If you're looking for a companion app, you might want to try KDE Connect. You can pair the mobile app to your Steam Deck to allow for keyboard/mouse remote input and a bunch of other cool features. There's also a Decky plugin for KDE Connect in Gamescope.
Steam Deck
A place to discuss and support all things Steam Deck.
Replacement for r/steamdeck_linux.
As Lemmy doesn't have flairs yet, you can use these prefixes to indicate what type of post you have made, eg:
[Flair] My post title
The following is a list of suggested flairs:
[Discussion] - General discussion.
[Help] - A request for help or support.
[News] - News about the deck.
[PSA] - Sharing important information.
[Game] - News / info about a game on the deck.
[Update] - An update to a previous post.
[Meta] - Discussion about this community.
Some more Steam Deck specific flairs:
[Boot Screen] - Custom boot screens/videos.
[Selling] - If you are selling your deck.
These are not enforced, but they are encouraged.
Rules:
- Follow the rules of Sopuli
- Posts must be related to the Steam Deck in an obvious way.
- No piracy, there are other communities for that.
- Discussion of emulators are allowed, but no discussion on how to illegally acquire ROMs.
- This is a place of civil discussion, no trolling.
- Have fun.
This is pretty much exactly what I was looking for I had no idea kde connect existed, you are a blessing
Does it work in game mode now? I thought it was only in desktop mode.
I haven't tried it, but I'm pretty sure I remember seeing a decky loader plugin for it!
Yes, it works in gamemode. You might want to also get the Decky loader plugin that lets you control KDE Connect is enabled from gamemode though
It didn't work for me last time I tried, but yeah, it could have been fixed by now. It's definitely the right direction to try, it's the perfect solution for OP.
Get yourself an HTPC keyboard with a built in trackpad. The Logitech K400 is a good choice.
great keyboard. i have it myself and the only few things i hate are the signal strength being...meh, the shape of it being not quite comfortable, as well as the mushiness of the keys.
I did this years ago when I first got my steam link. It's still possible today, at least with an android device.
https://www.howtogeek.com/714170/how-to-use-your-android-phone-as-a-bluetooth-mouse-or-keyboard/
I use a bluetooth keyboard for this, solves it quite handily.
You can get ones that are pretty small, too.
I play docked exclusively, unless I'm traveling. Never thought about this need because of what I play on my deck, but maybe KDEconnect can help there.
The built-in software keyboard of the Steam Deck is good enough for me for small amounts of text. If I know I’ll need to type a lot, I’ll just connect a real keyboard.