I have found that while Cloudflare Warp isn’t a “True” vpn, it still works to bypass the wifi restrictions I typically encounter that prevent the Steam Deck (any every other device i own) from connecting to steam (and other services/sites).
Here are a few important disclaimers first:
- I am in no way responsible for what happens to your Steam Deck if you chose to follow these instructions.
- If you don’t know linux or what a vpn does… you really shouldn’t be screwing around with this anyway. Entering terminal commands willy nilly has the potential of breaking or even bricking your Steam Deck.
- Cloudflare is not a REAL vpn and doesn’t completely encrypt your web traffic or hide your IP address. Do not rely on it per privacy. The use-case i’m providing it for is EXCLUSIVELY for bypassing wifi restrictions for steam services. Not to mention this is a free service and any free vpn should never be trusted to provide privacy or anonymity.
- Cloudflare Warp may slow down your internet connection on the Steam Deck while it is connected. This is normal.
- The method i’m about to show you will only work through Konsole. There is no GUI component. This means you need to use terminal commands to turn the service on and off. (There is an auto-connect command though that you can trigger, i will include the command for it at the bottom of the guide)
If you’ve read through all of that and have considered all of the warnings I’ve provided then here are the instructions for you to move forward.
First you need to set a password otherwise this may not work. If you have already done this then skip the first step.
In Terminal enter the following: passwd
Enter a password that you will remember. Done with that.
Now enter the following commands one at a time:
sudo steamos-readonly disable
sudo pacman-key --init
sudo pacman-key --populate archlinux
sudo pacman-key --refresh-keys
sudo pacman -Syu
sudo pacman -S base-devel
yay -S cloudflare-warp-bin
sudo systemctl start warp-svc
warp-cli register
warp-cli connect
warp-cli set-mode warp+doh
Now You should be connected. To test this enter the following command
curl https://www.cloudflare.com/cdn-cgi/trace/
then verify that toward the bottom of the list it says Warp=on.
You’re officially done but here are a few bonus commands that you can use if you need them
warp-cli enable-always-on To automatically turn Warp on
warp-cli disable-always-on To turn off the above function
warp-cli disconnect To disconnect
warp-cli --help For additional commands
Once again I take no responsibility for what you do with the information provided. It worked for me and if done correctly it will work for you. I wish you all the very best of luck. Game on!