[BUG] : AppImage does not launch via non-Steam shortcut (Steam Linux)

[kevin-wijnen]

Bug Description

When trying to use the latest AppImage build on EndeavourOS (an Arch Linux system), I can launch the AppImage just fine via the Application Menu of KDE or by using Dolphin to execute it via the GUI.

However, I have noticed that trying to launch the AppImage as a non-Steam shortcut (to launch it through SteamVR to launch it via my headset) does not work. It simply hangs and does not start.

Reproduction Steps

1. Open Steam
2. Add BSManager (the AppImage) as a non-Steam shortcut
   • Go to Add Game > Add non-Steam game
3. Launch the BSManager entry on Steam
4. It does not boot, it simply hangs. (Steam can not force close the running process either.)

Expected Behavior

The AppImage should simply launch just like any other AppImage/app added via a non-Steam shortcut

Screenshots

System Specs

• OS: EndeavourOS (Arch Linux variant)

Additional context

The AppImage launches just fine through any GUI of KDE itself (Dolphin the file manager, and the Application Menu of the system).

[silentrald]

@kevin-wijnen does running the AppImage in terminal/konsole work as well?

Will try to replicate it on my system if I encounter the same issue.

[kevin-wijnen]

@kevin-wijnen does running the AppImage in terminal/konsole work as well?

Running it through Konsole does work (with the logs visible in the terminal) by just calling .</appimagePath/here.AppImage>. But I couldn't get the exec command to run the AppImage in a bash script (to have Steam run said script).

[silentrald]

But is it possible to view your desktop screen on your VR Headset?

In my setup, I'm using ALVR which only shows the steam big picture view and the beat saber game, but i havent explored showing the desktop screen on this. Do you have a different setup for this or did I miss a feature in ALVR?

[kevin-wijnen]

But is it possible to view your desktop screen on your VR Headset?

In my setup, I'm using ALVR which only shows the steam big picture view and the beat saber game, but i havent explored showing the desktop screen on this. Do you have a different setup for this or did I miss a feature in ALVR?

It should be possible if you are running on X11. But SteamVR has a bug that prevents Wayland systems from showing the desktop through the SteamVR's Desktop tab (which is in my case, sadly).

Despite this, it is possible to run 2D apps (e.g. non-VR 2D games) through the SteamVR's library screen (Big Picture Mode) with non-Steam shortcuts. That was my intended way to boot BSManager via VR.

[silentrald]

Despite this, it is possible to run 2D apps (e.g. non-VR 2D games) through the SteamVR's library screen (Big Picture Mode) with non-Steam shortcuts. That was my intended way to boot BSManager via VR.

Hmmm, another solution is than rather running BSManager itself thru Steam, why not run the Custom Beat Saber Version within Steam instead? We're just running the proton binary with the Beat Saber executable and the mods should work if it was installed properly. Might send the cmdlet later after I've done testing it.

---

It should be possible if you are running on X11. But SteamVR has a bug that prevents Wayland systems from showing the desktop through the SteamVR's Desktop tab (which is in my case, sadly).

Just an off topic, you can run X11 server with a Wayland setup. That's what I've been doing with my Arch KDE Plasma setup. You just have to go thru tty login and run

# X11 server
startx /usr/bin/starplasma-x11

# Wayland
startplasma-wayland

[kevin-wijnen]

Hmmm, another solution is than rather running BSManager itself thru Steam, why not run the Custom Beat Saber Version within Steam instead? We're just running the proton binary with the Beat Saber executable and the mods should work if it was installed properly. Might send the cmdlet later after I've done testing it.

I wanted to add BSManager to Steam to be able to just start SteamVR (via ALVR), boot up the launcher to do song adding etc. on the go before directly launching it through BSManager. To not have to switch to desktop in between to add in mods, new maps etc.

Making a script that points to the modded Beat Saber instance is a workaround I honestly didn't think of when writing the bug report. But I'd argue the bug might still be useful to solve, for those who want to launch BSManager through Steam directly. Or at least get proper attention in documentation, stating it is not a (currently) supported method of launching the launcher.

---

Just an off topic, you can run X11 server with a Wayland setup. That's what I've been doing with my Arch KDE Plasma setup. You just have to go thru tty login and run

# X11 server
startx /usr/bin/starplasma-x11

# Wayland
startplasma-wayland

I'm aware how to switch between both servers, but I prefer going full Wayland nowadays. I haven't tried the Desktop feature through an X11 session yet.

(For those with EndeavourOS, it is also possible to switch the sessions through a GUI by using SODIMM/the login screen by logging out and switching the option in the bottom right corner.)

[kevin-wijnen]

Hmmm, another solution is than rather running BSManager itself thru Steam, why not run the Custom Beat Saber Version within Steam instead? We're just running the proton binary with the Beat Saber executable and the mods should work if it was installed properly. Might send the cmdlet later after I've done testing it.

Update: Making a non-Steam game shortcut to the modded instance's BeatSaber.exe launches briefly before shutting down and launching the Steam version. The issue seems to be known, but I'm not aware how BSManager itself avoids this behaviour by using Proton.

[silentrald]

Got a working prototype with just using a bash script but still ironing out the script itself since it looks very wonky but it works. Still missing some environment variables so will try to cross reference the one we are using in BSM.

#!/bin/bash

SteamAppId=620980 \
SteamOverlayGameId=620980 \
SteamGameId=620980 \
WINEDLLOVERIDES="winhttp=n,b" \
STEAM_COMPAT_DATA_PATH="/home/<user>/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/620980" \
STEAM_COMPAT_INSTALL_PATH="/home/<user>/BSManager/BSInstances/1.37.1" \
STEAM_COMPAT_CLIENT_INSTALL_PATH="/home/<user>/.steam/steam" \
STEAM_COMPAT_APP_ID=620980 \
"/home/<user>/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/Proton 9.0 (Beta)/proton" run "/home/<user>/BSManager/BSInstances/1.37.1/Beat Saber.exe" --no-yeet fpfc

---

I wanted to add BSManager to Steam to be able to just start SteamVR (via ALVR), boot up the launcher to do song adding etc. on the go before directly launching it through BSManager. To not have to switch to desktop in between to add in mods, new maps etc.

I think this is pretty much hard to do since we're just using electronjs to present the application itself. I also tried to run the program with node and didn't work as well. Unless there is an integration where this can be ran and presented as a game in Steam, might just treat this as a limitation / known issue.

The documentation for linux stuff hasn't really started as well since linux in BSM is just new. It only started in 1.5.0-alpha.3 and this might be subjected to change as well. I'm just waiting for a full 1.5.0 release to add the documentation. You can pitch in with the docs if you can.

[kevin-wijnen]

I think this is pretty much hard to do since we're just using electronjs to present the application itself. I also tried to run the program with node and didn't work as well. Unless there is an integration where this can be ran and presented as a game in Steam, might just treat this as a limitation / known issue.

I figured out the issue! It seems that Steam does override some libraries that it tries to launch BSManager with. Having LD_PRELOAD= %command% as the launch options for the shortcut, will have Steam use the system's libraries. This allows a non-Steam game shortcut to work by launching the app through Steam, and show it in SteamVR as well (in a "theater" mode).

However, it seems to not render correctly just yet on the SteamVR interface itself. This would still need to get investigated, as it's most likely a SteamVR-specific issue. (Tested on the Wayland session, have not tested it on an X11 session yet.)

The documentation for linux stuff hasn't really started as well since linux in BSM is just new. It only started in 1.5.0-alpha.3 and this might be subjected to change as well. I'm just waiting for a full 1.5.0 release to add the documentation. You can pitch in with the docs if you can.

I will then take the initiative to get any type of Linux specific documentation ready for the project as an issue - accompanied with a (series of) pull request(s).

[silentrald]

However, it seems to not render correctly just yet on the SteamVR interface itself. This would still need to get investigated, as it's most likely a SteamVR-specific issue. (Tested on the Wayland session, have not tested it on an X11 session yet.)

@kevin-wijnen Seems that there is a possibility to show the desktop within SteamVR but not with ALVR. We could use wlx-overlay-s to show the either the X11/Wayland desktop and we can manually run it there. Although the overlay doesn't seem to be properly positionable atm, but you could still interact with the desktop with the VR controllers.

I think this can be added within the wiki pages and no feature added in BSM itself. What do you think @Zagrios.

---

kevin-wijnen Also a side tangent, this also solves an issue related to unicode characters songs. I'm not sure why that is though 🤔. Can you try to verify if this is an issue on your end as well.

[kevin-wijnen]

Update on the "SteamVR itself is not rendering BSManager properly, but the desktop is": also tested it on an X11 session and the issue persists.

---

@kevin-wijnen Seems that there is a possibility to show the desktop within SteamVR but not with ALVR. We could use wlx-overlay-s to show the either the X11/Wayland desktop and we can manually run it there. Although the overlay doesn't seem to be properly positionable atm, but you could still interact with the desktop with the VR controllers.

Sounds good - I will have to check this out myself!

For context though: as far as I am aware of, ALVR is just a streamer app that helps SteamVR see the "headset" as an actual usable headset and stream its audio&video there while receiving the streamer's input. ALVR does not have any desktop viewing functionality akin to Virtual Desktop on macOS and Windows, or immersed for macOS, Linux and Windows. SteamVR itself does, but as mentioned before, this is currently limited to X11 (which is not optimized for it, as it is very sluggish. But this is also mentioned in wlx-overlay-s' README for using it with X11.).

I'm starting to wonder for how much longer that rendering issue will persist. Valve apparently is trying to make Gamescope viable for VR, as someone even got it to work as a SteamVR overlay. Testing BSManager on my Steam Deck in Game Mode (to have it use Gamescope) with the aforementioned LD_PRELOAD= %command% as the launch option for the non-Steam game shortcut, the BSManager app seems to render just fine. So it is possible that by using Gamescope as a VR overlay natively in SteamVR in the future, or DIY'ing it like the blog author did, does provide a similar solution to using wlx-overlay-s only sticking closer to Valve's tech.

I think this can be added within the wiki pages and no feature added in BSM itself. What do you think @Zagrios.

As an end user, I would definitely be fine with it. I've yet to open an issue for the Linux documentation initiative, but will add this to the notes. Since an issue (#468) has been made specifically for Linux install instructions, I shared my findings over there.

---

kevin-wijnen Also a side tangent, this also solves an issue related to unicode characters songs. I'm not sure why that is though 🤔. Can you try to verify if this is an issue on your end as well.

Will check out & validate #585 soon. 👍