As promised, here is the tutorial for playing VR wirelessly with just your Steam Deck and
your Quest 2 using ALVR.
But before you do this, I recommend checking out my previous video, where I share what
playing VR on the Steam Deck is like using this exact method.
Because you might not want to go through the trouble; however, if you’re like me, it
doesn’t matter because…
We can.
I’m Cas here, and I make VR tech tips.
It’s free content.
All I ask in return is to like this video and comment down below, as that supports us
tremendously.
Requirements First, this is what you need.
Your Steam Deck
Quest 2 with developer mode enabled
And I also recommend using a keyboard and mouse as you’ll be typing many commands.
Now, the Steam Deck runs a modified version of Linux called SteamOS.
If you’ve never done anything with Linux before, you might find this a bit technical.
But I will try to explain this the best I can.
Just make sure to follow every command exactly as I type it, including all capitalizations,
hyphens, etc.
I’ll also paste these commands in the description below so you can also copy and paste them
to make sure it’s correct.
Now, let’s go to…
Step 1.
Download ALVR on your Quest • For this tutorial, I assume you already
know how to sideload on your Quest 2.
If you don’t, watch my other tutorial on it, which is linked below.
• When you’re done with that, download and install the ALVR client on your Quest
2, you can find it on SideQuest.
Ensure you’re getting this ALVR –Quest build and NOT the nightly build.
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Now let’s continue to…
Step 2.
Preparing your Steam Deck
Get your Deck out.
Hold-press the ‘shut-down-button’ and select ‘Switch to Desktop.’
Connect your keyboard and mouse if you haven’t yet.
I use this Bluetooth keyboard so I can keep my Steam Deck connected to the power.
Now, we need to install some things, but we need to prepare the Steam Deck before we can
do that.
Open the Konsole with a “K.” If you open the menu, it’s under System, or just type
it in the search field.
It’ll open SteamOS’s terminal.
If you haven’t already, you have to set your root password.
So type
passwd
And it’ll ask you for a new password.
Please remember it as you’re gonna need it.
Then, still in Konsole.
We need to disable the Steam Deck read-only mode.
So type this.
sudo steamos-readonly disable
Keep in mind that this could reset if SteamOS gets updated, and you might need to rerun
this command.
But when you run it, it may also ask you for your password, which is the password you just
created 😉
So we need to use the Arch Linux package manager called ‘pacman’ to install stuff on SteamOS.
But for that to work, we need run two things.
First:
sudo pacman-key --init
Then run:
sudo pacman-key --populate archlinux
Once that’s done, you should be ready to install stuff with pacman.
Let’s move to…
Step 3.
Install Chromium • ALVR launches via a Chromium-based browser.
So that’s the first thing we’ll install with pacman.
So use this command:
sudo pacman -S chromium
• When it asks if you want to proceed, type Y for yes and wait for it to finish.
Step 4.
Download library files for ALVR
The ALVR build we’re using currently is missing two library files.
So for this, you can use the Firefox browser, which is preinstalled.
Go to the Google Drive link in the description.
Download the zip file and place it anywhere you want; it should go to your Downloads folder
by default.
Just open that folder, then right-click the zip file and extract it by clicking Extract
here.
Now, right-click anywhere in the folder and select ‘Open Terminal’; Konsole will then
launch with the current folder path.
We have to move the two files we just downloaded to the /usr/lib/ folder.
You can use these two commands for it:
sudo mv libx264.so.155 /usr/lib/ sudo mv libx265.so.179 /usr/lib/
They should now both be moved to that folder.
The last thing we need to run is:
sudo ldconfig
I have to note here that these library files may get removed if the Steam Deck gets updated,
or you may get dependency conflicts.
If anything goes wrong, just remember where you put them because you can always delete
them or you can reset your Steam Deck to its stock OS pretty easily.
Step 5.
Install SteamVR
No worries, we’re almost done here.
If you haven’t installed SteamVR yet, go launch Steam, which is of course preinstalled,
and then install SteamVR from there.
When it finishes, make sure to launch it at least once before you launch ALVR.
It may ask you for your root password again; just permit it by filling out your password.
Once it’s launched successfully, you can close it again.
Step 6.
Download & Launch ALVR portable Now, open up the browser again and go to the
ALVR releases link.
The most recent release should be at the top.
I’m currently on v18.2.2.
If you are watching later, you may get a different version.
You can try it, but you can also find my version if you scroll further down.
Then, make sure to download the portable Linux build called alvr_server_linux_portable.
Click on it to download.
Now open the folder where you saved it.
The easiest way to get there is by clicking at the top right, then the folder icon.
Now, extract the files by right-clicking it, then Extract to a subfolder.
Open that folder and head to the ‘bin’ folder.
To launch ALVR, you can double-click it, but I recommend launching it via Konsole as, if
something goes wrong, you can see a log of what is happening.
So right-click anywhere in the folder and click ‘Open Terminal.’
Here, type:
./alvr_launcher
(Tip: You can use the tab key on your keyboard to autocomplete file names in Linux)
Now the ALVR dashboard should be booting together with SteamVR!
Wait until it’s done.
It may take a second before you can click on stuff again.
But once it’s done, you can maximize the ALVR window with this arrow.
Then you can go through the wizard and tweak the settings.
Or follow mine here.
Once done, head over to ‘Settings’ then ‘Video’ and at the Video Codec section
and select h265.
For some reason, 64 doesn’t work.
For me, at least.
I haven’t spent a lot of time with the rest of the settings yet, so you may be able to
get better quality if you tweak it a little later on.
For now, head back to ‘Monitor’, then ‘Connection’.
You can try if it works by finally getting your Quest 2 out, and launching ALVR in VR
from the Unknown Sources menu.
In VR, you will see that you need to trust your device.
So check your Steam Deck’s screen, you should now see your Quest appear.
Make sure to click the ‘Trust’ button next to it.
If you do not see your Quest appear, make sure your Quest is on the same WiFi network
as your Steam Deck.
Now, in VR, you’ll see that ALVR is restarting.
While it’s doing that, your Steam Deck might get a pop-up asking about syncs.
Just click ‘Play Anyway’ here.
SteamVR Home should now launch in your Quest 2 running via your Steam Deck!
This latest ALVR build even gives you hand tracking 2.0 in SteamVR and that’s pretty
cool.
Step 7.
Audio on Quest 2 (* Optional) Now, this is an optional step.
You probably already have game audio via your Steam Deck, and that could be enough, but
no sound is coming from your Quest 2.
If you also want that to work, we can use the tool Helvum.
First, in the ALVR dashboard, go to Monitor, then Audio.
Checkmark ‘Stream game audio’ and then at ‘Select Audio Device’, pick ‘jack.’
Then, you can install Helvum in Konsole with the command:
sudo pacman -S helvum
Once installed, you can launch it by typing ‘helvum’ in the Konsole.
You’ll see this screen.
Make sure to maximize it so you can see everything.
Now, when you launch a game, it’ll appear here.
For example, I just launched Compound.
So you can see it appear in Helvum.
Now, you have to drag the two outputs below it into the alsa-jack buttons here.
So output 1 to zero and output 2 to one.
You’re basically drawing lines, so connecting sound to the right speakers.
Once you’ve done that, you should immediately hear the game sound on your Quest 2.
It’s pretty easy to do, but unfortunately, you do have to do this each time you launch
a new game or app.
But that should be it!
You should be able to try out any VR game you can think of, even Half-Life Alyx.
Now, this doesn’t always work.
I noticed it’s a hit-and-miss on the STEAM Deck.
Sometimes the Deck freezes, or SteamVR won’t launch at all.
Usually, this can be solved by just restarting the Deck and my Quest 2, and out of a couple
of times, it should work at least once.
As said before, I haven’t had time to tweak the settings so you can probably get better
quality if you play around with it.
The dev also mentioned you can try a USB connection.
I’ll link ALVR’s github and also their Discord down below so you can check them out.
So I hope this was helpful to you; please smash that like button if it did and let me
know in the comments below.
It helps us a lot with the YouTube algorithm and makes us happy reading your comments.
Well, most of the time.
Thanks for being here.
A special thanks go to all our current Champions, especially those in Shining Armor.
As always, VR ...