Deckback v0.0.8

Fixed

• Updating from inside the app works again. On 0.0.7 the update would appear, "Update now"
  would say it had worked, and the next launch would still be on the old version — with the app
  then reporting no updates. 0.0.7 asked for one extra system permission, and Flatpak refuses to
  install an update that wants more access than the version you already have. That permission is
  gone, so 0.0.6 and 0.0.7 can both update to this release normally.
• Deckback no longer claims an update succeeded before it has. The confirmation appeared the
  instant you pressed the button, whatever happened afterwards. It now waits for the real answer
  and tells you which one it got: installed, already up to date, or failed and why. If an update
  ever is refused for needing new permissions, Deckback now says so and gives you the one command
  that fixes it.
• "No update is currently available" is gone. Deckback never checked at startup — it waits for
  the system to announce one, which happens about every half hour — so that line was a guess
  presented as a fact, and read as "your update already installed". It now says what it actually
  knows.

Added

• Check for updates. A button in Settings ▸ Updates that asks right now instead of waiting
  for the next automatic check, and tells you if you are already on the latest version.
• The changelog is readable. Release notes were cut off after a few lines with no way to scroll
  them. In the Updates tab, ↑/↓ now scroll the notes and ←/→ move between the buttons; the
  hint bar at the bottom says so. Deckback also shows what changed in the version you are running,
  not only in one you have not installed yet.

Deckback v0.0.7

Added

• Closed captions on the View (⧉) button. Press View during a video to turn subtitles on or off.
  The new Settings ▸ Captions section lets you list the languages you prefer, in order, and
  choose whether to favour human-written or auto-generated tracks — Deckback then picks the best
  match for each video, and translates when your language isn't offered.
• Exit without leaving the app. Open the menu and hold Y to quit, from any tab and wherever
  the highlight happens to be. Deckback pauses and saves your place first, so the next launch picks
  up where you stopped. (Holding STEAM + B still force-quits, but that skips the save.)
• The Settings menu now opens while a video is playing. The Menu (☰) button previously did
  nothing on the watch screen.
• One-line install. Deckback can now be installed with a single command in Desktop Mode — see
  the README.
• One-step uninstall. A single script removes Deckback along with everything it put on the
  system: both helper services and the Steam library shortcut. Your YouTube sign-in is kept unless
  you ask for a full wipe.

Fixed

• The screen no longer dims, and the Deck no longer suspends, in the middle of a video. The
  helper that keeps the screen awake could quietly disable itself while Deckback was being updated,
  and then stay off — with nothing on screen to say so. It now waits much longer before deciding
  Deckback is really gone, and its own cleanup can no longer be interrupted half-finished. If the
  helper is not running, Deckback now tells you the first time you play something instead of
  leaving you to guess.
• Long on-screen messages are no longer cut off. Notices wider than the screen were clipped at
  both edges, with no "…" to show anything was missing. They now wrap.
• Updates keep working after the Deck sleeps. The update check could go silently inert after a
  suspend/resume and never recover until the app was restarted.

Changed

• The audio and keep-awake helpers now remove themselves when you uninstall Deckback, instead of
  staying enabled on the system afterwards.

Deckback v0.0.6

Fixed

• Settings ▸ Updates no longer sits on "Checking for updates…" forever when you're already on
  the latest version. That text implied a check that never finishes; it now shows a resolved
  "No update is currently available." (a newer release still shows what's new and the update
  actions, unchanged).

Deckback v0.0.5

Fixed

• Settings menu no longer traps input after sleep/resume. If you opened the menu and the Deck
  slept (or the page reloaded for any reason), the menu could linger on screen while your controller
  drove the YouTube UI behind it — or the reverse, the menu could keep swallowing input with nothing
  on screen. The launcher now continuously reconciles "menu captured" with "menu actually painted",
  so a reload can never leave the two out of sync.

Changed

• Settings menu (OSD). The self-update pill/card are replaced by an in-app Settings menu:
  a persistent top-right button (active everywhere except during video playback) opens a
  controller-driven overlay with tabs. Settings ▸ Keys shows the controller hot-keys
  currently in use (read from your live config, never hardcoded). Updates shows whether you're
  up to date or has the changelog and actions for a new release. Open it with Menu (☰); navigate
  with the D-pad (and the right stick to scroll), A to select, B to go back/close, and
  L1/R1 to switch tabs. On the Updates tab, A on Update now installs (applies next launch)
  and Y ignores a version. An amber dot on the button flags an available update.
• Settings ▸ Keys now lists the L2 / R2 chapter-seek controls (Previous / Next chapter).
  They were being dropped because the launcher didn't recognise the chapter/skip seeks as controls
  it performs itself. The Updates tab's status and changelog text is also larger and better spaced.

Added

• About tab in the Settings menu: what Deckback is, its feature list, version, author, and
  project/support links — all read from the app's own store metadata (one source, so the in-app
  page can't drift from the Flathub listing).

Deckback v0.0.4

Added

• Self-update, notify-first (self_update_mode: notify | auto | off, default
  notify). Deckback now tells you when a new version is out instead of updating behind your back.
  A small "Update available" pill sits in the top-right corner with a ☰ hint — open it from
  the Menu button any time — and once per version an Update available card shows what's new, with
  colour-coded buttons: A Update now (green), B Not now (red), Y Ignore this version
  (yellow). Nothing installs until you press A; the update then applies the next time you open
  Deckback. The pill stays out of the way during video playback. Prefer silent updates? Set
  self_update_mode: "auto"; "off" disables it and you update from Desktop Mode. Updates touch
  only Deckback, from its own repo — no root, no password; keeping the runtime and other apps
  current is still a separate flatpak update. See .internal/findings/durable/self-update.md.

Deckback v0.0.3

Added

• L2/R2 chapter seek: the triggers now jump to the previous/next chapter of the playing video
  (chapter boundaries fetched from YouTube's TVHTML5 /next endpoint and cached per video). Videos
  without chapters — or a press before the chapter data has arrived — fall back to the fixed
  ±skip_seconds jump introduced alongside (configurable in app.json).

Fixed

• Launcher CDP requests no longer all time out instantly once the Deck has been up for ~25 days
  (a 32-bit monotonic-clock truncation in the DevTools socket deadline).

Changed

• Slimmed the engine build: ~40 feature-off GN args (WebGPU/Dawn backends, SwiftShader, Vulkan, VR,
  TFLite/WebNN, printing/PDF/plugins, chromoting, WebRTC call codecs, HLS/MPEG2-TS, HSTS preload
  list, qt/gtk shims) plus a patch dropping content_shell's web-test harness. Stripped engine binary
  193.4 → 175.0 MB (−9.5%); libvk_swiftshader.so (29.4 MB) no longer ships; ~11% fewer compile
  units per build. Playback-critical paths (VP9/H.264/HEVC, software-VP9 fallback, AV1 steering,
  VA-API, Widevine hooks, voice-search mic capture) are unchanged; verified by the headless Leanback
  smoke gate. On-Deck re-verification of hardware decode is pending
  (.internal/findings/durable/build-slimming.md).

Development

• CI/local parity gate (just preflight): one script (scripts/preflight.sh) now defines the
  pre-push and pre-release checks — shellcheck, the harness suite, clang-format-18, and the launcher
  gcc/clang builds — and both .githooks/pre-push and CI (.github/workflows/lint.yml) call it, so
  a local push and a CI run can no longer diverge. just release refuses to build unless the tagged
  commit is green in CI. Run just hooks once per clone. See
  .internal/findings/durable/preflight-parity.md.

Deckback v0.0.2

Added

• Optional host-side idle-nudge helper (just idle-nudge): keeps the screen on and prevents
  auto-suspend while a video plays — SteamOS Game Mode otherwise blanks and suspends it, and nothing
  inside the Flatpak sandbox can stop that. Gated on playback (menus still sleep) and doesn't block a
  deliberate power-button sleep. Self-uninstalls when Deckback is removed.
• Self-hosted Flatpak repo published to GitHub Pages, with one-click install via a .flatpakref and
  automatic background updates (flatpak update).
• Flathub submission scaffold under flathub/ (extra-data engine manifest, apply_extra,
  flathub.json, SUBMISSION.md, and just flathub-prep).
• Steam library artwork (capsule / hero / logo / header / icon) and scripts/steam_shortcuts.py to
  install it onto the non-Steam shortcut.
• Neutral synthetic screenshots and Flathub-grade AppStream metadata (screenshots, branding,
  keywords) in the catalogue entry.

Fixed

• Swapped X/Y face buttons: physical X now play/pauses. The control table used the positional
  BTN_NORTH/BTN_WEST codes, which are aliased to the labelled BTN_X/BTN_Y the Deck's pad
  actually reports — so X and Y were reversed (pressing Y did play/pause).

Deckback v0.0.1

Deckback v0.0.1 — first public release.

An unofficial native client for YouTube's TV interface (Leanback) on the Steam Deck, Game Mode:
controller-native navigation, hardware VP9 decode, and clean sleep/resume — verified on-Deck (OLED).

Install

The easiest path is the repo (one-click + automatic updates): https://properrr.github.io/deckback/

Or install this bundle directly (no auto-update):

flatpak install --user -y io.github.properrr.deckback.flatpak

Needs flatpak ≥ 1.16 (SteamOS 3.5+). Then add it to Steam and apply the Deckback controller layout — see the README.

Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Google or YouTube. Deckback bundles no DRM; free content needs nothing extra.