lhns--steam-frame-nix/docs/changes-outside-nix.md

Changes outside Nix

Everything not listed here is a Home Manager link into the Nix store or lives in memory (the UI patches).

Written at runtime

Path	Feature	Lifetime	Removed by
VRWebHelper.DebuggerEnabled in ~/.config/openvr/config/steamvr.vrsettings	SteamVR debugger	only while SteamVR runs	SteamVR stopping (runtime drop-in below); steam-frame-nix-cleanup while SteamVR is stopped
~/.local/state/steam-frame-nix/steamvr-debugger.armed	SteamVR debugger: the key's previous value	while SteamVR runs; after a power loss until the next SteamVR start or cleanup	SteamVR stopping; steam-frame-nix-cleanup
/run/user/1000/systemd/user/steamvr.service.d/50-steam-frame-nix-debugger.conf, /run/user/1000/steam-frame-nix/steamvr-debugger-restore	SteamVR debugger: puts the key back when SteamVR stops, without Nix	until reboot (tmpfs)	reboot; steam-frame-nix-cleanup while SteamVR is stopped and the debugger is off
~/.local/state/steam-frame-nix/ui-patches/<name>.json	persistent state of dashboard patches: window control bar placements (frame-controls), "Steam hidden" (steam-close-button). SteamOS's steamvr.service deletes ~/.cache/SteamVR (the dashboard's own browser storage) on every SteamVR start.	until removed: kept when a patch is disabled (the choices come back when you enable it again)	steam-frame-nix-cleanup --all, install.sh uninstall
mtime of ~/.local/share/icons/hicolor	icon fallbacks: a running Steam rescans icons	only the directory's timestamp	nothing to remove

Only while running

• The UI patches (Steam, SteamVR dashboard, VR keyboard) live in the pages' memory; stopping steam-ui-patches / steam-keyboard-patch reverts them.
• clipboard-sync runs from KDE autostart (a Home Manager link).
• Firefox: the desktop profile's user.js link exists only while its Firefox runs (see Firefox).
• Jellyfin: the hardware decoding permissions are flatpak run options of the desktop entry, not a Flatpak override.

Cleanup

steam-frame-nix-cleanup (install.sh cleanup, steamFrame.cleanup.package) knows everything any version of steam-frame-nix wrote outside the store, removes only what is provably its own (everything else is reported as "left alone") and can be run again safely; --dry-run shows what it would do.

• On every switch, cleanup --orphans removes what the configuration no longer uses (never the saved patch state).
• steam-frame-nix-cleanup --all removes everything, also the saved patch state. SteamVR's key can't be changed while SteamVR runs: it is then left to the runtime drop-in (restored when SteamVR stops).
• Without Nix or after a rollback it runs from the script (bash, coreutils, findutils, jq, all in SteamOS' /usr/bin): curl -fsSL https://steam-frame-nix.lhns.de | bash -s -- cleanup --all.
• It also removes what older versions left: the icon fallback links and their list (~/.local/state/steam-frame-nix/icon-fallbacks), the debugger marker steamvr-debugger, Firefox user.js copies and links and their prefs.js values, the Jellyfin hwdec entries of ~/.local/share/flatpak/overrides/org.jellyfin.JellyfinDesktop (an empty override file too) and the old shim copy in ~/.var/app/org.jellyfin.JellyfinDesktop.

Set up by install.sh

install.sh install (the bootstrap, not the modules) changes more, and install.sh uninstall undoes it:

• Nix via nix-installer (steam-deck planner, flakes on): /nix (bind mount of /home/nix, survives SteamOS updates), files in /etc (systemd units, profile scripts, nix.conf) and its receipt /nix/receipt.json; the read-only root is unlocked only while it installs or uninstalls. Skipped if Nix already works;
• experimental-features = nix-command flakes in ~/.config/nix/nix.conf if Nix was already there without flakes;
• ~/nix-config (your configuration, a git repository, from the template with your user name) and the link ~/.config/home-manager to it, unless ~/.config/home-manager exists or --flake <dir-or-flakeref> is given; uninstall removes the link, never the configuration;
• dotfiles Home Manager found in its way, renamed to *.hm-backup-<time> (kept by uninstall);
• ~/.local/state/home-manager and ~/.local/state/nix (profiles, generations), ~/.nix-profile, ~/.nix-defexpr, ~/.nix-channels, ~/.cache/nix.

App data you create

Not steam-frame-nix's to remove: the Firefox desktop profile (~/.var/app/org.mozilla.firefox/config/mozilla/firefox/desktop, browser data), and whatever apps keep in ~/.var/app/*, Flatpak apps and their runtimes.

Rollback

home-manager generations lists previous generations; run <store path>/activate of the one you want. Generations with steam-frame-nix clean up after themselves on activation (orphans). After rolling back to a generation without steam-frame-nix, or to one older than steam-frame-nix-cleanup (2026-09-29), remove what the newer one wrote outside the store:

curl -fsSL https://steam-frame-nix.lhns.de | bash -s -- cleanup --all
# or: nix run github:lhns/steam-frame-nix#cleanup -- --all

Uninstall

curl -fsSL https://steam-frame-nix.lhns.de | bash -s -- uninstall   # --keep-nix keeps Nix

stops Home Manager's user services (reverting the UI patches), runs cleanup --all, runs home-manager uninstall, then removes Nix and the per-user Nix state (see Set up by install.sh). If SteamVR is running, its key is restored when SteamVR stops (the closing message says so). Your configuration, *.hm-backup-* files, app data and Flatpaks stay.

To drop steam-frame-nix from a Home Manager configuration you keep, first run steam-frame-nix-cleanup --all, then remove it and switch. Or set Home Manager's uninstall = true; in the configuration that still imports steam-frame-nix and switch: its activation runs cleanup --all while Home Manager removes its files. (home-manager uninstall alone doesn't load steam-frame-nix's modules, so it can't clean up after them.)