Can I/how do I set up Windscribe VPN on Steam Deck Desktop mode?

VPN
1

I know nothing about terminal and very little about linux in general.

2

I just set this up myself. Disclaimer that I also know super little about linux.

First, in the console set up a password using passwd

Then try the following command. You may need to press A when prompted with a question or enter your password.

sudo steamos-readonly disable && sudo pacman-key --init && sudo pacman-key --populate archlinux && sudo pacman -Syu base-devel holo-rel/linux-headers linux-neptune-headers holo-rel/linux-lts-headers git glibc gcc gcc-libs fakeroot linux-api-headers libarchive && makepkg -si && yay -S windscribe-v2-bin

Then it should appear in your application launcher. Be aware that after a Steam Deck update you may have to do this again. Let me know if you run into any issues!

3

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4

didnt work

==> Appending keys from archlinux.gpg...
==> Updating trust database...
gpg: next trustdb check due at 2023-12-31
:: Synchronizing package databases...
jupiter-3.5 is up to date
holo-3.5 is up to date
core-3.5 is up to date
extra-3.5 is up to date
community-3.5 is up to date
multilib-3.5 is up to date
error: database not found: holo-rel
error: database not found: holo-rel
warning: git-2.41.0-1 is up to date -- reinstalling
warning: glibc-2.37-3.2 is up to date -- reinstalling
warning: gcc-libs-13.1.1-1 is up to date -- reinstalling
warning: linux-api-headers-6.3-1 is up to date -- reinstalling
warning: libarchive-3.6.2-2 is up to date -- reinstalling

5

I could send you a pizza I’m so happy that I found your comment which was exactly what I was looking for!

I’m simply running into an error at the end ==> ERROR: PKGBUILD does not exist.

I already had steamos set to readonly, so I’m stuck scratching my head and wanting pizza now. Go me. Any advice on the error?

6

i did this but nothing appeared in application launcher (i assume you mean steam library), haven’t seen any errors in konsole though

7

Tried that. Youtube search is worthless. First 20 results of searching for “windscribe steam deck” are just a bunch of non-vpn related steam deck tips/tweaks list videos, last of us part 1 performance videos, essay videos, and the one or two that I do see that are vpn related are for vpns other than windscribe.

8

Pizza sounds very yummy :face_savoring_food:

From what I’m searching online, are you sure you DISABLED steamos-readonly? You don’t want it to be set to readonly.

If not that, I think I vaguely remember setting a Steam OS setting to allow developer changes but might be wrong on that. I’d look into other Steam Deck reddit posts talking about PKGBUILD not existing, or looking into how people got the yay command working on Steam Deck

9

No, not your Steam Library. Click the circle on the bottom left. That list of applications that pops up is the application launcher. I’m not sure if it’s possible to launch Windscribe from the Steam Library. It might be, but I never tried

10

The issue is with the command you posted, there’s no reason to use makepkg -si there. makepkg is looking for a PKGBUILD that doesn’t exist. The command that matters is yay, although you should probably recommend paru instead since that is preinstalled on the Steam Deck. So the probably correct suggestion would be sudo steamos-readonly disable && sudo pacman-key --init && sudo pacman-key --populate archlinux && sudo pacman -Syu base-devel git libarchive && paru -S windscribe-v2-bin. Although I’m pretty sure that the requirements for paru to work are already satisfied since it’s preinstalled so you wouldn’t need to manually install git so sudo steamos-readonly disable && sudo pacman-key --init && sudo pacman-key --populate archlinux && paru -S windscribe-v2-bin is probably enough but if that doesn’t work I don’t see why the other command wouldn’t work.

11

doen’t seem like windscribe got installed and i get 1 error along the way which is “error: target not found linux-Its-headers”.
tried lowercase and uppercase for “-Its-”

12

Oh also I should probably ping u/mildxsalsa so they can see this in case they didn’t solve the problem by now.

13

it installed but wont connect to anything

14

I believe that’s an L, not an I

15

So I gave up on this a year ago and never got this working. I ran all of the commands listed in the comments and am seeing a bunch of gibberish I don’t understand. I have no idea if windscribe is installed or not, but it’s not appearing in the steam decks equivalent to the start menu. Can I expect this to look and behave just like the windows version or do I need to know basic terminal stuff?

All I’m capable of Linux wise is copying and pasting commands and typing in Y/N. I can’t stress how little I know about linux.

16

Nice, thanks! I initially found that Windscribe has its own Linux installer but I think it only affects the desktop mode, so I went through their guide to add the VPN profile to the the system. I love how much the steam deck community looks out for each other!

17

you sure? i even copy pasted what you wrote in text editor to check if it was L or I, i’ll try again when i get home

18

:: Synchronizing package databases…
jupiter-rel 95.8 KiB 41.1 KiB/s 00:02 [#######################################################] 100%
holo-rel is up to date
core-rel is up to date
extra-rel is up to date
community-rel is up to date
multilib-rel is up to date
:: There are 26 members in group base-devel:
:: Repository holo-rel

  1. archlinux-keyring
    :: Repository core-rel
  2. autoconf 3) automake 4) binutils 5) bison 6) debugedit 7) fakeroot 8) file 9) findutils 10) flex 11) gawk 12) gcc 13) gettext 14) grep
  3. groff 16) gzip 17) libtool 18) m4 19) make 20) pacman 21) patch 22) pkgconf 23) sed 24) sudo 25) texinfo 26) which

i got faced with this after that command, what do i choose?