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[Bug]: Shortcuts added to Steam don't work in Steam Deck's gaming mode sometimes #4434

@NANASHI0X74

Description

@NANASHI0X74

Describe the bug

I'm not sure why it works for some games, but for others, the xdg-open command that bottles adds to Steam exits before the game starts, which seems to make steam think the game has already exited even though it might actually launch a bit later. This can result in the game launching in the background, but being inaccessible from within gaming mode or not launching at all.

The same game will work in desktop mode.
This issue seems to be known for years on reddit, but I couldn't find a github issue for it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/unhnbp/method_for_adding_a_bottles_shortcuts_to_game/
This post suggests a workaround, which is to use flatpak run instead of xdg-open to launch a game, but having to do manual work here to me kinda defeats to purpose of the "add to steam" functionality.

Could bottles just create the shortcut with flatpak run instead of xdg-open in the first place or is there a reason why this is not desired?

To Reproduce

  1. Install a game in bottles (in my case it was MGS Delta)
  2. create a shortcut to the exe in bottles
  3. click on the three dots-> "add to steam"
  4. switch to gaming mode
  5. launch the game

Package

Flatpak from Flathub

Distribution

SteamOS

Debugging Information

Official Package: true
Version: '62.0'
DE/WM: plasma
Display:
    X.org: true
    X.org (port): :0
    Wayland: true
Graphics:
    vendors:
        amd:
            vendor: amd
            envs:
                DRI_PRIME: '1'
            icd: /usr/share/vulkan/icd.d/radeon_icd.x86_64.json:/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/GL/vulkan/icd.d/radeon_icd.x86_64.json:/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/GL/vulkan/icd.d/radeon_icd.i686.json
    prime:
        integrated: null
        discrete: null
Kernel:
    Type: Linux
    Version: 6.18.16-valve1-1-neptune-618-gb04733708291
Disk:
    Total: 7761895424
    Free: 7761731584
RAM:
    MemTotal: 14.5GiB
    MemAvailable: 9.5GiB
Bottles_envs: null

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