Client on Steam Deck Manual

[[|link=|]]	Warning: This page was created with limited knowledge of running Multi Theft Auto on the Steam Deck. Further testing is needed and steps may change as more knowledge is gained.

[[{{{image}}}|link=|]]	Note: Connecting a keyboard and mouse to your Steam Deck is recommended when following this guide.

Prerequisites

• A Steam Deck with the default OS (SteamOS) installed
• A copy of GTA San Andreas, either through Steam or copied over into your SteamOS
• Multi Theft Auto installer (download latest Win10+ release here)
• Windows fonts (Download a ZIP archive with all three here and extract it):
  • tahoma.ttf
  • tahomabd.ttf
  • verdana.ttf

MTA installation

1. Switch to desktop mode if not there already.
2. Download the latest Multi Theft Auto version from the official website.
3. Add the installer as a non-Steam game (open up the context menu and click "Add To Steam").
4. Switch to game mode.
5. Locate the installer in the non-Steam game section in your Steam library.
6. Open the context menu and click "properties", then switch to the "compatibility tab". Here select the latest (non-experimental) version of Proton.
7. Close properties and run the installer.
8. Follow all the steps, it's advisable to not change the path to your MTA installation. Select (or type) your GTA San Andreas installation path when prompted.

Locating your MTA installation

Proton creates a virtual filesystem for Windows. We need to locate the path it created for your MTA installation as we'll need it for the next steps.

1. Switch to desktop mode.
2. Navigate to

   /home/deck/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/

3. Locate the folder (these folders represent app IDs) that contains your installation. Either by sorting by newest or by opening them up and navigating to

   /home/deck/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/<ID>/pfx/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/

   to verify that a folder for MTA (MTA San Andreas 1.6) exists.
4. Note down this ID once found.

Installing Windows fonts

1. Copy the fonts you downloaded and put them in

   /home/deck/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/<ID>/pfx/drive_c/windows/fonts

Getting MTA to run

[[{{{image}}}|link=|]]	Note: Testing has shown that it's advisable to have a PC with an existing MTA installation running during your first startup. This is similar to running MTA in a VM, as it will take on the serial from this PC which should prevent the "serial cannot be validated" error.

You're nearly there. We're now going to swap the MTA installation executable with the MTA launcher itself in your existing non-Steam game setup.

1. Switch to game mode.
2. Navigate to your non-Steam game section in your Steam library and locate the installer from earlier.
3. Open up properties and look for "target".
4. Modify the existing target with the path to your MTA installation (make sure to keep the double quotes!). By default it would be as follows:

   "/home/deck/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/<ID>/pfx/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/MTA San Andreas 1.6"

5. Start Multi Theft Auto and enjoy! You may have to select your GTA San Andreas installation path once more.

Troubleshooting

• Missing tahoma.ttf/verdana.ttf font error
  • Download the fonts here and put them in

    /home/deck/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/<ID>/pfx/drive_c/windows/fonts

• Flickering taskbar after MTA started (desktop mode)
  • Workarround for now, go to settings -> video tab and change resolution to 1280x720 windowed (DO NOT USE FULLSCREEN MODE)

• MTA crashes when entering main menu after selecting fullscreen mode in video settings tab (D3D9.dll crash offset ED711)
  • Manually revert this setting by going to

    /home/deck/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/<ID>/pfx/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/MTA San Andreas 1.6/MTA/config

    and opening coreconfig.xml with KWrite application. Search for "display_fullscreen_style" and change the property from 0 to 1.

• There was a problem validating your serial
  • Follow the guide over here and setup the linux server on steamdeck

• Cannot start linux server on steamdeck due to missing libncurses5 file/lib
  • Download the ncurses5-compat-libs here. After downloading, open terminal inside Downloads folder and run following commands:

sudo steamos-readonly disable
sudo pacman -U ncurses5-compat-libs-6.2-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst
sudo steamos-readonly enable

See Also

• nightly.mtasa.com - For nightly builds.