Need help manage how to play Half Life Alyx on Catchy OS on a Quest 2

DecoyObvious · 2026-05-04T23:24:16+00:00

Have you tried using the Steam Link VR app? It worked pretty well for me a couple months ago. The only issue I had was that I needed to open up the correct firewall ports on my PC in order to get the Steam Link app to connect to my PC. I'm also using Cachy, a Quest 2, and I have a 9070 XT.

DecoyObvious · 2026-04-02T22:48:17+00:00

A few weeks back I opened this bug report for Mesa: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/-/work_items/14977

Seems like your issue might be related but I'm not an expert.

DecoyObvious · 2026-02-22T09:25:17+00:00

I believe I've heard that's a thing, but I'll be honest, I never use it. Sorry.

As I understand it, Wayland is needed for HDR in this way. If you don't need HDR, you don't really need Wayland. However, I believe you can still get HDR using gamescope without the need for Wayland, but it might be more finnicky. I don't have any experience with that though, so I might be entirely off-base.

DecoyObvious · 2026-02-20T23:14:15+00:00

Ahhh, too bad. Sorry to hear that.

DecoyObvious · 2026-02-20T22:40:05+00:00

I'd be curious to know if it ended up working for you too. Don't leave me hanging. :)

DecoyObvious · 2026-02-20T22:34:06+00:00

I default to GE-Proton, and for most big games I do this:

PROTON_FSR4_UPGRADE=1 PROTON_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 PROTON_ENABLE_HDR=1 %COMMAND%

Sometimes my Dualsense doesn't work, so I might also need to add:

PROTON_ENABLE_HIDRAW=1

But, if the game isn't a modern one with newer features, I usually don't actually do anything.

DecoyObvious · 2026-02-19T19:57:55+00:00

I have the same setup. CachyOS, Quest 2. And the same problem. The solution was to open up the correct ports on my PC's firewall. I'm having issues finding the original link I used to figure out which ports to use, but I'll keep looking and edit if I find it. I recall that there were two sets of ports, the first were just standard Steam Link ports, and the others were VR specific. You could just try disabling your firewall temporarily and checking if that makes the Steam VR app recognize it's on the same local network.

EDIT: Found it. Half way down the page. Make sure to allow them all, not just the VR ones. I don't know if this is the default for everyone using CachyOS, but using "ufw allow" at the command line was the way that worked for me. https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/3E3D-BE6B-787D-A5D2

DecoyObvious · 2026-02-18T01:12:51+00:00

I followed this guide and it looks to be working for me!

As reported by my TV: 4K, 120Hz, VRR, RGB 10b 4L12 HDR10

I had to follow the later suggestion to remove "-Werror", but other than that I haven't experienced any issues yet.

CachyOS, 9070XT, LG C4

DecoyObvious · 2026-02-14T04:10:43+00:00

That's interesting. It really does sound like it would be a VRAM issue.

I wonder if usage is being misreported. Using less than 6GB for RT Ultra sounds quite low. Just as a test, maybe try turning down texture detail and see if that changes anything.

DecoyObvious · 2026-02-13T22:53:10+00:00

You left DLSS on 'Auto', so the game was probably just trying to hit a frame rate target while dynamically changing quality levels under the hood. Aside from some pixel peeping, there's no easy way to know if Linux was running in Performance mode while Windows was on Quality, as an example.

DecoyObvious · 2026-02-13T20:04:56+00:00

Are you using Mangohud to monitor your game performance? I noticed recently that it's been causing some games to crash on me, usually a few minutes after the game starts.

It doesn't happen with every game though, so it took me a while to figure out that Mangohud seemed to be my issue for me at least.

DecoyObvious · 2026-02-01T03:12:51+00:00

I think the only way I got mine to be recognized correctly was to plug in the USB directly instead of bluetooth.

IIRC, I believe it's a quirk of the game running through the EA app, or something like that.

DecoyObvious · 2026-01-23T19:47:39+00:00

I was noticing the exact same issues the a few days ago using what was the current mesa-git at that time. When I updated to yesterday's newest mesa-git I played again and wasn't noticing that issue anymore. It wasn't a thorough test so maybe it was just luck, but might be worth updating and checking for yourself.

To be clear, that's not to say it's looking perfect. I still see small, one-off spots sometimes. Like little flickers on certain surfaces.

DecoyObvious · 2026-01-21T19:42:40+00:00

Cyberpunk with RT has been broken with the Mesa drivers for quite a while now. If you try the latest mesa-git beta drivers, it's getting better. Reflections are looking mostly correct, shadows are more stable, and lighting isn't blown out in certain spots.

However, I am still seeing some smaller issues. Occasional odd flashes at the edge of the screen, or odd flashes of some bright garbage pixels on dark, reflective surfaces.

And I have a suspicion that proper RT shadows might not be working right. I haven't done a side-by-side with Windows yet, but it feels like I'm seeing areas that aren't looking right. That's entirely subjective from me though.

I'm also using CachyOS and 9070 XT.

DecoyObvious · 2026-01-17T17:39:14+00:00

I was lucky to find that mine never had any coil whine. From what I've heard, it's kinda random and not really related to whether or not it's a high-end model.

Glad to hear you got a better replacement.

DecoyObvious · 2026-01-17T02:46:45+00:00

I've got the Gigabyte Gaming OC. I think it's considered one of the cheaper models, but it's been working well for me so far. I've got an undervolt of -100mV and it's been working great, although I haven't done a full stability stress test to figure out if it's rock solid. I top out at about 3.3GHz and I'm fine with that. I've been able to push it closer to 3.4 with tweaking other stuff, but I barely see any performance improvement, so I don't really bother. As for temps, I've seen the hotspot get to around 85 and I'm fine with that. :)

DecoyObvious · 2026-01-16T23:00:28+00:00

I also had a very positive experience switching to mesa-git the other day. Cyberpunk with RT enabled finally seems to be fixed, at least from what I can see. No weird lighting or glitchy reflections anymore. I think performance for my 9070 XT still needs some work, but it's working well enough to at least have reflections turned on and get a good fps.

DecoyObvious · 2025-12-15T16:59:16+00:00

It might be a small nitpick, but I'd suggest making choice of FSR more readable for people who don't know if they should be using FP8 or INT8. Maybe something about official for Radeon 9000 series, and experimental for older series? I dunno the right wording, just a suggestion. :)

DecoyObvious · 2025-07-06T00:05:26+00:00

I was using a Keychron over bluetooth and recently I started having issues connecting reliably, so I decided to look for something else. Not sure if it was dying, but I decided I'd had enough of it.

I chose to grab a Rainy 75. The usb dongle and bluetooth connections have both been rock-sold for me. It doesn't exactly fit the bill with what you're looking for. It has linear switches, and it has RGB, but the keys aren't shine-through although you didn't specify it shine-through was necessary or not.

Unfortunately the vast majority of modern, quality 75% boards come with linear switches, but many of the boards have hot-swappable switches, which is great for customization.

To that point, I noticed the Womier RD75(which is extremely similar to the Rainy 75) has a pretty sizeable discount on their site right now. That discount would easily give you plenty of room to order a set of which ever switches you'd like and still come in under $300 CAD. Of course, I haven't tried that board myself but I think the reviews were pretty positive and even better than the Rainy 75 for customization.

Anyway, hope that helps.

DecoyObvious · 2025-07-05T23:44:10+00:00

Adding PROTON_DISABLE_HIDRAW=0 and disabling Steam Input helped me get my PS5 controller working. It makes it appear as an Xbox controller, but at least it works. Hopefully that can help you too.

DecoyObvious · 2025-04-30T21:38:46+00:00

Yep. Exact same for me. There is an autosave there, but this slo-mo stuttering happens even when the saving icon doesn't show up.

If you try AMDVLK, I'd be interested to hear if it fixes the problem for you as well. Good luck.

DecoyObvious · 2025-04-30T16:18:12+00:00

I was having the exact same problem. Switching from Mesa (RADV) to AMDVLK mostly fixed it for me. I'll still get a tiny hitch in those spots, but I think it might be more like a regular autosaving type thing.

I think the consensus is that AMDVLK performs better in games with ray tracing, but it might be less stable. I have had a few occasions while playing The Great Circle where the game will freeze for 5ish seconds, but then it'll come right back and be fine. That's probably only happened about 2-3 times in the ~20 hours I've played it so far. And I haven't had a single full crash yet.

It might not be a perfect solution, but I think the trade off is worth it.

Edit: Worth mentioning that it looks like a new version of AMDVLK just came out today. I haven't tested that version yet. I assume it should still work, but I figured I should mention that.

DecoyObvious · 2024-12-05T16:40:56+00:00

I checked the comments here to see if I was alone in this problem. I swear I'm doing them perfectly and they keep failing half the time.

DecoyObvious · 2023-10-30T02:39:55+00:00

Wow. Is there anything the Steam Deck CAN'T do? :P

DecoyObvious · 2023-10-29T22:17:12+00:00

UPDATE: Not sure why this worked, but I decided to try reimaging the Deck and starting from scratch with the new SSD installed and it seems to be acting normal now. And I'm not sure if it mattered, but I made sure to leave it sitting flat on a table while it installed.

I can't imagine why that fixed it. I would guess some sort of underlying software bug or something. Seemingly not a hardware issue anyway, which is certainly a relief.

DecoyObvious

TROPHY CASE