test to see if I can switch back and forth between Gaming Mode and Desktop at will.
You might need to make a script that changes that file to let you into game mode
testgin
you are right, it put me right back at desktop. Okay, will make a script.
It should come down to creating and removing /etc/sddm.conf. I can just rename it with a script. But how to trigger the script when coming back from Gaming Mode? I guess I can just create an autostart script to delete /etc/sddm.conf when I am done booting into Desktop. But then I will have to recreate it pre-reboot somehow.
or modify an existing boot-up script to create it early in the process
auto start script that renames the file back. and go to gamemode renames it to something else
You might need a shutdown script that puts it back though not really needed, you'll have the last environment that you booted
Oh yes that makes sense. The autostart script should run every time the desktop runs. But if I reboot in Game Mode, it will boot back into Game Mode, which maybe the right behavior after all.
So basically it's not a "boot into desktop" change, it's a "boot into last used mode" change.
Okay you just said that haha
once you've ironed it out, probably worth posting the scripts here. having a boot into previously used environment is pretty cool
Yeah okay that's my project for the day.
Cool! Good luck 🙂
Okay, got the basic framework.
Create ~/.local/bin/switch_to_desktop_mode.bash and put this inside (and chmod +x it) Create ~/.local/bin/switch_to_gaming_mode.bash and put this inside (and chmod +x it) Create ~/.local/share/sddm.conf and put this inside Modify the "Return to Gaming Mode" icon by pointing it to ~/.local/bin/switch-to-gaming-mode.bash Add an autostart logon script and point it to ~/.local/bin/switch-to-desktop-mode.bash. Still debugging! This creates a new problem. The scripts contain a "sudo" which triggers a password dialog. I tried "remember this password" tickbox, but this doesn't apparently fix the problem. Any ideas? Other than that, it does in fact work. I tested it (by rebooting from the desktop, and rebooting from gaming-mode using the big-picture reboot option under "Power", and in each case it booted back into the mode it was in when it rebooted. So, halfway there?
Create ~/.local/bin/switch_to_desktop_mode.bash and put this inside (and chmod +x it) Create ~/.local/bin/switch_to_gaming_mode.bash and put this inside (and chmod +x it) Create ~/.local/share/sddm.conf and put this inside Modify the "Return to Gaming Mode" icon by pointing it to ~/.local/bin/switch-to-gaming-mode.bash Add an autostart logon script and point it to ~/.local/bin/switch-to-desktop-mode.bash. Still debugging! This creates a new problem. The scripts contain a "sudo" which triggers a password dialog. I tried "remember this password" tickbox, but this doesn't apparently fix the problem. Any ideas? Other than that, it does in fact work. I tested it (by rebooting from the desktop, and rebooting from gaming-mode using the big-picture reboot option under "Power", and in each case it booted back into the mode it was in when it rebooted. So, halfway there?
Maybe a systemd service?
Maybe. I do have a solution in principle which does work.
Instead of using ~/.local/bin/ and ~/.local/share/ use /usr/local/bin/ and /usr/local/share/. Then use visudo to grant password-less sudo power to just those two scripts (switchto(desktop/gaming)_mode.bash). This works fine and I've tested it.
nice! 🙂
I would like to propose to the Bazzite team that this behavior (not necessarily my implementation!!), but the general behavior of booting into the last-used mode be the default behavior, even upon installation. It just makes sense to me. Do you guys know how to make an official proposal?
I will write up a nice howto for doing my implementation in a few hours. Real life calls for now.
You could make a github issue with your proposed solution and see what the devs think https://github.com/ublue-os/bazzite/issues.
Or perhaps you could do a PR with your proposed solution. Zelius, Kyle, Hikari etc are good at giving feedback on stuff.