It is built from source, which makes the first switch long. The template
lists it as a commented option; status shows clipboard-sync only while it
runs or its autostart link exists.
create_config locks the template as a path (not the git repository) and
commits everything once, with the user's git identity or, without one,
a fallback passed with -c for that commit only. The template switch no
longer warns that the tree is dirty; the marker and the one-commit rule
are unchanged.
- The nix.mount drop-in is also removed when the uninstall fails or is
interrupted (exit trap), and when daemon-reload failed after writing it.
- --dir with a trailing slash no longer puts the temporary clone inside
the directory it replaces.
- The template's repository uses Nix's git when SteamOS has none, so the
template marker exists there too (--clone needs it).
- A failed Nix uninstall during the reinstall of a broken Nix says so.
- clone_config: one branch per case; shorter comments, help and docs.
- Tests: an interrupted uninstall, --dir with a trailing slash; a
redundant "used as it is" case dropped.
README: what --clone does for a private repository (the template's
gh/store helpers, the gh auth login offer, keep those lines in your
config, what gets cloned into and that re-running continues), the
git/gh lines in the usage example, and that uninstall no longer waits
for programs from the Nix store. docs/cleanup.md: the clone steps, the
untouched-template marker, and the LazyUnmount= drop-in.
- uninstall: nix-installer's copy outside /nix is made and run as root
(a user-writable copy run by sudo could be swapped); README uninstall
paragraph shortened to one account of what happens when Nix stays.
- session.nix: the restart-check activation after steamFrameUserServices,
so the latter's comment is above it again.
- install.sh: a duplicate `local` in port_listening; comments.
- docs/cleanup.md: the installer internals of --clone (how an existing
clone is recognised, which git) and restart-check (what it compares,
test overrides); README keeps the usage.
- README install paragraph: shorter list of the dashboard patches.
Examples showed specific apps as if the repository installed or
configured them.
- Docs, README, template and option examples: the Signal Flatpak
(org.signal.Signal, sgnl:// and signalcaptcha://) and a made-up
org.example.App instead of the previous chat and remote-desktop apps;
no install lines (the app is installed by the user, as noted).
- Portal fix: the file-dialog symptom phrased generically.
- Launcher check: made-up Flatpak entries org.example.Chat (Electron,
--file-forwarding @@u %U @@, an action, an SSO scheme) and
org.example.Remote (Qt, -qwindowtitle %c @@u %u @@, localized keys)
replace the copied ones; Firefox, gedit and Jellyfin stay.
nix-installer uninstall failed at `systemctl stop nix.mount` ("Job
failed") while programs started from the Nix store still ran: a terminal
session's tools, or apps that mapped Home Manager's mime.cache.
- Before nix-installer runs, after Home Manager is gone, uninstall scans
/proc for the user's processes whose exe, cwd, root, an fd or a mapped
file is in /nix, and lists them by name and PID (the shells it was
started from included; itself, its subshells and its curl | bash
pipeline skipped). Close them and press Enter to re-check, or abort;
with --yes or without a terminal it stops: "close these or reboot, then
run uninstall again". Nothing is killed (replaces the old kill prompt).
- nix-installer runs from a copy outside /nix.
- cleanup check H: a fake /proc (STEAM_FRAME_NIX_PROC) with programs from
the store stops before Nix; without them Nix is removed.
Clones your own config repository (git@host:owner/repo, https://...,
github:owner/repo) into ~/nix-config or --dir and installs it like
--flake <dir>. An existing clone of the same repository (any URL form) is
reused and, after asking, pulled with --ff-only; another repository, a
non-clone or a different branch is refused. A failed clone hints at SSH
URLs and gh auth login. Uses SteamOS' git, else Nix's.
Checked against local bare repositories through a logging git.
A fresh install into a running session left the keyboard layout and the
SteamVR dashboard patches (VR pet, the VR keyboard's suggestion strip, ...)
silently off until a reboot: gamescope reads XKB_DEFAULT_* only at its
start, and SteamVR opens its DevTools port (VRWebHelper.DebuggerEnabled)
only at its start. Neither can be applied at runtime.
- install.sh restart-check (run on every switch by session.nix, and by
install at its end): compares the keyboard-layout drop-in with the
running gamescope session's environment and checks whether SteamVR runs
without port 8087; install ends with "Restart once" listing them.
- uninstall: a failing nix-installer uninstall (e.g. /nix busy) no longer
aborts the script before the ~/.config/home-manager link and Home
Manager state are removed; it says to reboot and run uninstall again.
- cleanup check: restart-check on fake cgroup/proc dirs.
The Nix-package launcher example in docs and option examples is now
Signal (pkgs.signal-desktop, desktop ID "signal", sgnl:// and
signalcaptcha:// handlers). The check uses a made-up org.example.App
from a fake package (fake store path), covering the same Exec, action,
MimeType, source and missing-entry cases.
Screenshots: placeholder Steam account IDs in the docs, option example
and check.
The Toon Cat (sources/toon-cat/), the Tuxedo Cat glTF (sources/tuxedo-cat/)
and the Quaternius Shiba Inu and Fox (models/{shiba,fox}/model.glb), each
byte-identical to the previously fetched file and with a LICENSE.md
(author, original URL, licence, changes). The build no longer downloads
them; three.js (preview only) still comes from npm. The baked frames,
model dirs and icons are unchanged.
docs/pet.md (usage, configuration, how it works), docs/pet-models.md
(the model spec), the README's feature line, options, changes outside
Nix and Credits (Toon Cat FREE and Tuxedo Cat, CC-BY 4.0; Quaternius
Shiba Inu and Fox, CC0), the cleanup artifact, the layout and runtime
names, and the template.
The controller bridge reads the poses with setTimeout instead of a fixed
11 ms interval: the next read after (distance - 10 cm) / 2.5 m/s, 11-250 ms,
the distance being the nearest tip's to the keyboard's rect plus a margin,
so a hand up to 2.5 m/s is read within 10 cm before it reaches the surface
(the tracker's crossing and 8 cm jump guard see 11 ms steps as before).
Full rate during a demand or with a pulled trigger. Without touch typing
(controllers.continuous, set by vr-keyboard-touch) no reads while the
keyboard is shown until a swipe demands them; a demand starting reads at
once. Bridge VERSION 6. Tests with a fake clock: bridge.test.mjs.
find.keyboardPopup() (finders.js VERSION 3) replaces the same
g_PopupManager lookup in the swipe, extra keys and touch typing patches
(VERSIONs 29, 24, 4). hub.js keeps its own: it gets no finder library.
VRKBD_VERBOSE and VRKBD_DISPLAY were undocumented; the extra keys section
gets a Debugging line like the others. That the routing is harmless on
other keymaps was said twice; now once, under Layouts.
- docs/window-curvature.md holds the full contract (now also: the next
press starts at 1x, return values, a drag keeps its value, neither side
restores the other's state); the patch headers of window-curvature and
frame-controls point to it and keep only their own side.
- frame-controls header: the localStorage history points to
docs/ui-patches.md#persistent-state.
Comments only, no VERSION bumps.
- gesture-input.js: drop the unused mode getter and release().
- relay.mjs: both sides have a binding; no condition.
- hub.js: the frame cadence is documented once (bridge-patch.js); errors
listed.
- docs: the bridge's idle cost and "one word at a time" stated once;
twoHanded's README row points to the docs; rewrapped lines.
keyboard.vr.functionKeys.enable (default off): while AltGr (Fn on layouts
without AltGr) is one-shot, locked or held, the strip shows F1-F12 instead
of the suggestions. A tap types the extra key VKX_F<n>, which the extra
keys' patch presses with xdotool together with the active Ctrl/Alt/Shift
(Alt+F4, Ctrl+F5) and releases the toggles; the text model resets, like
for Esc. The suggestions are kept as they are meanwhile, so when AltGr goes
off the strip shows the same items and selection again.
- vr-keyboard/function-keys.js: what the strip shows, the F-key keys.
- patch.js (VERSION 27): the strip's view, F-key picks, AltGr changes via
a componentDidUpdate on the keyboard instance (and the poll).
- Allowlist: F1-F12 with any modifiers; Enter still refused.
- relay.mjs: up to 12 strip items.
- Assertions: needs keyboard.vr.enable, extraKeys.enable and a strip
position "above"/"below" ("inside" would hide the AltGr number row).
- Tests: function-keys.test.mjs (switching and restoring, keys against
the allowlist, text model), allowlist F-key cases.
With both lasers on the keyboard SteamVR forwards per poll only one laser's
movement, so the pressing one may get no touchmoves and its swipe became a
tap. keyboard.vr.swipe.twoHanded (default on; turns on the controller
bridge): a press is attributed to the hand whose laser hit is nearest to it
(within 30 px, the trigger as a tiebreak; without recent frames the first
frame after the press decides, within 60 px). The path comes from runs of
one source: the touch's own moves while they flow, that hand's laser hit
per bridge frame once they pause for 60 ms, touchmoves again if frames
pause. A touchend disagreeing with the laser during a bridge run ends at
the laser. Touchmoves on the other hand's laser move the attribution.
Without fresh frames: touch events only, as before. A second press during
a swipe stays Steam's tap (one text field, one word at a time).
The bridge sends full rate only on demand now: hub.js demand(ms) goes
back through the relay (CDP binding __sfuiCtlIn) to systemui's
__sfuiCtl.demand; the swipe patch asks from the press to the release.
Tests: gesture-input with the two-controller recording and synthetic bridge
frames (a pressing hand without touchmoves, attribution with both lasers on
the keyboard, a stale bridge, frames stopping mid-swipe, re-attribution,
interleaved hover and presses); hub demand.
Steam's UpdateTouchState counts the event's `touches` per key: that count
is the pressed highlight (rgLayoutTouchCount -> Touched) and where the long
press (Backspace repeat, accents) starts. The touch-start event left the
new touch out of `touches`, like a touchend; now it is in, as in a DOM
touchstart (tracker.js touchEvent, with a test against a model of Steam's
handlers).
The relay no longer enables the Runtime domain on systemui (bindings work
without it; it streamed the page's console and context events). Full-rate
frames only while a tip is within 10 cm of the keyboard or a trigger is
pulled (not for a laser resting on it); idle frames every 1 s instead of
250 ms. Nothing while the keyboard is hidden.
keyboard.vr.touchTyping (off by default): a key is pressed when a
controller's tip, where SteamVR's laser starts (/pose/tip: the device pose
times the render model's "tip" component), passes through it from the
front; released when pulled back 1 cm, re-armed 5 mm in front. Both hands,
also at once. Keys go through the keyboard's own HandleTouchStart /
HandleTouchEnd, like a laser press (Backspace repeats while held). Options
depth (cm) and haptics.
The geometry lives in a reusable controller bridge (vr-keyboard-controllers,
internal option): a systemui patch reads the keyboard's pose with SteamVR's
SGQueryService (an empty transform of ours in the keyboard's mount) and both
controllers' poses, and streams per hand the tip, the laser's hit on the
keyboard and the trigger (~90 Hz while relevant) through the
vr-keyboard-controllers-relay service to __sfuiControllers in Steam's
SharedJSContext. Tests: flake checks vr-keyboard-controllers and
vr-keyboard-touch.
With both controllers on the keyboard, the idle one's hover (mouse events,
pointerId 1) arrived during the other's press and went into the swipe path
("tust" for "test"). A gesture now belongs to the contact that started it
(touch identifier, pointerId or mouse; gesture-input.js): other contacts'
moves, releases and cancels are ignored, a second press meanwhile stays
Steam's tap. Test with a recorded two-controller swipe.
Steam keeps VR screenshots (Steam button + trigger) in
~/.local/share/Steam/userdata/<account ID>/760/remote/250820/screenshots,
where Dolphin, Gwenview and the file pickers don't look.
screenshots (module screenshots, opt-in) links ~/Pictures/<name> (default
"SteamVR Screenshots") there. The account ID comes from steamUserId, or,
unset, at runtime: the Home Manager link points to
<runtimeDir>/steam-frame-nix/screenshots (tmpfs), which the oneshot user
service steam-frame-nix-screenshots points to the account last logged in
(loginusers.vdf MostRecent, else latest timestamp, else the only userdata
folder), on switch, at login and when loginusers.vdf or userdata changes.
install.sh cleanup knows the tmpfs link (--keep screenshots while used).
Flake checks: account detection on fake Steam dirs; cleanup of the link.
Steam sends Tab as the text "\t" and drops Shift. With Shift, Tab now
goes to the xdotool helper (shift+Tab, ISO_Left_Tab on any keymap); the
suggestions text model resets on it like on Shift+arrows. The helper's
allowlist moves to allowlist.mjs with a test (flake check
vr-keyboard-extra-keys).
Neither Valve backend (gamescope, holo) implements FileChooser, so sandboxed
apps fell back to an in-sandbox dialog without the home dir (e.g. Element's
Attachments). session.portalFix.fileChooser (on) links kde.portal into the
Steam session's portal dir and selects kde for FileChooser;
xdg-desktop-portal-kde is D-Bus activated with DISPLAY=:0. Flake check
for the portal config.
SteamOS only ships /etc/xdg/menus/plasma-applications.menu; the nested
desktop sets XDG_MENU_PREFIX=plasma-, the Steam session doesn't, so KDE
apps started there (Dolphin from the "+" menu) built an empty app
database: "no installed application can open" every file.
session.applicationsMenu (module applications-menu, on by default) links
~/.config/menus/applications.menu to Plasma's menu. Flake check: the link
is generated by default and absent when disabled.
steamFrame.launchers.<desktop ID> takes the app's own entry (a Flatpak's
export, a Nix package's or a host file) and rewrites only its command lines
(hostEnv, env, flatpakArgs, args, wrappers) and the keys asked for
(mimeTypes, defaultFor, settings), so name, icon, translations and actions
stay the app's and follow its updates.
- Package entries are rewritten at build time; Flatpak/host file entries at
runtime by steam-frame-nix-launchers into
<session.runtimeDir>/steam-frame-nix/applications (tmpfs), on switch, at
login and when Flatpak installs/updates apps (path unit); the Home Manager
links point there.
- keyring.{enable,electron} replaces steamFrame.keyring.{flatpaks,programs}
(clean break: the old options fail with the new form).
- Firefox's launcher is the Flatpak's entry with the profile wrapper in
front (no --profile for the profile manager); Jellyfin's hardware
decoding sets flatpakArgs and env.
- cleanup --all removes the tmpfs entries.
- Check on copies of the real Element, KRDC, Firefox, gedit, Jellyfin and
Claude entries, quoting and generator behaviour.
- firefox: the prefs.js patterns built once; the extension link condition
without the redundant desktopFix (it implies a pref).
- install.sh steamvr-debugger-arm: no second copy of the old-marker
migration (cleanup, run on every switch before the arm unit exists,
already does it).
- steam-ui-patches: shorter state option description; lib's description
mentions extraArgs.
- README: uiPatches.patches fields in the options table (moved from
docs/ui-patches.md); docs/ui-patches.md: the finder helpers;
docs/steamvr-debugger.md: repeated sentences removed.
- keyring.flatpaks / keyring.programs: desktop entries shadowing an app's
own that run it on the outer bus (one kwalletd6 for both sessions), with
the wallet's D-Bus names as `flatpak run --talk-name` options (no Flatpak
overrides), --password-store=kwallet6 for Electron, and login callback
schemes as default + recommended handlers.
- firefox.defaultBrowser: the launcher as default for http, https and
text/html.
- docker: rootless dockerd as a user service, socket in the outer runtime
dir, CLI with DOCKER_HOST for both sessions.
README keeps intro, feature list linking docs/, install, two sessions,
usage, the complete options table, changes outside Nix, rollback,
uninstall. Each feature's details (problem, what you get, configuration,
limitations, how it works) move to its own page in docs/; docs/dashboard.md
is split per feature and docs/changes-outside-nix.md becomes
docs/cleanup.md.
The README is the complete user documentation again: features, install,
two sessions, usage, the full options table (and renamed options), every
feature with problem, usage, limitations, security and "remove when",
UI patches at user level (DevTools on the LAN, after a Steam update),
changes outside Nix, rollback and uninstall.
docs/ keeps only the technical side (how the patches work, writing
patches, signatures and the update procedure, the SteamVR debugger
mechanics, cleanup and installer internals), linked from each feature.
docs/options.md, two-sessions.md and desktop-integration.md are gone
(their content is in the README).
One page per feature group (sessions, keyboard, launcher menu, dashboard, SteamVR debugger, Firefox, Jellyfin, UI patches, changes outside Nix) and the full options table in docs/options.md.
Pierre Kisters