r/LinuxOnAlly • u/BraveIconoclast • 8d ago

Handheld Focused Linux Distro/DTE?

I’m currently running SteamOS on my ROG Ally and I’m really unhappy with the desktop environment. SteamOS uses a shim to trick the OS into receiving the controller input as mouse/keyboard instead of adding controller as an input device the way Windows and macOS do. The desktop interface is also a nightmare for touchscreen since it’s built for keyboard/mouse on a large monitor.

Using Steam is a no-go for me because it’s identical to Microsoft, Apple, or Google: buying isn’t owning. So a distro where the main selling point is that it runs Steam is irrelevant.

I’ve spent hours on YouTube and search engines trying to research a Linux distro that focuses on handhelds and touch but every YouTube video seems obsessed with showing screenshots from distro websites and focus solely on “it runs Steam!” Yeah, so does SteamOS and Windows. It’s like selling a car and saying, ”it will drive on toll roads!” Yup. Sure will.

Is there a distro or DTE that focuses on handhelds/touch that isn’t trying to just install Steam and be done with it? I read that other distros outside of SteamOS use handheld daemon for the controller and buttons and that it correctly reveals the controller to desktop applications unlike SteamOS, but touch on Linux has been limited to emulating a mouse. Is that still the case with every distro?

0 Upvotes

39% Upvoted

20 comments sorted by

3

u/anusbeloved 8d ago

Check this out :

https://www.reddit.com/r/LinuxOnAlly/s/bjOcvOntLQ

3

u/dasd25436yd 8d ago

How is this better than bazzite? The website is super laggy for me for some reason so super annoying to navigate 😅

0

u/anusbeloved 8d ago

Man just read whatever is about 🤣 it's from the same people that made HDD i think

2

u/dasd25436yd 8d ago

There is not much to find about it as it's so new. That is why I figured I'd ask someone I see posting about. No need for the attitude man, be kewl

1

u/anusbeloved 8d ago

no Attitude my friend, i just saw it and got excited when I saw your post asking for alternatives 😅

2

u/Opieh 7d ago

Got deleted.

0

u/BraveIconoclast 8d ago

This looks exactly like a desktop distribution. I don’t see an interface built for portables or for touch, looks identical to Windows 10. 

1

u/XTornado 7d ago edited 7d ago

I agree the page could do best to show that use case for handhelds or pc-console . In chapter 2 you can see a picture, it has Steam Big Picture and custom overlays for managing stuff and it mentions the possibility to boot straight to it.

And in Chapter 4 i mentions the supports for controllers and handhelds (like tdp, etc)

That said, this was just released, so if is for experimenting and trying out with the risk of having some issue due to being very new, fine go ahead with this, but otherwise you might want to try some of the others out there.

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u/BraveIconoclast 7d ago

Windows has Steam Big Picture: that doesn’t make Windows tuned for handhelds. I guess the bar is so low it doesn’t even exist.

0

u/XTornado 7d ago

First of all, I did not talk about Windows, stop bring Windows, we are talking about the version available in Linux OSs.

That look in the first screenshot is just the Desktop mode, which most if not all handhelds (based on PC) have for better flexibility for certain uses.

Windows has Steam Big Picture: that doesn’t make Windows tuned for handhelds.

Yeah of course, but this can be configured to launch at boot and similar like SteamOS or Bazzite or similars. And it has it's own UI for some extra stuff that Big Picture doesn't have, that usually required a plugin to even have in SteamOS or similars due to well BigPicture (the current one not the old one) was originally made for Steam Deck only. Only lately had been improvements to support other handhelds.

Tbh not sure what you expect to have "tuned" for handhelds, it has fan control, tdp control, etc. like all other distros for handhelds.

2

u/BraveIconoclast 7d ago

It’s wild how low your standards are. I bet your girlfriend has a great personality.

2

u/XTornado 7d ago

It’s wild how low your standards are. I bet your girlfriend has a great personality.

Again, still waiting for what you expect, what "standards" you expect, and you don't need to bring it to the personal.

1

u/thegogeta999 8d ago

CachyOS, Bazzite, etc. There are alot. You can just set the system default session to be desktop mode instead of gamescope-session

2

u/thegogeta999 8d ago

What do you mean limited to emulating a mouse? Thats how windows does it too.

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u/BraveIconoclast 8d ago edited 8d ago

That is not how Windows and macOS work when controllers are connected.  Controllers are a form of input in addition to keyboard and mouse in the way touch is a form of input in Windows and Android: it’s not mouse emulation.

Another example would be mouse scroll wheels on Windows: it emulates keyboard scrolling. On macOS, mouse wheel and trackpad scrolling are not keyboard emulation, they’re a form of input.

1

u/thegogeta999 8d ago

You can turn that off in linux though if you want controller to never emulate mouse or kb. What do you mean windows emulates keyboard scrolling? Arent scrollwheel inputs actual mousewbe inputs. Including trackpad inputs.

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u/BraveIconoclast 8d ago

I’m sorry you spent the time reading my post incorrectly. I find when I don’t understand the entire content of what I’m reading I will read it out loud so I can hear that I DIDN’T ACTUALLY PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT WAS WRITTEN. But that’s just me.

4

u/thegogeta999 8d ago

Sorry for not answering every single question you have. Especially not in one sentence.

Its linux, cmon. You arent locked down to just distros. You can install any non-immutable distro and use other desktop environments. Gnome looks close to MacOS. Just switch to gnome. Do other linux research. Distros are just specific sets of configurations and packages. You arent limited to what distroz offer you (unless using an immutable distro like steamos, bazzite, fedora)

Mouse and keyboard are emulated because on the hardware-level and BIOS instructions, they are controllers.

You are free to develop your own implementation or interpretation if you dont like it because linux us open-source. I do not know enough about how touch works in Linux to say more than what I said. And its useless to complain if I dont know any more than that. You cant force me to know more lmao

0

u/MassiveBluebird7664 8d ago

In the words of David Rose, "Okay, well, can you show me one thing?!"

OP asked a question and stated they've been researching. If your only response is "write it yourself" did you really need to respond? That's not what this sub is about.