saphid--frame-control/docs/open-questions.md

Open questions and on-device checks

Research as of 2026-09-25, eight days after the Frame's retail release (2026-09-18). Most first-party detail comes from Valve's Steamworks developer pages. Searches of Reddit and the Steam forums turned up almost no end-user reports about SSH, desktop streaming, or macOS. Treat that as "not documented yet", not "doesn't work".

Verified on device (2026-09-25)

Checked over SSH from the Mac, read-only, on SteamOS 0.3.0 (VARIANT_ID=vr, build 20260922.6101926, kernel 6.18, aarch64):

• 1–2. Developer Mode + Set User Password gave working SSH with no terminal steps. sshd is enabled and active. The user is steamos (in wheel) and the hostname is frame.

• 3. frame.local resolves from the Mac; avahi-daemon is active.

• 5. /etc/ssh/sshd_config has Include /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/*.conf. The existing drop-ins are 20-systemd-userdb.conf and 99-archlinux.conf, so 01-frame-keys-only.conf would sort first as intended. (--harden itself hasn't been run.)

• 8. The in-headset desktop is kwin_wayland + plasmashell nested inside gamescope (1280×800), with XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/1000/nested_plasma, WAYLAND_DISPLAY=wayland-0, DISPLAY=:2 and a private D-Bus bus. SteamVR (vrserver, vrcompositor) and xrdp are running.

• 9. rsync, flatpak, python3, git, qdbus6 and xrdp are present. wl-copy, xclip, xsel, kdeconnect-cli, tailscale, krfb and wayvnc are not (Tailscale can be added in ~; see tailscale.md). paste-to-frame.sh now uses Klipper over D-Bus and round-trips text correctly.

• Flathub is already configured as a system remote; Chromium is the only installed Flatpak. / is 10 GB (42% used); /home is 929 GB.

• push.sh copied a test file with rsync.

• 10. install-apps.sh remmina --vnc-host <mac>.local installed Remmina as a --user Flatpak over SSH and wrote the profile. The desktop's XDG_DATA_DIRS includes the user Flatpak exports, so it shows up in the menu. The Frame can reach the Mac's Screen Sharing port (5900).

• 11. Answered 2026-09-27 (BUILD_ID 20260925.6191901, macOS 27.0): the pre-seeded profile connects and shows the Mac in its own panel. It asks for the Mac account login rather than the VNC password, needs scale-to-fit at Retina resolutions, and doesn't show the Mac cursor without scripts/mac-cursor-ring.lua. It's usable but noticeably laggy. See streaming.md.

• Panels. An X11 window on gamescope's :0 with its own STEAM_GAME id gets its own SteamVR overlay (valve.steam.desktopgame.<id>). Three were created side by side with panel-on-frame.sh. See panels.md.

Still open: 4, 6, 7, 12–15, 16 (off-LAN and after a reboot), 17–21.

Check on the headset (in order)

1. Is Developer Mode available on a retail unit? Valve's pages are aimed at developers. Confirm that Steam Settings → System → Enable Developer Mode and Developer → Set User Password both exist on your OS channel (Stable vs Beta).

2. Does SSH work straight after that, with no terminal steps? From the Mac, run nc -z frame.local 22, then ./scripts/connect.sh.

3. Does frame.local resolve from the Mac (mDNS/Avahi)? If not, use the IP and set up a DHCP reservation.

4. Does SSH stay enabled after a reboot and after an OS update? Also check that ~/.ssh/authorized_keys survives an update.

5. Is the sshd_config.d include present? Check before --harden: ssh frame 'grep -n Include /etc/ssh/sshd_config'.

6. What does Steam Link on macOS show when connected to frame? Is it the VR view, a flat mirror, or the desktop? Does keyboard/mouse input reach the headset?

7. Does the xrdp session work from Microsoft Windows App on macOS? Valve only documents Windows Remote Desktop Connection. Is clipboard sync supported?

8. What kind of session is the in-headset Linux desktop? It could be a normal Plasma Wayland session (with a wayland-* socket in /run/user/$(id -u)), X11, or something nested in SteamVR. This decides whether paste-to-frame.sh works. ssh frame 'ls /run/user/$(id -u); loginctl list-sessions'.

9. Are wl-copy, xclip, and rsync present on the image? ssh frame 'command -v wl-copy xclip rsync flatpak'.

10. Can Flatpaks be installed --user over SSH, and do they appear in the headset's desktop? Test with ./scripts/install-apps.sh remmina.

11. Remmina → macOS Screen Sharing: answered 2026-09-27; see above and streaming.md.

12. Moonlight Flatpak (aarch64) + Sunshine on macOS: VNC works but is noticeably laggy, so this is worth trying.

13. KDE Connect: is it preinstalled or installable on the Frame, and does it pair with KDE Connect for macOS?

14. Bluetooth keyboard pairing on the Frame, for the rare times you do need to type locally.

15. ADB: does adb shell over USB-C from a Mac (not just a Windows PC) reach the Linux side? Does USB power from the Mac cope?

16. Tailscale: answered 2026-09-25. A userspace tailscaled in ~ runs as a lingering user service with no sudo; see tailscale.md. Still open: reaching the Frame from outside the home network, and the service starting after a reboot.

17. Floating panels in the headset (see panels.md): panels from panel-on-frame.sh show up and take controller input (verified 2026-09-27 with mac-screen). Still open: do they offer Float in World / Move / Size? Do floating positions survive closing and reopening the app, or a reboot?

18. LEPTON_NO_CLEANUP=1 %command% as Lepton Development's launch option: do ADB-installed apps survive closing and reopening it?

19. Typing in Android apps: Lepton has no IME installed. Does the SteamVR keyboard or a Bluetooth keyboard reach Android text fields, or does an F-Droid keyboard (installed and enabled with ime enable/ime set) work?

20. F-Droid 2.0 (Compose 1.12): does it run? If so, the catalogue can install it instead of 1.17.2.

21. DeoVR local files: does DeoVR's file browser show Videos → VR (the symlink from push-vr-video.sh) or Z:\home\steamos\Videos\VR, and do the colour-coded test clips play in 3D (red left eye, cyan right) for both H.264 and H.265? Does the DLNA browser find a server on the Mac?

Verified 2026-09-27

• Recovery images exist for the Frame at https://steamdeck-images.steamos.cloud/recovery/; the root filesystem inside is btrfs and runs, as a userland, on ARM64 Linux. See recovery-and-images.md.
• Frame Control's server runs on the Frame itself (the iPhone app does this), including headset capture, 31 fps live video and file uploads. See iphone.md.
• Password pairing and sudo -S work against the recovery image's own sshd and sudo (not yet against the headset, whose password we don't hold).

Still open (2026-09-27)

• Does podman exec <lepton container> /system/bin/sh -c 'wm size' change an instance's display the way adb shell wm size does?
• Can the recovery image, or its kernel, boot in a VM at all?
• Does a real sleep, restart or shut down from the iPhone app work (via sudo -S systemctl)?
• The Mac EDL flashing script in ~/Downloads/steam-frame-recovery/ hasn't been run against a Frame.

Unconfirmed claims made in these docs

• /home and /etc persist across Frame OS updates. This is inferred from Steam Deck behaviour.
• Steam Remote Play with a Mac as host is broken. That's based on community reports, not tested with the Frame.
• connect.sh --harden, serve-bootstrap.sh and bootstrap-on-frame.sh haven't run against real hardware.

Remote wake (2026-09-28)

Goal: the Frame sleeps on the charger but Frame Control can wake it to reach it over SSH. Findings so far are in the Wake-on-WLAN row of how-the-frame-works.md. Independent review: GPT-6 Astra (xhigh), 2026-09-28.

• Magic packet from deep: no (tested 2026-09-28). Unicast and broadcast packets didn't wake it, the chip came back in MHI RESET, and Wi-Fi stayed broken until a restart. Details are in how-the-frame-works.md. Don't leave WoWLAN on with deep.
• s2idle: no (tested 2026-09-28). Same chip reset and broken Wi-Fi as deep. SteamOS doesn't pick deep itself (no sleep.conf.d, no mem_sleep_default, and no sleep hook touching ath12k), so this was a clean one-setting test. Wake over Wi-Fi is out until a SteamOS/ath12k update. Re-test after updates.
• Recovering from the broken Wi-Fi: reboot cleanly, never modprobe -r ath12k. On 2026-09-28, unloading the wedged driver oopsed the kernel (Unable to handle kernel paging request) and the Frame reset itself. The next boot had truncated Steam files (steamclient.so, then steamui.so), and the displays were broken for the whole boot (msm_dsi … wait for video done timed out from 28 s in, 240 times). vrcompositor segfaulted on its first present, steamvr.service took the gamescope session and Steam down every ~15 s, and the screen said "There was an issue launching Steam". Steam's updater also hung on the same GPU wait. The fixes: Steam re-verified its files, a leftover pending-install manifest identical to the .manifest was moved aside, and a clean reboot brought the displays back (0 DSI errors). The USB-C cable gives SSH at 10.86.200.233 when Wi-Fi is down. Checks and fixes are in frame-doctor.md.
• Charger / smart-plug wake (hypothesis): during confirmed sleep, test physically attaching the charger, detaching it, and switching off its AC supply, each separately. If one works, a Home Assistant smart plug on the charger can wake it while it keeps deep sleep.
• RTC dark wake: a root WakeSystem=yes timer that checks for queued work and suspends again. Needs a root unit.
• Controller wake: does a paired controller's button wake it? hci0 is a UART radio with no paired devices listed, so the controllers may use a separate link.
• AC-only Never: system_idle_suspend_ac_sec = 0, with battery left at 15 min. This is Steam's own setting and needs no sudo, but the Frame stays awake with its displays off rather than suspended. Measure wall power and confirm the displays blank.
• Off the LAN: a sleeping Frame's Tailscale can't receive anything, so something awake on the LAN has to send the packet (for example the EdgeRouter's etherwake, already used for lxso2, or the Mac).
• Staying on instead of sleeping: what draws power and heat while idle, the controls, and the step-by-step plan are in power-and-heat.md.