Disabling Steam Link Auto-Standby

There was a reddit post a week or two ago that was having trouble keeping their Link on while watching youtube. I posted a fix in there but forgot to make it more public for others with the same issue to find. So if your Steam Link is automatically turning off / hibernating / standby / shutdown / suspending whatever you want to call it there is a temporary fix until Valve adds a setting for it.

The steam link is set to enter a suspended state after 15 minutes of inactivity by default, the defaults can be changed with two files though. Create two files, name one `suspend_timeout_idle.txt` and the other `suspend_timeout_interactive.txt`. These two files will contain the number of seconds before the Link will ask if you're still using the device, and the other file is the time before the Link will auto-standby without asking. I still haven't entirely figured out why there's two files yet but by default both of them are set to 900 seconds so I just keep them the same value with no issues. It seems to use the interactive one first to ask the user and then the idle one has a clamped minimum of ~60 seconds before it will auto-standby; after asking the user if they're still there.

Then in those two files (suspend_timeout_idle.txt and suspend_timeout_interactive.txt) put the number of seconds you want your Link to be on before it goes into standby. I use 7200 for 2 hours but you can use any integer value, if you want you can even use 43200 for 12 hours; doesn't matter.

Then put those two files onto a pendrive in these folders /steamlink/config/system/ So you'll have three folders, the two txt files need to go into the system folder, which is in the config folder, which is in the steamlink folder.

From there just un-plug your Link and insert the pendrive. Then re-plug in your Link and after it boots it should read the two files and stop standing by after 15 minutes. This should persist permanently unless you do a factory reset or a future update removes the support for it or the files themselves.

Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 25, 2015 at 11:47 AM

    Hi there,

    I have tried to do this, without success.

    I have tried multiple drives, formatting them everytime. Making 3 folder inside each other.. /steamlink/config/system and placing the files in system.

    I downpower the unit, insert drive, repower and leave the drive in. go to the web, start streaming and the unit will turn off after 15 minutes. i am currently using 43200 in the text files for 12 hours.

    If you could come back to me with further help i would appreciate it.

    Thanks
    Connor

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AaronNovember 25, 2015 at 12:02 PM

      If you have 'hide file extensions' enabled in windows try naming the files without the .txt.

      As in suspend_timeout_idle and suspend_timeout_interactive.

      Delete
  2. karin.de.rooij@aafje.nlJanuary 3, 2018 at 10:14 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  3. karin.de.rooij@aafje.nlJanuary 3, 2018 at 10:19 AM

    you can also go whit filezila to /mnt/config/system and you can change the files there

    if you have ssh enabled

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownJanuary 11, 2018 at 7:09 AM

    Here is a workaround:

    http://wiki1337.pythonanywhere.com/steam-link-disable-shutdown-suspend-timeout

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Removing Steam Link Bandwidth Limit

A reddit thread brought to my attention that there is a bandwidth limit on the steam link. I've finally figured out where the stream settings are saved and how to read / write them.You will also have to make one file called streaming_args.txt, I'll explain below. streaming_settings.bin  This config file has its maximum_bitrate_kbps set to 0. Which signifies no limit. streaming_settings_100000.bin  This config file has its maximum_bitrate_kbps set to 100,000 for 100mbps. To use these you can either scp them into your /mnt/config/system/ folder as streaming_settings.bin or you can put the file on a USB pendrive as /steamlink/config/system/streaming_settings.bin and reboot with the pendrive inserted. (Note: You need to hard 'reboot' un-plug and re-plug the power, you should see the steamlink on a blue background icon thing.) To see if it worked goto your Streaming settings and press Y to go into Advanced Settings. If it worked your Bandwidth Limit row wil...
Read more

Root and SSH Access on the Steam Link

Alright this was a lot easier than I expected. Thanks Valve! After digging through the full 332 update zip I found that Valve left their developer init scripts in /etc/init.d/startup. Not sure if they did this intentionally or not but I like it. So first and foremost I was wrong about the Android AOSP thing, it looks like its just a custom linux and the android stuff I was seeing earlier was just from them using the android signing utility for their updates. Basically they use signapk on their zip files which leaves some android stuff in META-INF. So sorry about the false alarm there. As for enabling ssh on your Steam Link its very easy. All you need to do is get a pendrive and make this file in these folders: /steamlink/config/system/enable_ssh.txt (Note: the file must have some data in it, if enable_ssh.txt is empty it will not work) Then reboot the Steam Link with the pendrive inserted, after its done connecting to the network you can ssh into the Steam Link as root with the p...
Read more

Arch Linux Chroot on Steam Link (Easy Setup)

Alright, this should be a much more user-friendly method of getting an Arch Linux chroot going on your steam link. But by doing it this way you're going to have to have some trust in me as we're going to be downloading and running a shell script that could potentially screw up your Steam Link. Its very un-likely though, more likely is losing important data on any storage devices you may have plugged into the Link. So first things first you're going to need a USB HDD or pendrive that you don't care about as all of the data on it needs to be wiped. After you're certain that this storage device has nothing important on it plug it into the steam link. Then you're going to need SSH access to your steam link, after you've SSH'd into your steam link do `busybox sh` to switch to a better shell with tab auto-completion. Now do `cd` to enter /home/steam/ then do `wget http://fgthou.se/steamlink/create-chroot-device.sh` to download my script that will automate t...
Read more