Play Steam games locally on Olares One 30 min

While Olares One is typically used as a headless system, you can connect a monitor, keyboard, and mouse to play games directly.

However, simply plugging in a monitor is not enough. Because Steam Headless is optimized for remote streaming by default, you must manually configure the audio settings to output audio locally.

Learning objectives

Set up Steam Headless on your Olares One.
Grant the application permission to access the host sound card.
Modify display and audio settings for local gameplay.

Prerequisites

Hardware

Olares One connected to a stable network (Ethernet recommended).
Monitor, keyboard, and mouse connected to the Olares One.
Sufficient disk space to download games.

Software

Moonlight installed on the client device.
A valid Steam account.

Experience

Basic familiarity with terminal commands and the command-line interface (CLI).

Step 1: Install Steam Headless

Open the Market, and search for "Steam".
Click Get, then Install.
A prompt will appear asking you to set environment variables. This creates your login credentials for the Sunshine Web UI:
- SUNSHINE_USER: Set the username for Sunshine access.
- SUNSHINE_PASS: Set a secure password.
  Remember your login credentials
  These are the initial login credentials for Sunshine. You will need them if you access the Sunshine dashboard later.
Wait for the installation to complete.

Step 2: Install the Steam client

Once the headless app is running, you need to initialize the Steam client inside it.

Open Steam Headless and click Connect.
The Steam client will automatically begin downloading and installing.
When installation completes, the Steam login screen appears. Sign in with your Steam account.

Retry installation upon failures

If Steam installation or update fails due to network issues, go to the top-left menu in the Steam Headless console and navigate to Applications > Internet > Steam to restart the installation.

Step 3: Grant sound card permissions

To output audio to your monitor, the Steam container needs direct access to your sound card. You must edit the deployment configuration to "pass through" these hardware components.

Edit with caution

Incorrect YAML syntax or indentation may prevent the application from starting.

Verify changes: Double-check that your indentation matches the existing lines.
Revert when necessary: If the app fails to start after applying changes, check Revision records and simply delete the lines you added to restore the previous configuration.

Open Control Hub, then select the Steam project from the sidebar.
Navigate to Deployments > steamheadless, and click edit_square to open the editor.

Locate the volumes section and append the following entry to the list.

yaml

 spec:
   volumes:    
 # Keep existing volumes like steam-headless-claim0
 # ...
 # Add the following entry at the end:
     - name: snd
       hostPath:
         path: /dev/snd
         type: ''

Locate the volumeMounts section and append the following mounting point:

yaml

    volumeMounts:
    # Keep existing mounts like steam-headless-claim0
    # ... 
    # Add the following entry at the end:
      - name: snd
        mountPath: /dev/snd

Click Confirm to apply the changes. The container will restart with the new permissions.

Step 4: Configure display and input

By default, the system is configured for streaming. You need to modify the X11 configuration to use your physical monitor and peripherals.

In Control Hub, click on the running Pod to view its details.
Click the Terminal icon next to steam-headless to access the container's shell.
Open the X configuration file:
bash
```
nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf
```

Modify the file to match the configuration below.

a. Delete the Section "InputDevice" blocks to stop using virtual inputs.

b. Update the Display subsection to match your monitor's resolution. For example:

bash

SubSection     "Display"
Virtual     1920 1080
Depth       24
Modes      "1920x1080R" "1920x1080" "1280x800" "1024x768" "1920x1080" "1600x900" "1440x900"

Reference xorg.conf configuration

bash

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier     "Default Layout"
Screen      0  "Default Screen"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Modeline "1920x1080R"  138.50  1920 1968 2000 2080  1080 1083 1088 1111 +hsync -vsync
Identifier     "Configured Monitor"
HorizSync       5.0 - 1000.0
VertRefresh     5.0 - 200.0
ModeLine       "1920x1080" 148.50 1920 2448 2492 2640 1080 1084 1089 1125 +hsync +vsync
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier     "Configured Video Device"
Driver         "nvidia"
Option         "ModeValidation" "NoMaxPClkCheck, NoEdidMaxPClkCheck, NoMaxSizeCheck, NoHorizSyncCheck, NoVertRefreshCheck, NoVirtualSizeCheck, NoTotalSizeCheck, NoDualLinkDVICheck, NoDisplayPortBandwidthCheck, AllowNon3DVisionModes, AllowNonHDMI3DModes, AllowNonEdidModes, NoEdidHDMI2Check, AllowDpInterlaced"
Option         "AllowEmptyInitialConfiguration"
Option         "PrimaryGPU" "yes"
Option         "AllowExternalGpus" "True"
BusID          "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier     "Default Screen"
Device         "Configured Video Device"
Monitor        "Configured Monitor"
DefaultDepth    24
Option         "ProbeAllGpus" "False"
Option         "BaseMosaic" "False"
Option         "AllowEmptyInitialConfiguration" "True"
Option         "ConnectedMonitor" "DFP"
SubSection     "Display"
Virtual     1920 1080
Depth       24
Modes      "1920x1080R" "1920x1080" "1280x800" "1024x768" "1920x1080" "1600x900" "1440x900"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
Option "AutoAddGPU" "false"
EndSection

Press Ctrl+O to save, then Ctrl+X to exit.

Restart the display server to apply changes:

bash

supervisorctl stop xorg
supervisorctl start xorg

Step 5: Enable audio output

Finally, you must manually select the correct audio output channel.

Identify your sound card. Run the following command inside the container terminal:

bash

aplay -l

Look for your monitor name in the output. For example:

bash

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: HDMI 0 [U2790B]
Subdevices: 0/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 9: HDMI 3 [HDMI 3]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Look for your monitor name in the output. In this example, the output corresponds to card 0, device 3.

Load the audio module. Replace 0,3 with your specific card and device numbers:
bash
```
pactl load-module module-alsa-sink device=plughw:0,3 sink_name=nvhdmi
```

Check the audio channel status (use the same card number you selected above):

bash

amixer -c 0 scontents

Example output:

bash

Simple mixer control 'IEC958',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958',1
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958',2
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [off]

If the output contains Mono: Playback [off], it means the channel is muted. Unmute it by running:
bash
```
amixer -c 0 sset 'IEC958' on
```

Audio now plays directly from your monitor or speakers. You are ready to play.

Optional: Enable audio for remote streaming

INFO

For detailed streaming and pairing instructions, refer to Stream Steam games to any device.

Local play and remote streaming use exclusive audio modes.

Local play requires the module-alsa-sink module loaded.
Remote streaming requires this module unloaded so Sunshine can capture the audio.

If you decide to stream games to another device later, you must unload the local audio module to restore sound to the stream.

To enable audio for streaming:

Open the container terminal via Control Hub.
Unload the local audio module:
bash
```
pactl unload-module module-alsa-sink
```

FAQs

Why does my monitor show the Steam interface even when I'm not playing?

Olares One usually displays a terminal prompt when connected to a monitor. However, running the Steam application activates a graphical interface that takes over the display.

To return the monitor to the standard terminal view, you must stop the Steam application via Market or Settings.

Resources

Stream Steam games to any device

Play Steam games locally on Olares One 30 min ​

Learning objectives ​

Prerequisites ​

Step 1: Install Steam Headless ​

Step 2: Install the Steam client ​

Step 3: Grant sound card permissions ​

Step 4: Configure display and input ​

Step 5: Enable audio output ​

Optional: Enable audio for remote streaming ​

FAQs ​

Why does my monitor show the Steam interface even when I'm not playing? ​

Resources ​

Play Steam games locally on Olares One 30 min

Learning objectives

Prerequisites

Step 1: Install Steam Headless

Step 2: Install the Steam client

Step 3: Grant sound card permissions

Step 4: Configure display and input

Step 5: Enable audio output

Optional: Enable audio for remote streaming

FAQs

Why does my monitor show the Steam interface even when I'm not playing?

Resources