Haiku on Steam Deck

Feedback Hardware
1 
After my boring ticket about some file upload issue --

an interesting ticket opened in Trac :

#18561 – Haiku fails to boot on steam deck

Seems some of us would boot Haiku on this game console – started to test , however met some issues.
I had seen a video of our hungarian famous Twitch-Youtube game player and tech channel guys – TheVR – how the Steam Deck can be used with a different Linux or even windows with some workarounds used to install besides the Steam OS. Also Steam encourages some of it sharing some drivers and infos on community pages.
I understand the guys here to try it out.

Wether … it would be obvious in case ROG Ally too ?

2

Why Wouldn’t I try it out? ; )

Funnily enough the steam deck is the only linux computer I own, and Haiku can’t replace it for the case of games.

But a dualboot on the go would be cool.

3

Does Haiku have touch and controller navigation support? Those might be necessary on devices like the Steam Deck unless when plugged into a dock with an external display, mouse, and keyboard. Basic pointing with a touchscreen could work, but IDK about anything else (i.e. tap and hold right-click. scrolling, dragging, etc.).

4

What do you mean by controller navigation?
We only have tab-index as such. Not that nice for controllers.

It does not matter for the steam deck, the touchpads can work as a mouse, and as a keyboard. Provided drivers are written.

5

I assume we should not expect touch capability until ARM port as mobile device had not targeted.
Think about how many ARM development board exists, besides tablets. We can hope some devs have tablet also as that is rather depends on touch input however with USB or BT the mice+KB also available for them.
But once if Haiku installed on them they might want to use as is : without attached devices – as touch display always available … “at your hand” 8D

6

Steam Deck is x86-based, not ARM.

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7

I know – this way I wrote ARM.
Touch input as must have - mostly on mobile devices.
Mobile devices mostly ARM based - look at tablets smartphones/watches/gps stuff – even iPhone/iPad.
Intel based “tablets” or touch devices are rather laptops, chrome book-like stuff if any. Always a keyboard available and míce can be attached, so no problem to use it as a regular ‘desktop’.

8

a Touchscreen is a “nice to have” for Haiku. Not a need at all, some applications could work nice with it, but it is not a primary input device, Haiku simply has a pointer based interface.

9

There are a couple questions that arise then:

  • Which touchpad will be used as the mouse? One (determined by a user setting or based on touch response) or both (to have left and right click)?
  • Does Haiku have an on-screen keyboard?
  • How would a user map the inputs (buttons, joysticks, touchpads, touch sensors on the joystick, etc.) to system actions?
  • Can Haiku switch input schemes automatically (e.g. when a game is running, a new input method is available, etc.)?

Don’t think that Haiku could be used well within the confines of just the fallback Lizard Mode, without external input devices anyways.

10

To 1:
Are you right or left handed? The clicks would be done by the triggers likely, so not the touchpads, both can be mapped to the mouse cursor.

2:
Yes, but not suited for this purpose. This needs a new one that has a 1:1 mapping of the touchpad to keyboard area to use, invoke by setting the keyboard focus for example.

3: Input server filters? Someone could write a gui potentially

4: Not sure what you mean here by changing schemes, its possible to translate inputs differently depending on the receiving application iirc.

11

What I mean with changing the input scheme based on the current context id say for example, a general context (e.g. back buttons mapped to Shift, Ctrl, and Opt) and a gaming context (regular back button mapping). Or really just something similar to Steam Input, which changes input mappings based on the active app/context.

12

IIRC input server is already capable of that?

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