Return to Gaming Mode fails when docked with external monitor

[FarmCodeGary]

Describe the bug

When my Steam Deck is docked and outputting only to an external monitor over HDMI, choosing "Return to Game Mode" causes the system to hang for several seconds, load back into KDE Plasma, and partially reset the Steam client. (It partially reinstalls Steam, requires me to log back in, and resets a few of my Steam client settings each time.)

When rebooting the system, Game Mode starts up correctly.

What did you expect to happen?

Expected to return to gaming mode.

Output of rpm-ostree status

Deployments:
● ostree-image-signed:docker://ghcr.io/ublue-os/bazzite-deck:stable
                   Digest: sha256:453e03103d7a36bbc673eec203ef131b9fdaf50a29d3f90e908f94865d248606
                  Version: 42.20250417 (2025-04-17T07:41:02Z)
          LayeredPackages: uld

  ostree-image-signed:docker://ghcr.io/ublue-os/bazzite-deck:stable
                   Digest: sha256:90facb64ac0fa46214e6d79689524810c2fd53beed96feea12e6f6f06299d334
                  Version: 42.20250414 (2025-04-15T22:28:16Z)
          LayeredPackages: uld

Hardware

Jupiter
(Steam Deck LCD 512 GB)

Official Steam Deck dock

Extra information or context

When outputting to the built-in screen, it works correctly. I tested four of these cases:

• Undocked
• Docked without an HDMI device plugged in
• Docked with HDMI but only outputting only to built-in screen
• Docked with HDMI and extending the display across both screens

All four of the above worked correctly. Returning to Game Mode only fails when the external monitor is enabled and built-in screen is disabled.

[FarmCodeGary]

I've been doing some more testing and unfortunately I was mistaken that the problem only happens when outputting to an external monitor. I managed to replicate the problem both with the Steam Deck undocked and with the display extended across two screens. Sometimes it reboots into game mode successfully and sometimes it doesn't, but I can't seem to figure out any factors correlating to when it works and when it doesn't.

[psychomuser]

Hi, a friend of mine has the exact same issue, immediately after a clean installation...
Hope for a fix soon

[fbelliard]

I have the same problem on ROG Ally X.
"Return to Gaming mode" keeps going to Desktop mode and login me out of Steam.

The only way to go back to Gaming mode is to shut down completely and it will restart in Gaming mode but will ask to log in to Steam again.

Seems to happen since my last upgrade (I'm up-to-date) : F42.20250425.

Happens both docked and undocked.

Try to ujust fix-reset-steam but no changes.

[andeke07]

Happens to me as well. I installed Bazzite on my Desktop PC (in this case there was just the 1 monitor) and this was happening, I discovered today it also happens to my ROG Ally X when it is plugged in to an external monitor via the USB-C connection. As @fbelliard mentioned the solution on my Ally X was to completely shut it down, at which point it will enter in to Gaming Mode.

[FarmCodeGary]

Rebooting has been my workaround as well. Sometimes I forget and accidentally click "Return to Gaming Mode" out of habit---sometimes it works correctly, sometimes it doesn't, and I can't identify any reason the behavior changes.

[fbelliard]

On my side, it seems to be consistent: it never works, either docked or undocked.
Can't seem to understand the different behaviors we all have.
Is there some debug log that we could post to help diagnose the problem ?

[fbelliard]

I just updated to F42.20250430 (wasn't available yesterday) and the problem seems fixed on my side.
Don't really know where it came from but it is nice to see a quick fix 😉
Keep up the good work !

[andeke07]

Unfortunately, it hasn't worked for me... Still having issues on my Ally X... I can see it creating core dumps, happy to provide if needed.

$ ujust get-logs
Logs This Boot: https://paste.centos.org/view/ea21fe33

Logs Last Boot: https://paste.centos.org/view/81510ab5

[AkazaRenn]

I'm experiencing that as well on a desktop PC. It actually cleared quite some of my Steam settings, like the sleep timer and choice of compatibility tools for each games, also my login status.

[pulkitjuneja]

I am also seeing this on my Lenovo Legion Go. It definitely seems to get "triggered" when my device is connected to an external display. I say triggered because once the issue reproduces when connected to an external display, I cannot go back to the gaming mode even when Un-docked until I restart my system.

The issue I see is identical to what the original message describes. Clicking on return to gaming mode (or executing the systemctl command) causes the screen to go black for a while and then re-opens the KDE plasma session. Steam updates, I am logged out and all of my steam client settings are reset

Output of rpm-ostree status

State: idle
Deployments:
● ostree-image-signed:docker://ghcr.io/ublue-os/bazzite-deck:stable
                   Digest: sha256:0a9ffd8619c0636dbe8959b777672f514e25e1d4a6cb2016a33f6809fbf46e9a
                  Version: 42.20250720 (2025-07-20T07:49:01Z)

  ostree-image-signed:docker://ghcr.io/ublue-os/bazzite-deck:stable
                   Digest: sha256:5ac338031b246c6075d2d1b5d3f21d1d1fd94264c32fa1707e180a4804df511c
                  Version: 42.20250718 (2025-07-18T04:23:13Z)

Would love to see this issue get actually resolved as I am using device mostly as an HTPC setup. Happy to provide any more information if that helps

[carratt82]

Did anyone find a fix for this as I'm also having this issue when docked and plugged in to a tv via hdmi.

[SpeeQz1]

Can confirm the issue happens on my Steam Deck too, when docked with an hdmi to my TV.