VASSAL Running on Steam Deck

General Discussion
1

Just for kicks. Viewing area is obviously cramped but using the touch screen to move counters is verrry nice. :slight_smile:

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Any problems? Mouse > touchscreen often doesn’t work out like you think it might.

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I’ve only dinked around with it a bit so far. I had trouble expanding stacks using the touchpad so have been using “mouse” commands(mapped to right trackpad) for that, but moving counters using the touchscreen works really well so far.

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Played several turns using the module for “Corpo Truppe Volontarie” this morning. Confirming what I said before, stack expand/collapse is inconsistent using the touchscreen, but drag/drop and multi-select work great and are really intuitive. I am relying a lot on mouse commands that are mapped to the dual trackpads on the Steam Deck, but they work fine for my taste. Upping default font size to twenty helped in various ways, including making it easier to select individual units out of a piece palette using the touchscreen instead of a mouse/trackpad click.

Next, I’m going to check and see if I can re-map some of the controls. Would be pretty nice to roll a die with a trigger press, that kind of thing.

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Please, could you post how you get to run vassal in steam deck?
You have to install Java?

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I’m running the Linux version of VASSAL(Steam Deck is basically a handheld PC that runs Arch Linux), so yes, you have to install Java because it isn’t bundled with that version of VASSAL. The steps are pretty simple:

  1. Put Steam Deck into desktop mode by going to Power/Change to Desktop Mode

  2. Open Konsole, i.e. the command line prompt

  3. Set a sudo password using passwd

  4. Take Steam Deck out of read-only mode by running sudo steamos-readonly disable

  5. Install Java using whatever package manager you prefer. I used Homebrew. Installation instructions here:

The Missing Package Manager for macOS (or Linux) — Homebrew

  1. Download and unpack the tarball for the Linux version of VASSAL.
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Hi @sgwhitley

Perhaps you should add a wiki page are la VASSAL on Android, so the information is more easily found?

Repeat of your instructions with some commentary and edits.

  1. Go to desktop mode via power menu items

  2. Open Konsole (terminal)

  3. Set sudo password

    passwd

    (Is this really needed? Is Konsole not running with root privileges. Test with who am i - if it reports root, then it is.)

  4. Disable read-only mode

     sudo steamos-readonly disable

    (If Konsole is already running with root privileges, then do not prefix with sudo)

  5. Install java runtime environment

    sudo pacman -S jre-openjdk

    (Use native ArchLinux package manager pacman instead of something like homebrew - it will integrate better with the system. If Konsole is already running with root privileges, then do not prefix with sudo)

  6. Download latest VASSAL for Linux and unpack

    wget https://github.com/vassalengine/vassal/releases/download/3.7.9/VASSAL-3.7.9-linux.tar.bz2
tar -xjvf VASSAL-3.7.9-linux.tar.bz2

  7. Launch VASSAL

    cd VASSAL-3.7.9
./VASSAL.sh

I do not have a Steam Deck so I can not try out myself, but I think the above changes are valid.

Yours,
Christian

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@cholmcc

Good idea. I’ve been busy lately but I’ll try to test out your improved instructions soon.