The Steam library
Steam library discovery turns games already installed inside your Steam container into their own launchable tiles, so a user does not have to open Steam and navigate it every time.
Be clear about what this is
Section titled “Be clear about what this is”It is filesystem discovery of what is installed. Quasar looks inside the Steam container’s library folder, finds installed games, and creates catalog entries for them.
It is not a sync of everything you own. A game you own but have not installed does not appear. Install it once through the Steam launcher app, and it shows up on the next scan.
Other things it deliberately does not do:
- It does not verify that a launch got past Steam’s own interface.
- It does not find games on a second Steam library disk.
- It does not support more than one Steam account per user.
- It does not switch games inside a live session.
Account-based ownership sync is future work, not a current feature.
Turning it on
Section titled “Turning it on”Admin, Settings has the master switch, or the first-run wizard offers it as step four.
Enabling it does several things at once: installs the Steam container image on your hosts, creates a runtime preset from the manifest, adds a launcher app to the catalog, and creates an entitlement so the launcher is usable.
The Steam source is listed under Admin, Library, Sources either way. Until you turn discovery on it sits there switched off, saying so, and pointing you at the setting.
Requirements
Section titled “Requirements”The container needs network access. Steam downloads part of its own interface
on first launch. Without network: bridge on the runtime preset it exits
cleanly, and the session fails with a message about the media path that tells
you nothing useful. The shipped preset sets this. If you built your own, check
it.
Each usable host needs a managed-home root. Discovery scans the mounted host path. Set or confirm it under Admin, Fleet, Hosts; a container-local directory does not provide persistent storage.
Games have to be installed. Open the Steam launcher app, log in, install something, wait for the next scan.
Scanning
Section titled “Scanning”Discovery runs on an interval, 360 minutes by default. Change it with
QUASAR_LIBRARY_SCAN_INTERVAL, in minutes. Setting it to 0 disables scheduled
scans.
You can also trigger a scan from Admin, Library, Sources rather than waiting.
Steam-derived apps
Section titled “Steam-derived apps”Each discovered game becomes a normal catalog app that inherits the Steam container image and gets its launch command pointed at that title.
They behave like any other app from there: entitlements, quality tier restrictions, artwork. Every one of them shares the parent Steam image, so updating that image affects all of them together.
Only Steam, for now
Section titled “Only Steam, for now”The design anticipates other library providers, and specs discuss them, but Steam is the only one that exists. Quasar does not currently support Heroic, RomM or any other source as a provider. Anything else has to be added as an app by hand.