this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2026
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Steam Hardware

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Has anyone managed to use their Steam Frame with an external monitor? (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 days ago by python@lemmy.world to c/steamdeck@sopuli.xyz
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This is stupid and not really a use case since I guess I could technically hook into the Steam Frame's desktop mode via some sort of Steam Link shenanigans if I really wanted to, but since the steam frame's selling point was "This is a standalone Linux machine!" I kinda want to see if I could actually use it as a standalone Linux machine.

I tried the naive approach of just plugging it into a monitor via HDMI to USB-C dongle, but the monitor did not show up or react in any way. There isn't even a "Displays" setting in the KDE Settings menu at all :o
I found some random thread about the Steam Deck that said external monitors are disabled unless you set your device to "Boot into desktop mode" so I tried that and it still didn't work.

My second attempt was trying to get Displaylink Drivers installed because those are needed for the Docking station I have (StarTech DK31C4DPPDUE). Disabled Read-Only Mode, failed to install paru due to some sort of rustc incompatibility, then managed to install pikaur (whatever that is) and through that the displaylink and evdi-dkms package.

The Guide on the Arch Wiki says to configure DKMS but I just couldn't figure out how to do that. So the displaylink service kept failing to start due to some sort of kernel error, as expected.

Honestly, I'm kinda stupid so I'm all out of ideas on how to get this running. I'm also probably too annoyed from today to interact with my Frame for at least a week.

spoilerUgh, I spent like an hour trying to figure out how to click Ctrl on the frame keyboard because I borked my pacman.conf file but couldn't save changes that would fix it because I couldn't press Ctrl and the only Virtual Keyboard available via Discover just didn't work and the only other solution I found online was to install a different virtual keyboard via pacman but my pacman didn't work because I borked the .conf file... I relented and plugged a physical keyboard into the frame.

Has anyone had any more luck? ~~Please also tell me about other stupid things to do with the Frame.~~

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[–] khannie@lemmy.world 1 points 9 hours ago

I found some random thread about the Steam Deck that said external monitors are disabled unless you set your device to “Boot into desktop mode” so I tried that and it still didn’t work

I don't have a steam frame, sorry, but I am typing this using an external monitor hooked up to my deck. I do not have it set to boot into desktop mode.

I bought a dock about 2 years ago that looks similar to this:

and it just worked. Detected the external monitor and auto configured for it without any issues.

[–] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 1 points 1 day ago

Nearest I've done was to use it via Steam Link. Go to settings -> remote play on the computer where you want to see the frame and select the frame from the list of available devices. For the first time you'll have to enter a PIN but then you can kind of use the desktop mode from the PC. You just have to position the headset so that it can see the desktop.

[–] Cerothen@lemmy.ca 26 points 2 days ago (1 children)

[–] poVoq@slrpnk.net 14 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

Afaik unless someone builds an adapter for the front side extension port, all you can do is a wireless display, which tends to be too laggy for most uses.

The back side USB-C port is USB2.0 only and doesn't support display out.

[–] python@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

oooh, that totally explains it, thank you so much!! I would absolutely have continued to fiddle with drivers for days and never realized that it's a hardware limitation haha

[–] Kathmandu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

You could build one, they've released some example expansion boards when they released the CAD files last week.

https://gitlab.steamos.cloud/SteamHardware/SteamFrame/-/tree/master/example-expansion-port-full-usb-3.0?ref_type=heads

You might be able to get PCB way to make it. Just a thought.

[–] python@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

Huh, that actually doesn't look too complicated! I have no experience at all with anything like that but I bet my partner would be down to at least supervise (he's an Electrical Engineer) so it might be doable :o

[–] eco_game@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 2 days ago

Keep in mind, while Displayport out can't work, DisplayLink runs over normal USB and should have no trouble with USB 2.0. So for DisplayLink, it's only a software issue.

[–] Zamundaaa@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 2 days ago

Plasma is started in nested mode, so it can't control any physical screens.

If you start a session with the drm backend manually, it might work that way - if you do have those DisplayLink drivers working. The USB port does not support DisplayPort.

[–] tacosanonymous@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I’m wondering why you want to do this? Is it just so other people can see what the user is seeing?

I do not have a frame ($ plus I already have vr) but I can usually just see the game I’m playing on the tv that is already hooked up to the pc. Also, if you have this setup you can usually go into your display settings and duplicate the chosen screen and the vr goggles should count as one?

[–] python@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

My hope was that I could just plug the frame into my dock and use it as a little standalone desktop with monitor and mouse/keyboard. I've been fiddling with a bit of VR game development these past few days and thought that it might be neat to write code right inside the Frames desktop (my usual IDE runs totally fine in there) so that it's instantly accessible and I don't need to upload or stream my code to the headset.
It's not much of a problem to do that of course, but if it did work completely standalone it would be such a cool and simple way to let people try programming. I sometimes supervise student interns at work and making a little VR thing would be a super interesting task for them.

[–] tacosanonymous@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 2 days ago

Oh, that’s neat.

[–] smeg@feddit.uk 4 points 2 days ago

One use I can think of is Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes, I played that on a Vive like ten years ago and it needed one screen to run on the headset (for the bomb-handler) and one to run on the desktop (for the instruction-reader). Having other people see what you're seeing is probably a much more common use case though!

[–] DonutsRMeh@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

Brother, I've been struggling hard with groceries lately. 😂

[–] gravitywell@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 days ago

I got mine setup with a physical keyboard so I could do terminal stuff and ssh to my other machines. Haven't tried a monitor yet but my guess is you'd need to break the VR setup completely for a monitor to work normally, I could be wrong but I don't think it would be very practical, like you could dual boot VR or Monitor but not both at the same time.

I might look into this more later, I don't have any adapters to test with at the moment but it does seem like something should be possible.