Thank you for your response. Privacy is another important factor for me and another reason why I’m looking at Garmin. And thanks for clarifying that all the basic features are not locked behind a paywall.

I’m wanting all the workout and activity tracking. HR, GPS, altitude, speed, saving past workouts etc. I’m just asking because I got my mom a fitbit and the sleep tracking was locked behind a subscription.

This worked. My first install of mangohud was through the git hub instructions. But when I installed it through my package manager, it works in steam now. Thanks

So then how would I use it in lutris and steam?

That seems to have worked. Tbf, your original comment displayed as “pactl load-module module-switch-on-connect” Which indicates 2 seperate commands.

“Pactl load-module” outputs “you have to specify a module name and arguments.”

I duck go’d that command and it seems like it’s for pulseaudio. The latest mint release uses pipewire for the audio server. Is the command different for that?

It says “no valid command specified”

Oh that is interesting. I had seen that used before but didn’t know what it was lol.

The latest version of mint (22) is using pipewire now.

I’m on Linux mint 22 and my audio outputs don’t change automatically. When I plug in USB headphones, audio won’t output to them unless I manually change it in settings.

Also, why can’t I interact with the panel applets (on the right side) while I’m in game? For example: I’m playing a game, I plug in my headphones, I have to manually change the audio output so I hit the “windows” key to bring up the panel, but I can’t interact with any of the applets on the right side of the panel (I can’t select the audio icon and change settings from there). I have to search audio settings in the panel then alt tab to it. It’s really cumbersome

Try grayjay

I like the 1 comma in that whole paragraph…

I have Linux mint on my gaming desktop and it’s been great. I’d say that is a good entry point. But i tried a couple distros via live USB before choosing.

my steam deck is only about $600 so that’s in the clear.

Oh I see. So the point is to limit ppl bringing in a bunch of stuff to sell and make a big profit. That makes sense.

That’s great to hear! I am still dual booting mint and windows but I am slowly moving towards being fully on mint. I recommend checking out Lutris if you have games on other stores, it also works well with running windows games.

I was half expecting this song

Just dual boot and call it good.

Thanks for your help with my problem. I ultimately decided to retry my method due to a video I found detailing the method and it worked. I updated my OP to include more details if you wanna read what I did. But I did successfully dual boot onto 2 separate drives.

That’s good to know. I would prefer using mint because I’ve been using it in my laptop for a while now and I’m comfortable with it. I really appreciate your help and time answering my questions. I will try dual booting again this weekend.