Turning a Switch into a Steam Deck / Linux Mini PC

Nintendo does not approve of, and is not associated with, this project. Running Steam / Native Linux programs on a switch.

Join on Patreon if you'd like to support (or Youtube Memberships if you'd prefer):

My Discord Server:

00:00 Intro
00:15 Nintendo doesn't endorse this
00:52 What distro and why?
01:14 What's included?
02:35 Sleep mode works (surprisingly)
03:36 Installing updates (but not all of them)
04:35 Trying (open source) gaming
05:48 Trying Minecraft: 1st attempt
06:16 What about Steam?
08:13 Trying Minecraft: 2nd attempt
09:19 Other steam games, and GPU issues
10:26 Using as a docked, ARM, Mini PC
13:06 Outro

[lacasadebarbudo]

Steam on switch doesn't work well, but you can still play PC games if they are free drm like GOG games by using wine + box64, since Switch V2 and OLED are more efficient than V1 and Lite, you can emulate on V2 and OLED PC Games like Metal Gear Solid 5, Metal Gear Rising, Just Cause 2, Dark Souls 2 and some other videogames at 30 fps, on V1 and Lite you still can emulate some PC games like Warcraft 3 or Age of Empires, also you can run native Diablo 1, Morrowind, Counter Strike Source, Half Life 1, 2 and expansions, box64 still updating and it's getting better and better so yes, Nintendo Switch can be some kind of semi-steam deck arm

[QEDAGI]

Lovin' it! Thanks for showing the Switch's 2nd-life as a PC.

[wikwayer]

I'm very glad to see someone going try hard mode and not just spending hours complementing the desktop look thanks buddy 👍

[ask]

Honestly installing Linux on the Switch seems like a hassle that doesn't really pay off, I think to really make the most of your Switch, the best thing to do would be to run Moonlight in either atmosphere or android. The latency is *ridiculously* low, almost Wii U gamepad-like, and it means that I can essentially use my PC around the house or on the TV without having to physically move the actual PC. (Fortnite in 60fps RTX, Roblox and Netflix on Switch goes crazy)

[evandrofilipe]

I was watching this (not on YouTube) and decided to give it a like comment. So I opened YouTube and looked you up. 4 things with way worse views than you appeared first, YouTube's so broken.😂

Anyway, cool video

[Butterscotch_]

I tried Dolphin on the Switch and tried two games. Double Dash, and Wii Sports. Double Dash ran ALMOST perfectly. 100% speed most of the time. Wii Sports oddly barely ran.

[Butterscotch_]

7:25 That happened with me sometimes. My solution was just plugging it in to a good charger.

[tanawatjukmongkol]

You have to compile Hyprland on ARM, or use the AUR on Arch with newer version of GCC (other compilers like clang may not work).

[kubburdigital]

will come in handy when apocalypse comes around

[corbinallen]

Cool vid just started using linux mint with my new pc build. Only slight issue is vr stuff but i got steam vr working unfortunately i have to rebuy all my vr games.

[MashedStar]

300€ for a switch is also expensive. It's the exact same price as a refurbished LCD Deck with 64GB's of internal storage and you don't need to worry about your device being banned or even the games you yourself bought becoming unplayable and you can do whatever you want with it (like installing another OS onto it or installing non-steam games) and play with whatever method of controls you want to.

[jaspercas]

I've tried linux on switch but it is kinda slow because the OS is running on an sd card

[jierenzheng]

I run Ubuntu L4T on my Switch to have a Linux ARM PC for fun but I frankly would not use it as a daily driver. Single core performance felt sluggish even CPU running at maximum clocks. I suspect the I/O latency could be due to the high endurance MicroSD card I am running could be a factor. It was a run experiment. I was trying to use Linux to run PS2/GC games but oh well.

[thetheater]

The best way to turn a switch into a steamdeck is by selling the switch bro

[MePhone_X]

well Tlauncher is available for Linux why you didn't try

[togoxo]

the java edition of minecraft makes you feel the cpu lag while bedrock doesnt. if the internal server on bedrock gets laggy because of the cpu being too slow it usually can go unnoticed but in some cases it locks up completely and thats when you have an opportunity to take a clip of your game and call it "bugrock" or "the worse verion of minecraft" online when in reality those clips are almost all from minecraft bedrock on xbox one which we all know is a slow console form 2013 with a mid slow cpu from 2013 that just happens to still be supported for updates. minecraft bedrock when not on crap hardware like consoles from 10 years ago or an android tablet from 2017, it runs very nice. i have always like bedrock and java edition now just feels weird to me with its worse default lighting, stutters, lack of animations, ugly menus and lag. bedrock just feels stable while java feels like you are fighting with the game. thank you for triggering this i needed to complain about people complaining about bedrock edition. 🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗