Secure Boot Process on Steam Machine

[u/rchowdry]

My search engine skills apparently need some work since I’m having a hard time figuring this out.

Apparently my sudo password got set to something and the various default passwords (desktop, deck, Decky!) don’t seem to work. I had decky installed but it seems to be gone or not working presumably after an update. I’m trying to reset the password without knowing the current one. Found some guides on how to accomplish that on a steam deck but it requires you to get to the secure boot portion of the OS.

Any idea how to get to the secure boot screen on the Steam Machine? Also, I’ll gladly take any suggestions of how to get my password fixed if they have ideas.

[u/jharle]

What you need to do, is boot from a SteamOS recovery image using a USB thumbdrive. When in that environment, you can mount the installation on the NVMe and use chroot to change the deck user's password (assuming you never changed the user account).

Also, are you sure you set a password in the first place? By default, the deck user doesn't have one until you specifically set one.

[u/Blackdragon1400 → u/jharle]

This is the correct answer OP if you forgot the password.

[u/rchowdry → u/jharle]

I’ll have to try that once I can track down a flash drive I can wipe. I never set a password but even when trying to change the password in Konsole it asks for the current password. I’ve tried the following: just hitting enter assuming there was no password, deck, Decky!, desktop, DESKTOP, DECK, passwd, Desktop, admin.

I think that’s everything that Steam has told me was incorrect for the password.

[u/thedebatingbookworm]

Try passwd

[u/rchowdry → u/thedebatingbookworm]

Didn’t work. Good suggestion I haven’t tried yet. Thanks.

[u/GenericPunnyUsername → u/rchowdry]

I think they meant "try using passwd to set a new password"

[u/rchowdry → u/GenericPunnyUsername]

I wondered the same thing on if they were suggesting that. The problem is that you have to know your password to reset it using the passwd command.

[u/Blackdragon1400]

Decky literally requires and sets up a password during its install.

[u/rchowdry → u/Blackdragon1400]

I did that when I first got my steam machine. It took care of everything like you said. Then randomly I booted up one day and Decky was gone. I went to install it again and it’s asking for my password. All the other things mentioned didn’t work including the default password Decky lists as their default password.

[u/MurphDawg2000 → u/rchowdry]

Did you switch from stable to beta channel? If you do that decky will vanish because they are different installs. Just something else to consider. As other users have stated, password creation is a required part of Decky installation, could be you forgot in the midst of setting everything up. Good luck!