protonscr

Cannot set different launch options for mutliple non-steam shortcuts that point to the same executable

steamopen reviewednon-Steam application
ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux#4666 · opened 2016-10-15 by GlacialTurtle · updated 2023-01-26 · 1 comments · github
GGlacialTurtle 2016-10-15 github
  • Steam client version: Built Oct 13
  • Distribution: Ubuntu 16.04 and Antergos Arch
  • Opted into Steam client beta?: Yes
  • Have you checked for system updates?: Yes

If you have multiple shortcuts to a non-steam application that all point to the same executable, you cannot set different launch options for them, even if they are all titled differently.

For example, if you create multiple shortcuts to an emulator, whether directly to the executable, .sh file or a .desktop launcher, each with a different launch option to launch different games, and each with a different title (e.g. Super Mario Bros. vs The Legend of Zelda), Steam will not remember the different launch options. Instead, it will simply set all shortcuts to that executable to the last launch option that you set for any related shortcut, so all shortcuts to the NES emulator will launch Super Mario Bros. even if you don't edit the Zelda shortcut.

You can test this with multiple different applications e.g. adding .desktop files created by PlayOnLinux for playing wine games, or .desktop files created by Lutris. They all point to the PlayOnLinux or Lutris executable and use launch options to launch different programs/games, but all unique launch options are lost when added to Steam so they all do the same thing.

Note that this used to work fine a long time ago, but was broken at some point and has never been fixed.

Mmdeguzis 2016-10-15 github

Like of some relevance: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/SteamOS/wiki/Working-with-non-Steam-games , maybe the launch options are not read, as is the case with SteamOS/Debian.

Nothing extracted yet.