Trying to Remember How to Run Flatpak Non-Steam Game on the Flatpak Version of Steam

[PeacheyMcKeitch]

Hi. BoilR is a great wee program but having trouble with one thing. Annoyingly I solved this before but I cant remember how I did it! Hoping someone has so insight.

Im trying to add Flatpak Non Steam games to the Flatpak version of Steam. They get added to steam fine from BoilR but when you click play they games look like they are launching for a second then immediately stop.

Now I fixed this before using some combination of adjusting the Flatpak steams permissions using Flatseal. And editing the launch commands in steam. ie the "Target" "Start In" and "Launch Options" sections.

I think it was something to do with using the command Flatpak-Spawn instead of just Flatpak.

As for the permissions, cant remember, probably something along the lines of allowing acess to the flatpak files directory.

Any help much appricated, also if this could be added as an automatic option in boilr down the line that would be amazing.

Im running Steam-Flatpak on Pop OS.

Cheers.

[PeacheyMcKeitch]

In typical fashion i found the solution moments after posting this.

Follow the details in this guide and it works fine! Just substitute the game you are trying to add where RetroDeck is mentioned.

https://repo.retrodeck.net/Xargon/RetroDECK/src/commit/395eb8ff879934d680230f8411093e47c5a79906/wiki-rtd/docs/wiki_howto_faq/add-to-steam.md

Wondering if this is a quirk of my steup/pop-os? If nopt could this be added to BoilR as an option :)

Guide linked above quote below so we I dont loose it again.

Adding RetroDECK to Steam

What follows are two ways to add RetroDECK to Steam and what settings you need to enable after you added it. If you have the >Flatpak Version of Steam installed you need to do some extra steps for everything to work.
Add with BoilR (Recommended)

If you don't have BoilR you can just install it from Flathub. BoilR will add >RetroDECK >to Steam (flatpak or standard versions), it will also add the Steam Grid art.

First make sure that you have fully closed Steam then do the following:

Open BoilR
Make sure RetroDECK is marked in the Import Games Section
Go to Settings
Check Download Images
Put in your Authentication Key from SteamGridDB (if you don't have one press the link in BoilR and get one).
Check if you want animated images or other types of images.
Go back to Import Games.
Press the Import Button.
When the import is done you can close BoilR and Open Steam.
The RetroDECK entry should now be there

Add manually

Open Steam
Inside Steam go to the tab Games press Add non Steam game to My library and you should be able to see all installed >applications select RetroDECK to add it into your library.
Go to SteamGridDB and manually download all the art.
Follow the guides on SteamGridDB on how to set up each art piece correctly.

Steam - Flatpak version extras

If you have the Steam Flatpak version installed some extra steps apply.
Prerequisites

To make a flatpak launch other flatpaks it needs a special permission called org.freedesktop.Flatpak. Take note that this opens up >the Flatpak more then normal, as flatpaks are not allowed to run many system commands from the sandbox. You can add the >permission from the software Flatseal or directly from the terminal.

With Flatseal (Recommended):

If you don't have Flatseal you can just install it from Flathub

Open Flatseal
Click on Steam
Scroll down to the section called Session Bus
Press the + sign
Paste in org.freedesktop.Flatpak
Launch Steam

From Terminal:

Copy the following into the terminal:

flatpak --user override --talk-name=org.freedesktop.Flatpak com.valvesoftware.Steam
Add RetroDECK to Steam

Add RetroDECK to Steam with BoilR or manually by following the guides above.

Special notes on the manual install:

Steam won't find the application directlyy and you will need to manually browse to the desktop file to add it in:

/var/lib/flatpak/app/net.retrodeck.retrodeck/current/active/export/share/applications/
Configuring RetroDECK in Steam Flatpak

After RetroDECK is added to Steam, right click on the RetroDECK entry and change the shortcut values to:

Target:

/usr/bin/flatpak-spawn

Launch options:

--host flatpak run --branch=stable --arch=x86_64 net.retrodeck.retrodeck

This should now be enough for you to launch RetroDECK.