this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2026
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I'm messing around with my OrangePi5 again, gonna experiment with Armbian and DietPi again. As both offer a minimal installer, I'll want to add a DE, or at least a graphical interface that can run at boot and let me control it with a bluetooth controller.

If not a full DE, just what packages should I experiment with?

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[–] Die4Ever@retrolemmy.com 27 points 1 week ago (2 children)
[–] sorghum@sh.itjust.works 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I've been following this for a while. When the bubble pops, I'm building a HTPC running this

[–] kugmo@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] sorghum@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 week ago

If it doesn't, then it will be profitable to build fabs to break the cartel. The US greatly ramped up oil production the last oil crisis to become the most oil producing nation using fracking despite OPEC. We're watching the beginning of the same with China with CXMT and likely others to follow.

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 4 points 1 week ago

It looks really nice, gonna give that one a try. Do you know how much RAM it takes while running?

[–] Sanctus@anarchist.nexus 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

My steam controller will act as a keyboard and mouse. I wonder if theres just a cheaper, more available controller out there that does whatever it is the steam controller is doing. It seems to work regardless of the DE, shit even the OS as it does it on my Linux computer and my work windows computer. If there is something like that it might be the way to go.

[–] Davel23@fedia.io 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That's a function of the Steam client, not the controller itself. I doubt you'd want to have that running on an Orange Pi.

[–] Sanctus@anarchist.nexus 5 points 1 week ago

Its actually a fallback built into the controller, I am having trouble locating another like that.

[–] sbeak@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I use ES-DE to access all my retro titles and such. You can use it with RetroArch and now you have an awesome emulation thing!

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 1 points 1 week ago

Looks like a good option, gonna give it a try

[–] carotte@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 week ago (2 children)

kde can be controlled with a gamepad (tho it’s a setting you need to activate first), but in my experience it was pretty janky. maybe it’s better now? it’s an option to consider, at least

they also have plasma bigscreen which works better with a controller, but since it’s pretty recent (iirc it only got added in plasma 6.7, the latest major release) i doubt it will be in debian’s repos

[–] sorghum@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 week ago

*Recently revived. It was abandoned but thankfully it's coming along now, just in time for the SFC v. Vizio lawsuit getting going so we can hopefully get builds for TV os's running this soon.

[–] MagnificentSteiner@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 week ago

It was in Debian 12 but removed from 13 because it hadn't been updated in a while (was still Plasma 5). It's been seeing quite a few updates for months now so it should be back in Debian soon I imagine.

[–] SnailMagnitude@mander.xyz 3 points 1 week ago

retroarch, faugus & kodi might be worth a peek

[–] chronicledmonocle@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

Plasma BigScreen or Flex Launcher

[–] jimmy90@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

bazzite can be installed in steam mode so it's controller friendly console like experience

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 2 points 1 week ago

Bazzite is only for x86_64, orange pi has an ARM processor, RK3588S

[–] rozodru@piefed.world 1 points 1 week ago

KDE Plasma. TheBlackDon on youtube does this with KDE/his KineticWe setup using a Steam controller.

An option to consider: LibreElec does this with Kodi, and Kodi itself can be used for this. LibreElec can be set up for a controller from boot.

The downside with Kodi is it's a bit clunky to do anything other than play media, but it can be used to launch games reasonably well or even launch a dedicated gaming interface like RetroArch for a good interface for games.

I'm sure you could achieve what LibreElec achieves using Armbian and DietPi if you're willing to spend some time configuring things.

[–] Auster@thebrainbin.org 1 points 1 week ago

Directly, not familiar with any (unless you're willing to mess with SBC Android), but I would try using AntimicroX, a program to remap controller keys as keyboard keys and mouse commands, and then set it to auto-start.

[–] Davel23@fedia.io 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Do you have an existing controller you're planning to use, or will you be buying one? There are many small, inexpensive combination keyboards and track pads which work via Bluetooth or come with a 2.4 Ghz dongle. I picked one up for about $20 a couple of years back and it works great.

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 1 points 1 week ago

Already got a bunch I bought mainly for playing on PC and Switch, a "G6 Wireless Controller" which, despite being cheap, works great.

I do have a wireless keyboard with a builtin trackpad, but what I want is to be able to just turn the little board on, connect the controller and get going

[–] tal@lemmy.today 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I can't tell you how to do it under Wayland off the cuff, but you can map a controller's analog stick to act like a mouse. It's a little clumsy, but that'll let you use any mouse-oriented DE.

Some gamepads, like the PS5's controller and I assume the Steam Controller, have touchpads built into the controller that work as pointing devices.

If you don't specifically want only a gamepad, I'd probably use a trackball or touchpad and maybe keyboard, as a trackball can be used from a couch, lile a gamepad.