Switch to desktop

[Mohandevir]

It's not an issue it's just a remark (might have posted at the wrong place?).

You might already know it, but I discovered that the "Switch to Desktop" (BPM feature) works with lightdm instead of GDM3, on Ubuntu 18.04. I'm not a programmer so I don't have the skills to tell you why, but that's the workaround I personally use. You must add the desktop user (required) to the nopasswdlogin group though.

Have you found a way to make it work with GDM3?

Thanks for this project; I'm doing all of that on my own and with my limited skills. I was looking to create a minimal "Steambuntu.iso" with distroshare when I stumbled upon this. :)

[andreashuetter]

What is necessary to use lightdm instead of GDM?

[Mohandevir]

BPM's "Switch to Desktop" in the Steamos's start menu, when you enable access to Linux Desktop (user account named desktop required). Le jeu. 26 déc. 2019 02 h 52, Andreas Hütter <notifications@github.com> a écrit :

…

What is necessary to use lightdm instead of GDM? — You are receiving this because you authored the thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#3?email_source=notifications&email_token=ABQFRY3UIGUDRVATNZEMIRLQ2RPFFA5CNFSM4GQHI6R2YY3PNVWWK3TUL52HS4DFVREXG43VMVBW63LNMVXHJKTDN5WW2ZLOORPWSZGOEHVEXVQ#issuecomment-569002966>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ABQFRY6IJMUCY5T5NOOU4Z3Q2RPFFANCNFSM4GQHI6RQ> .

[Mohandevir]

Ok... Let's do this from the start...

1- Install Ubuntu 18.04. Create your admin account (must be named desktop and nothing else);
2- Personally, I use this script which is a modified version of the script supplied on this github:

#!/bin/bash

Set the defaults. These can be overridden by specifying the value as an

environment variable when running this script.

NON_INTERACTIVE="${NON_INTERACTIVE:-false}"

Configure the default versions of the SteamOS packages to use. These generally

don't ever need to be overridden.

STEAMOS_COMPOSITOR_VER="${STEAMOS_COMPOSITOR_VER:-1.35+bsos1_amd64}"
STEAMOS_MODESWITCH_VER="${STEAMOS_MODESWITCH_VER:-1.10+bsos1_amd64}"
STEAMOS_PLYMOUTH_VER="${STEAMOS_PLYMOUTH_VER:-0.17+bsos2_all}"

Ensure the script is being run as root

if [ "$EUID" -ne 0 ]; then
echo "This script must be run with sudo."
exit
fi

Confirm from the user that it's OK to continue

if [[ "${NON_INTERACTIVE}" != "true" ]]; then
echo "This script will configure a SteamOS-like experience on Ubuntu."
read -p "Do you want to continue? [Yy]" -n 1 -r
echo
if [[ $REPLY =~ ^[Yy]$ ]]; then
echo "Starting installation..."
else
echo "Aborting installation."
exit
fi
fi

Create 'steam' user account.

echo "Creating the steam user account..."
adduser steam

Replace GDM3 with Lightdm and configure the desktop user.

Required to make the BPM "Switch to desktop" feature work.

apt remove gdm3 -y
apt install lightdm -y
usermod -a -G nopasswdlogin desktop
usermod -a -G nopasswdlogin steam
dpkg-reconfigure lightdm

Install steam and steam device support.

echo "Installing steam..."
apt update
apt install steam steam-devices -y

Download the packages we need. If we fail at downloading, stop the script.

set -e
echo "Downloading SteamOS packages..."
wget "http://repo.steamstatic.com/steamos/pool/main/s/steamos-compositor/steamos-compositor_${STEAMOS_COMPOSITOR_VER}.deb"
wget "http://repo.steamstatic.com/steamos/pool/main/s/steamos-modeswitch-inhibitor/steamos-modeswitch-inhibitor_${STEAMOS_MODESWITCH_VER}.deb"
wget "http://repo.steamstatic.com/steamos/pool/main/p/plymouth-themes-steamos/plymouth-themes-steamos_${STEAMOS_PLYMOUTH_VER}.deb"
set +e

Install the steamos compositor, modeswitch, and themes

echo "Configuring the SteamOS boot themes..."
dpkg -i ./*.deb &>/dev/null
apt install -f -y
update-alternatives --install /usr/share/plymouth/themes/default.plymouth default.plymouth /usr/share/plymouth/themes/steamos/steamos.plymouth 100
update-alternatives --set default.plymouth /usr/share/plymouth/themes/steamos/steamos.plymouth

Enable automatic login on steam user and default to SteamOS BPM UI.

echo "Enabling automatic login..."
echo '[SeatDefaults]' > /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf
echo 'autologin-user=steam' >> /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf

echo '[InputSource0]' > /var/lib/AccountsService/users/steam
echo 'xkb=ca' >> /var/lib/AccountsService/users/steam
echo ' ' >> /var/lib/AccountsService/users/steam
echo '[User]' >> /var/lib/AccountsService/users/steam
echo 'XSession=steamos' >> /var/lib/AccountsService/users/steam
echo 'SystemAccount=false' >> /var/lib/AccountsService/users/steam

Change desktop wallpaper

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri "file:////usr/share/plymouth/themes/steamos/steam.png"

Update the grub theme.

cp /usr/share/plymouth/themes/steamos/steam.png /boot/grub

Updating grub for splash screen resolution issue

echo 'GRUB_GFXMODE=1920x1080' >> /etc/default/grub
echo FRAMEBUFFER=y | sudo tee /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/splash
update-initramfs -u
update-grub

echo ""
echo "Installation complete! Press ENTER to reboot or CTRL+C to exit"
read -r
reboot

That's it. This way, the switch to desktop option in steamos-compositor should now work as expected. At least, on my 2 setups, it does.