"Update and shut down" option?

The absolute worst possible time for system and game updates is when I am booting up the device or starting a game.

My Fedora and Windows OSs both give you a “update and shut down” option. This is the best time to do updates.

When Steam is a desktop program, it obviously is not involved in the OS and not aware when you are shutting down but when Steam IS the OS? Seems like a fairly obvious inclusion.

Now obviously there can be additional mandatory updates between startups, but this would at least help to minimize those.

Why is this not standard? Is this something the community could develop? Maybe via plug-in?

Kolanaki,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

Steam Big Picture mode even has this. I would have figured the Deck would too.

ano_ba_to,

I remember a time Windows pushed a major update on my laptop as I was about to sleep. I wrote a routine that shuts down my laptop after about 30 minutes, so I can unplug the machine while Youtube or something is on as I fall asleep. Well, it backfired at that time as I had to re-awake after 30 minutes, and plug the machine back in. It was stuck at 30% for a while. “You’re 30% there”. I’m 30% there? It’s not me, it’s you, you stupid OS!

Deconceptualist,

Totally agreed, this is one of the most annoying things left about Steam and especially the Deck.

It’s usually not too bad since you can pause downloads. But if the game you want to play has multiple GB of patches to download you could be stuck waiting a while.

HughJanus,

Pause downloads, and then what? Let it sit there and download them when you’re done and then have to come back later and turn it off.

skulblaka,
@skulblaka@kbin.social avatar

Playstation, Xbox and Switch all download and install updates during sleep mode. Deck should be able to do that as well. If you're worried about battery life, only allow sleeping downloads when plugged in. Problem solved.

HughJanus,

Deck should be able to do that as well.

Agreed. I would take that also but currently it does not.

bjoern_tantau,
@bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de avatar

PCs can’t do that. Only RAM gets power in their sleep mode.

HughJanus,

Right, so, back to my original point…

bjoern_tantau,
@bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de avatar

The Steam Deck is a PC. That’s why this solution is impossible for it. It’s a hardware limitation.

HughJanus,

I understand that. My original point was that they should update when shutting the device down.

Deconceptualist,

If you’re in desktop mode you can schedule a shutdown. But I’m not aware of a way to trigger it based on a finished Steam download queue unfortunately.

conciselyverbose,

I get your idea, but I don't think I've ever had an update take more than maybe a minute.

HughJanus,

I’ve definitely spent more than a few minutes staring at an update screen after I sat down, not to mention games that won’t launch before completing a 30GB+ update.

conciselyverbose,

Games are different. You can set whether you want it to download while you play, or you can just leave it on the download screen plugged in at the end of the day to update everything.

HughJanus, (edited )

Yes I’m aware of how the update system works.

Downloading while I play is going to severely limit performance.

I don’t want my SD left on all day. I want it off.

conciselyverbose,

There's no reason for or meaningful benefit to it being off.

HughJanus,

…are you serious?

conciselyverbose,

Yes? Turning it off is dumb. It's designed to be on 24/7.

skulblaka, (edited )
@skulblaka@kbin.social avatar

That's definitely not true because there isn't a computer system that exists in the world that is designed for true 24/7 uptime, and the meaningful benefit to shutting it down is both lack of power consumption and system stability. If you keep it on 24/7 it's going to start crashing frequently after a few months of uptime and you'll be paying for a non negligible amount of power you've used for no reason.

Edit: I stand by my power consumption statement, but re: uptime, my Windows centric history is showing. The Linux gang has shown up to correct me and they should be listened to.

conciselyverbose,

This isn't correct. Most Linux systems are designed to never need to be rebooted. Multi-year uptimes aren't unusual at all.

Negligible isn't the word for the power usage. A whole bunch of tiers below that is. If you're turning off your switch or steam deck, you're using it wrong.

skulblaka,
@skulblaka@kbin.social avatar

I'll yield to your expertise for this one, then. My Windows-centrism is showing I suppose. I used to work IT but my environment was overwhelmingly Windows and that colored my perspective of computing as a whole. Excessive uptime was our #1 cause of problems by a massive margin.

Plus I keep forgetting, like a dumbass, that SteamOS is built out of an offshoot of Linux and carries a lot of the benefits of the Linux kernel.

I'm still shutting it down overnight, though.

Stampela,

Exactly, that’s why the Deck has as the default option to never shut down no matter how long it’s been inactive

/s

bjoern_tantau,
@bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de avatar

If you keep it on 24/7 it’s going to start crashing frequently after a few months of uptime

That’s such a Windows mindset. My Linux servers keep on trucking for years and years without a single reboot. My laptop as well if I’m not on holidays.

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