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Shell script to copy addon files off my Steam Deck
After all the primary housekeeping I did in Desktop Mode on my new Steam Deck, there was one more problem I wanted to solve: a better way to copy the SavedVariables directory files off the Deck and into the equivalent folder on my MacBook.
For those of you who don’t play Elder Scrolls Online, or who do play but don’t play with addons, the SavedVariables directory is one of the directories underneath ESO’s standard install location. On my Mac, ESO gets plunked into the Documents directory, so it’s very easy to find. In that directory is a subdirectory called “live”, and underneath that is “SavedVariables”.
The SavedVariables directory is where a bunch of user-specific stuff gets saved for how you’ve configured your game. Including any specific setups you’ve done for any addons you’re running.
Since I typically play on Steam Deck the majority of the time but also semi-regularly play on computer, I wanted a way to keep the SavedVariables directories in both places in sync.
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Additional housekeeping on the new Steam Deck
One more post I want to make about the new Steam Deck I’ve acquired: what I’m setting up on it besides the actual games. Because I am the kind of nerd who digs into the Desktop mode on this thing, to take advantage of it being a handheld computer in addition to a gaming console.
Here are the goals I wanted to accomplish on it:
- Making it possible to access the device from my computer, both via the command line and via a VNC connection
- Making it accessible not only by an IP address assigned to it from our house DHCP server, but also via its hostname
- Making arrangements to have any installations I did persist through the next time Valve does an OS update on it
- Implementing a backup solution, to account for the same critical files I pulled off of its predecessor
Deets on what I’ve done tonight behind the fold.
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Getting up and running on the new Steam Deck
As I reported in my previous post, I got a surprise new Steam Deck when my original one decided its battery was going to turn into a spicy danger pillow! So over the last day or so, I’ve been working on setting up the new device with all the games and playthroughs I had active on the previous one.
This post is about that, and about my overall impressions of this new Deck in general. It’s an OLED model, and yeah, there are some distinct differences between it and its predecessor.
This is not going to be a full review post. If you want an in-depth review of the OLED Steam Deck, there are plenty to choose from all over the web. As I’m a regular follower of Ars Technica, I’ll commend their review in particular to you.
What I want to talk about here instead are my overall personal impressions, what I’ve noticed so far that’s different from my original Deck, and what I had to do to get all my previous games and playthroughs back up and running.
Deets behind the fold. This’ll be a long post.
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The Saga of My Surprise Steam Deck Replacement
Those of you who follow me on social media will have seen me posting about this already, but for the sake of my blog and for future reference, I’m documenting this here too.
Saga of how my Steam Deck’s battery started puffing up–and how I got a surprise new Deck–behind the fold!
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In Which Finds-The-Way Raids the Thalmor Embassy and Visits Alduin’s Wall
Closing in on the home stretch, I’m almost caught up on all my playthrough posts, y’all! Here’s the most recent one for Finds-The-Way, and this’ll be a short-ish one. This is mostly all Main Quest stuff, which I’ve covered in depth on earlier playthroughs. So most of the content here will be German language geekery. But a little side action with buggy dog adoption!
Main action covered: raiding the Thalmor Embassy, rescuing Esbern from the Ratway, meeting Delphine and Esbern at Karthspire and running Sky Haven Temple, and running the Crypt of the Heart quest.
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Experiment: Trying to run Gate to Sovngarde
I interrupt my usual playthrough posts with a side experiment: attempting to run the Nexus Mods collection Gate to Sovngarde!
Details on this behind the fold.
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Setting up VNC and sshd on my Steam Deck
So as I think I’ve mentioned before on this blog, whenever I want to do any serious rearranging of my mods on my Steam Deck, it’s awkward to do so directly on the Deck.
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Switching to Pikdum scripts for modding my Steam Deck
This post overrides all previous posts I’ve done on the topic of how I’m modding on my Steam Deck. The TL;DR version is, I got frustrated with Vortex not being supported well with steamtinkerlaunch, which was causing me problems with being able to update Vortex to new versions.
I have now ditched steamtinkerlaunch from my setup entirely, in favor of setup scripts created by and posted to Github by a user called pikdum.
Deets behind the fold.
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Solving a few issues in Harrowhark’s playthrough
I alluded to this in the post I put up yesterday about Harrowhark’s latest session, but wanted to call this out separately here: I got a solution to my missing MCMs!
User Grayblood on the Nexus Mods Discord helpfully pointed me at the Menu Maid 2 mod, recommending this as a way to fix my missing MCMs rather than trying to use Jaxonz’s MCM Kicker. Menu Maid has several dependencies, but I had most of them already except for Powerofthree’s Tweaks. So I installed both Menu Maid 2 and Powerofthree’s Tweaks… and just like that, boom, my missing MCMs showed up.
However, this wasn’t the only problem I’ve now solved in Harrow’s playthrough.
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Issue with no controller buttons on screen SOLVED
A little while ago today I did a post lamenting a problem I was having with my Oblivion install on my Steam Deck showing me keyboard prompts on screen rather than controller button prompts. I am delighted to report, as of this post, that this issue is solved.
A helpful user on Mastodon (all hail @blake) told me that the issue was that the controller config I had on the Deck was sending keyboard inputs, not controller inputs. And that what I had to do was to change to a configuration that sent controller inputs instead.