Steam Deck

Steam Deck (SteamOS)

Status: untested on a Steam Deck. The SteamOS archive is built against the packages of SteamOS 3.9, and CI installs it in a SteamOS container before every release; device access, the daemon at work and game mode cannot be tested there. Reports are very welcome, see Troubleshooting.

Requirements

• SteamOS 3.9 or newer. Its kernel (7.2) contains the driver hid-lg-g15 with all supported devices – G11, G13, G15, G15 v2 and G510. Older SteamOS versions have a kernel older than 6.19 and do not drive the G13.
• A USB connection for the keyboard (e.g. a USB-C adapter or dock).
• A password for the user deck: the installation needs root once, for the device access. Set it in Konsole with passwd.

Installation

Switch to desktop mode, download gkey-config-<version>-steamos-x86_64.tar.gz from the releases and open Konsole in the download folder:

tar -xzf gkey-config-*-steamos-x86_64.tar.gz
cd gkey-config-*-steamos-x86_64
./install.sh

Then log out and back in (or restart) once, so that LED control takes effect, and open G-Key Configuration from the application menu. The configuration works as described in Usage; the daemon starts at every login, also in game mode.

install.sh first checks that the kernel driver and all libraries are there and stops with a message if something is missing.

Where things go

SteamOS keeps /usr read-only and replaces it with every update, and keeps changes in /etc only if they are listed in /etc/atomic-update.conf.d/. The AUR package would be lost with the next update, so the archive installs differently:

Part	Location
programs gkeyd, gkey-config	~/.local/bin/
device models, uninstall script	~/.local/share/gkey-config/
menu entry, icon, D-Bus activation	~/.local/share/
daemon as systemd user service	~/.config/systemd/user/gkeyd.service
tray icon at login	~/.config/autostart/
udev rule (device access)	/etc/udev/rules.d/70-gkey-config.rules, kept over updates by /etc/atomic-update.conf.d/gkey-config.conf
group gkey (LED control)	/etc/group, which SteamOS always keeps

Profiles and macros are in ~/.config/gkey-config/, as on other systems.

Update and removal

To update, run install.sh of the new archive. To remove gkey-config:

~/.local/share/gkey-config/uninstall.sh

It removes everything except your profiles and macros.

Game mode

The daemon runs as a user service in game mode as well and sends the keys through a virtual input device. Whether games in game mode (gamescope) receive them has not been tested yet. The configuration application and the tray icon are only available in desktop mode.