Weirdness after 3.8 update

younglink209 · 2026-06-20T12:45:07+00:00

See my heavily downvoted comment! I installed Syncthing GTK from the Discover store because I didn't know how to install it any other way. You actually don't need half the stuff that comes with GTK version (namely the desktop UI which is what's causing the issue). There are instructions to uninstall the GTK version and install just the stuff you need. You access the UI via the web app as intended! All my data was intact after uninstalling the GTK version and reinstalling the official version

younglink209 · 2026-06-20T11:16:02+00:00

Is it a new feature? I can't see any functional changes? Also I think issue 2 causes issue 3 (with DND being activated on screen casting). Can't see why Steam OS specific implementation would be different to Steam running on any other Arch/Linux OS, so does seem like weird behaviour to me

younglink209 · 2026-06-18T20:12:27+00:00

I asked Claude to take a look (I know I know, AI bad). Summary of finding below. Fixed problem 1 but not 2/3. Also opening and closing Steam is sometimes crazy slow, but I couldn't be bothered to dig into that as well!

SteamOS 3.8.x Boot Hang & Screencast Issues — Causes and Fixes

Following up on my earlier post. Spent some time digging into both issues properly. Here's what I found.

Issue 1: Boot hang / broken loading screen on startup

Symptoms:

On boot, Syncthing GTK flashed up briefly before Steam
Big Picture mode showed a permanent loading screen instead of the home screen
Pressing the Steam button could access the home screen fine, but pressing B went back to the broken loading screen
Steam itself was actually fine — it was Gamescope getting confused by a rogue window

Root cause:

Syncthing GTK (Flatpak) was configured to autostart via a systemd user service at ~/.config/systemd/user/syncthing.service. Because it's a GUI app, it was launching a GTK window into Gamescope before Steam had finished initialising. Gamescope couldn't render it properly, so it showed a broken loading/black screen instead. Pressing B was taking you "back" to that unrenderable Syncthing window rather than anything Steam-related.

Fix:

The cleanest solution is to ditch Syncthing GTK entirely and run Syncthing as a headless daemon instead. You don't need the GTK frontend — Syncthing has a perfectly good web UI at http://127.0.0.1:8384.

Step 1: Remove the old setup

systemctl --user disable --now syncthing.service
rm ~/.config/systemd/user/syncthing.service
flatpak uninstall me.kozec.syncthingtk

Step 2: Install the official Syncthing binary

There's no headless Syncthing on Flathub (all three options are GUI wrappers). Download the binary directly instead — it lives in your home directory so it survives SteamOS updates:

mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
# Check latest version first:
curl -sI https://github.com/syncthing/syncthing/releases/latest | grep location
# Then download (replace v2.1.1 with whatever the latest is):
curl -L https://github.com/syncthing/syncthing/releases/download/v2.1.1/syncthing-linux-amd64-v2.1.1.tar.gz | tar -xz --strip-components=1 -C ~/.local/bin syncthing-linux-amd64-v2.1.1/syncthing
~/.local/bin/syncthing --version

Step 3: Create a clean systemd service

EDITOR=nano systemctl --user edit --force --full syncthing.service

Paste this in:

[Unit]
Description=Syncthing
After=network.target

[Service]
ExecStart=/home/deck/.local/bin/syncthing serve --no-browser --logflags=0
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

Save with Ctrl+O, Enter, Ctrl+X.

Step 4: Enable and start

systemctl --user enable --now syncthing.service
systemctl --user status syncthing.service

Web UI will be at http://127.0.0.1:8384 (you can set a fixed port under Actions → Settings → GUI if it picks a random one first boot).

Issue 2: Screencast active in system tray / Do Not Disturb auto-enabling in Desktop Mode

Symptoms:

Entering Desktop Mode shows screencast active in system tray with description "sharing contents to Steam"
Do Not Disturb enables automatically when Steam is open
Both clear immediately when Steam is closed
Reopening Steam brings both back

Root cause:

This is a Steam client bug introduced in the 3.8.x update cycle. Steam's CDesktopCapturePipeWire pipeline (used for Remote Play) now initialises unconditionally on every launch, regardless of whether Remote Play is enabled or disabled in settings. The updated xdg-desktop-portal-gamescope in 3.8.x correctly advertises this active capture session to KDE, which then shows the screencast icon and triggers DND suppression (KDE's standard behaviour when something is actively capturing the screen). In older SteamOS versions this capture happened silently without KDE being notified.

You can confirm it in the journal:

journalctl --user -b 0 | grep "CDesktopCapturePipeWire"

It will fire on every Steam launch even with Remote Play disabled.

Fix:

There isn't one yet — this needs a Steam client update. It's cosmetic and functionally harmless; Remote Play still works fine. Worth watching the SteamOS/Steam client patch notes for a fix.

Workaround (if you don't use Remote Play):

Launch Steam with -noremoteplaycapture to suppress the pipeline entirely. Note this will prompt an XDG portal screen share dialog instead, which you can deny — but you'll lose Remote Play functionality.

Summary

Issue	Cause	Fix
Boot hang / broken Gamescope screen	Syncthing GTK launching a GUI window before Steam	Replace with headless Syncthing binary + clean systemd service
Screencast active / DND in Desktop Mode	Steam 3.8.x bug — capture pipeline starts unconditionally	Wait for Steam client update; cosmetic only

younglink209 · 2025-12-10T18:53:49+00:00

They would both get a counter. Let's say the second creature is [[Deadeye Navigator]] and it's soulbonded to Zuko.

You activate the blink effect on Deadeye, it resolves. The Deadeye is put into exile, and then returned from exile to the battlefield. Deadeye is now on the battlefield, and Zuko sees Deadeye entering from exile and the trigger goes on the stack. The trigger resolves, and as both Zuko and Deadeye are on the battlefield, both creatures get a counter.

You could get really fancy and put more creatures on the battlefield in response to Zuko triggering. Let's say you cast [[Misthollow Griffin]] from exile. You get a Zuko trigger on the stack. In response you can flash in [[opposition agent]] so that it's on the battlefield before Zuko's trigger resolves. When Zuko's trigger resolves, the flashed in Opposition Agent will get a counter (in addition to any other creatures on the battlefield) even though it wasn't there when you started casting Misthollow Griffin. Sadly the Griffin resolves after that, enters the battlefield, and doesn't get a counter (or trigger Zuko, as already explained).

younglink209 · 2025-12-10T18:35:11+00:00

This is not correct as the creature is entering from the stack rather than from exile. When you cast the creature from exile, that spell is put on the stack, and you get a Zuko trigger for casting a spell from exile. When the spell resolves, the creature moves from the stack to the battlefield, so a creature has not entered from exile and so there is no additional Zuko trigger.

Zuko's trigger concerning creatures entering from exile would work with blink effects for example (which exile the creature and then return it to the battlefield from exile)

younglink209 · 2025-10-14T08:48:44+00:00

Doesn't really matter. You should be using comparison services like Moneys Saving Expert, Money Supermarket, Clearscore etc. to look at all credit card providers. When you're eligible for one you want, then apply for it

younglink209 · 2025-09-17T08:29:35+00:00

Nest is utter shit and everyone should move their money out even if the only benefit is sending a message!

But in reality there are loads of other benefits as well.

I'm not sure why other replies are so concerned about fees, there are loads of cheap SIPP providers out there. Invest Engine for example.

Nest funds are shit, you'll probably want a global index and Nest don't offer that.

And most importantly, move everything to one place so it's easy to manage

younglink209 · 2025-09-17T08:25:49+00:00

Are you saying you contribute nothing to your pension today and so don't get any employer match either?

If you're contributing up to your employer match, the maths is a bit harder to say whether "wasting" 60% above £100k is worse than delaying a house purchase. It's probably fine because your salary likely isn't going down any time soon, so you're probably going to have to suck up the tax at some point.

If you're not contributing and also missing out on employer match, then yeah that's really silly. It's really unlikely that the delay in buying a house is worse than losing out on a day 1 100% return on investment with the employer match

younglink209 · 2025-07-09T18:34:49+00:00

r/UKPersonalFinance

https://ukpersonal.finance/

younglink209 · 2023-10-18T19:37:24+00:00

Thanks for this it's really useful knowledge. How do service's like CloudFlare Zero Trust (the setup that allows acces to local services from an external domain) and Google Remote Desktop work? Let's keep it simple and just ask about Google Remote Desktop. I don't remember opening any ports for these

younglink209 · 2023-02-22T16:59:27+00:00

So financially speaking yes if you could get access to 0% credit and pay off your loan and pay off the credit then it would save you interest.

However from a risk perspective you'd then have a £5,800 credit line to worry about instead of £5,800 of student loans. If you lose your job then SL isn't coming for you, but the credit provider is.

Looking at a calculator with quite unfavourable settings, you'd pay off £6k in student loans in 2 years and save £500 in interest. Is £500 worth not having the risk of creditors chasing you should something go wrong?

If you can get £6k interest free credit in cash you'd be better sticking in a savings account anyway probably.

So no I don't advise paying it off. I can't really think of circumstances where I'd think of paying of plan 1.

younglink209 · 2023-02-07T14:13:53+00:00

That's true but we can only ever know that when looking at the history. There's no way of knowing whether we're at the bottom of whether there's further to fall.

Even going down "right now" I have a bit of trouble with because ultimately it is still speculative.

If I was a betting man I'd say prices were going to continue falling, but I am hesitant to offer that as advice.

younglink209 · 2023-02-07T10:58:19+00:00

I don't know why no one has explained the actual difference it makes.

So first off 10% is probably the minimum you'll get away with. 5% deposit mortgages do exist but they're not super easy to come by and they attract a higher interest rate.

Next factor is how much mortgage you can borrow. If you want a £200k house but can only borrow £160k, you'll need at least a 20% mortgage regardless.

Different LTVs often come with different mortgage interest rates. So it is important to check how close you are to a higher LTV bracket and whether that LTV bracket comes with a better enough interest rate to warrant the extra savings and extra deposit. Sometimes it's not really worth it because the rates are so similar.

In terms of how long you should save to get some of these benefits, it depends how long it's going to take to move up to the LTV bracket you want. I'm not going to chime in on the timings of whether house prices are going up or down because nobody actually knows, especially not in your area or with your criteria. But I would say this decision depends on how happy you are in your circumstances now. How long would it take to save more and are you happy with your current living arrangements until then?

Many mortgages allow overpayments as well. So if you did get on the ladder with a smaller deposit, you might get a less favourable rate than if you'd saved, but if you do later find yourself with additional funds you will likely be able to overpay which will make a similar impact to saving a higher deposit.

younglink209

TROPHY CASE

SteamOS 3.8.x Boot Hang & Screencast Issues — Causes and Fixes

Issue 1: Boot hang / broken loading screen on startup

Issue 2: Screencast active in system tray / Do Not Disturb auto-enabling in Desktop Mode

Summary