SteamDeck-Clover-dualboot VS holoiso

You can, of course. For ease of use though, you I also suggest you configure a boot loader: https://github.com/ryanrudolfoba/SteamDeck-Clover-dualboot

I use Clover for dual-boot (SteamOS 3.5 and Windows 10) - https://github.com/ryanrudolfoba/SteamDeck-Clover-dualboot (release 15.10.2023) And I noticed that SteamOS loads much slower due to Clover - ~30 seconds to even over one minute. Windows 10 starts immediately. If I boot SteamOS directly from UEFI (Vol - + power button), the system starts almost immediately.

git clone https://github.com/ryanrudolfoba/SteamDeck-Clover-dualboot

You may also find useful this project. It's a preconfigured Clover that can automatically reinstall itself after system upgrades. It automatically detects different OS on different drives and some OS are already preconfigured with beautiful icons. Works flawlessly for me, tested with Ventoy USB drive with multiple images and with Tails (Deck is an amazing device for anonymous Internet access!) on SDCard. The only things I adjusted were menu timeout and theme. I'm not sure if it's better or worse compared to refind.

I use SteamDeck-Clover-dualboot to manage a dual boot. Updates to either SteamOS or Windows will often mess with the boot priority, so installing this script on the SteamOS side tends to help. When one OS “takes over,” manually booting into SteamOS fixes it right up.

If you're really feeling adventurous.. try Holo ISO

Today I tried to install this https://github.com/HoloISO/holoiso, a version of arch Linux, on a 64 gb Sandisk sd card. After installing, the linux would not start. I tried to boot it on multiple devices with no luck. And now the sd card seems to be stuck in read only. Windows says it requires a format to work, which fails. Linux is able to read it but in properties says only the user “root” can write things on the card. Is this the card dying or is there a way to gain access??

I have not personally tried it, but HoloISO claims to bring SteamOS 3 (the current arch-based version) to generic non-Steamdeck hardware.

https://github.com/HoloISO/holoiso

Check out HoloISO. Just as good

There's an open issue about it: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/SteamOS/issues/742—since Dec 2021. There is https://github.com/HoloISO/holoiso though, but I suppose they just use the same binary packages as the real stuff..

The Steam Deck is less powerful but can accommodate a cheaper pricepoint. I see you are fairly experienced with general Linux so I will spare you the details, other than that ProtonDB is an excellent resource. The Ally is said by many to be less comfortable and it also lacks 2 back buttons and touchpads. The Ally can actually run SteamOS via HoloISO and it is a fairly good experience. Alternatively, if you stick with windows, you can get the Steam Deck UI by using Steam Big Picture.

The Project you mean is called HoloISO - which according to their Github - This project attempts to bring the Steam Deck's SteamOS Holo redistribution into a generic, installable format, and provide a close-to-official SteamOS experience. (There is also ChimeraOS that features some more things)

You can use https://github.com/HoloISO/holoiso to get SteamOS on your desktop