Deckless

Deckless is a Linux toolkit that keeps the official Steam package intact while fixing three pain points that desktop Linux users regularly hit outside SteamOS:

• split proxy policy for Steam web content vs. game traffic
• Big Picture GPU fallback and related audio/runtime quirks
• couch-mode handoff between Big Picture and launched games on i3

It started from a real Arch Linux desktop that needed direct game traffic, proxied Steam community/store access, and a better controller-first Big Picture workflow.

Features

• Keeps /usr/bin/steam as the official upstream client.
• Proxies only steamwebhelper traffic, so store, community pages, avatars, and embedded web content can use a proxy while games and downloads stay direct.
• Restores the original steamwebhelper_sniper_wrap.sh shortly after Steam exits through a detached cleanup helper.
• Removes Steam's --disable-gpu and --disable-gpu-compositing flags for Big Picture webhelper sessions.
• Exports sane GBM, EGL, and PulseAudio defaults to help Steam stay on hardware acceleration instead of dropping to software rendering.
• Launches Big Picture through gamescope and gamemode when they are available.
• Ships an optional i3 bridge that lets a newly launched game take fullscreen from Big Picture and hands fullscreen back when the game exits.
• Installs cleanly into XDG paths and can be rolled back with ./uninstall.sh.

Real-machine verification

Validated on March 28, 2026 on an Arch Linux desktop with X11, i3, NVIDIA 595.58.3, and a 240 Hz monitor.

The live validation for this repository confirmed:

• Steam updater verification completed without a wrapper size mismatch loop.
• The top-level steamwebhelper launched with --proxy-server=... and without Steam's forced --disable-gpu* flags.
• webhelper_gpu.txt reported gpu_compositing: enabled, opengl: enabled_on, and video_decode: enabled.
• Big Picture opened as a focused fullscreen steamwebhelper window under i3.

Design goals

• Official Steam first, customization second.
• No permanent mutation of Steam runtime files at rest.
• Small, auditable shell scripts instead of a daemon-heavy stack.
• Easy to adopt on one machine and easy to explain to another Linux player.

Quick start

1. Install the official Steam package for your distribution.
2. Install the runtime helpers you want:
   • required: bash, jq
   • optional: gamescope, gamemode
   • optional for i3 autostart: dex or another XDG autostart runner
3. Copy the proxy template and edit it for your local proxy:

mkdir -p ~/.config/deckless
cp config/proxy-env.example.sh ~/.config/deckless/proxy-env.sh

4. Review the optional runtime settings:

cp config/deckless.env.example ~/.config/deckless/deckless.env

5. Install Deckless:

./install.sh

6. Start Steam as usual:

steam

For a controller-first session, launch:

steam-bigpicture

Arch packaging

This repository also ships a PKGBUILD for a rolling deckless-git package.

From a local clone:

makepkg -si
deckless-install

That installs Deckless under /usr/share/deckless and exposes:

• deckless-install
• deckless-uninstall

What gets installed

• ~/.local/share/deckless/bin/deckless-steam
• ~/.local/share/deckless/bin/deckless-bigpicture
• ~/.local/share/deckless/bin/deckless-i3-bigpicture-bridge
• ~/.local/share/deckless/bin/deckless-sync-webhelper-wrapper
• ~/.local/share/deckless/bin/deckless-webhelper-heal
• ~/.local/share/deckless/bin/deckless-webhelper-cleanup
• ~/.local/bin/steam
• ~/.local/bin/steam-bigpicture
• ~/.local/share/applications/steam.desktop
• ~/.local/share/applications/steam-bigpicture.desktop
• ~/.config/autostart/deckless-i3-bigpicture-bridge.desktop

Deckless also stores first-install backups under ~/.local/share/deckless/backups/original.

Configuration

Proxy split

Deckless looks for proxy settings in this order:

1. DECKLESS_PROXY_ENV
2. ~/.config/deckless/proxy-env.sh
3. ~/.config/network/proxy-env.sh
4. inherited shell proxy variables

Only the top-level Steam webhelper gets the resulting Chromium proxy flags. The main Steam client and launched games have proxy environment variables cleared before Steam starts.

Optional runtime settings

~/.config/deckless/deckless.env can override:

• DECKLESS_STEAM_BIN
• DECKLESS_LANG
• DECKLESS_FC_LANG
• DECKLESS_INPUT_METHOD
• DECKLESS_USE_GAMEMODE
• DECKLESS_USE_GAMESCOPE
• DECKLESS_GAMESCOPE_REFRESH
• DECKLESS_USE_MANGOAPP

i3 bridge

The i3 bridge is installed as an XDG autostart entry with OnlyShowIn=i3;.

If your i3 session is started by dex, lxsession, or another autostart runner, the bridge will come up automatically in future sessions. install.sh also attempts to start it immediately when it detects a live i3 session.

See docs/i3.md for the handoff behavior.

Tested setup

• Arch Linux
• official steam package
• X11
• i3
• NVIDIA proprietary driver 595.58.3
• 240 Hz display
• gamescope
• gamemode
• jq

Other X11 desktop environments may still benefit from the proxy split and Big Picture GPU fixes, but the fullscreen handoff bridge is currently i3-specific.

Safety and rollback

• Deckless never replaces /usr/bin/steam.
• The Steam runtime wrapper is only rewritten while Steam is active.
• The original wrapper is restored shortly after Steam exits, once Steam activity is gone.
• ./uninstall.sh restores the local launchers and desktop entries that existed before the first install.

Documentation

• Architecture notes
• i3 integration
• Troubleshooting
• Contributing
• Changelog

License

Deckless is licensed under GPL-3.0-or-later. See LICENSE.