Syncthing on the Steam Deck

Signed-off-by: Xe Iaso <me@xeiaso.net>

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diff --git a/blog/deck-yuzu-syncthing.markdown b/blog/deck-yuzu-syncthing.markdown
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+---
+title: Syncing my emulator saves with Syncthing
+date: 2023-05-26
+---
+
+<xeblog-conv name="Aoi" mood="wut">Hey, can we have Steam cloud saves
+for my Steam Deck to the PC so I can play my emulated games on the go
+without losing progress?</xeblog-conv>
+<xeblog-conv name="Cadey" mood="coffee">No, we have cloud saves at
+home.</xeblog-conv>
+
+Or: cloud saves at home
+
+<xeblog-hero ai="Ligne Claire+Teyvat" file="portable-adventure" prompt="masterpiece, ligne claire, 1girl, green hair, green eyes, hoodie, flat colors, space needle, summer, landscape"></xeblog-hero>
+
+One of the most common upsells in gaming is "cloud saves", or some
+encrypted storage space with your console/platform manufacturer to
+store the save files that games make. Normally Steam, PlayStation,
+Xbox, Nintendo, and probably EA offer this as a service to customers
+because it makes for a _much better_ customer experience as the
+customer migrates between machines. Recently I started playing Dead
+Space 2 on Steam again on a lark and I got to open my old Dead Space 2
+save from college. It's _magic_ when it works.
+
+However, you should know this blog well enough that we're going way
+outside the normal/expected use cases in this case. Today I'm gonna
+show you how to make cloud saves for emulated Switch games at home
+using [Syncthing](https://syncthing.net/) and
+[EmuDeck](https://www.emudeck.com/).
+
+For this example I'm going to focus on the following games:
+
+- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
+- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
+
+I own these two games on cartridge and I have dumped my copy of them
+from cartridge using a hackable Switch.
+
+<xeblog-toot url="https://pony.social/@cadey/110434991652438811"></xeblog-toot>
+
+Here's the other things you will need:
+
+- [Tailscale installed on the Steam
+  Deck](https://gist.github.com/legowerewolf/1b1670457cfac9201ee9d67840952147)
+  (technically optional, but it means you don't need to use a browser
+  on the Deck)
+- A Windows PC running
+  [SyncTrayzor](https://github.com/canton7/SyncTrayzor/releases) or a
+  Linux server running Syncthing (Tailscale will also help in the
+  latter case for reasons that will become obvious)
+- A hackable switch and legal copies of the games you wish to emulate
+
+<xeblog-conv name="Mara" mood="hacker" standalone>Props to
+[@legowerewolf](https://github.com/legowerewolf) for turning the
+[first attempt at getting Tailscale on the
+Deck](https://tailscale.com/blog/steam-deck/) into something a bit
+more robust.</xeblog-conv>
+
+First, set up Syncthing on your PC by either installing SyncTrayzor or
+enabling it in NixOS with this family of settings:
+[`services.syncthing.*`](https://search.nixos.org/options?channel=23.05&from=0&size=50&sort=relevance&type=packages&query=services.syncthing).
+
+At a high level though, here's how to find the right folder with
+Yuzu emulator saves:
+
+- Open Yuzu
+- Right-click on the game
+- Choose Open Save Data Location
+- Go up two levels
+
+This folder will contain a bunch of sub-folders with title
+identifiers. That is where the game-specific save data is located. On
+my Deck this is the following:
+
+```
+/home/deck/Emulation/saves/yuzu/saves/0000000000000000/
+```
+
+Your random UUID will be different than mine will be. We will handle
+this in a later step. Write this path down or copy it to your
+scratchpad.
+
+## Installing Syncthing on the Deck
+
+Next, you will need to install Syncthing on your Deck. There are
+several ways to do this, but I think the most direct way will be to
+install it in your user folder as a [systemd user
+service](https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Systemd/User).
+
+<xeblog-conv name="Mara" mood="hacker" standalone>User services are
+one of the truly standout features of systemd. They allow you to have
+the same benefits of systemd's service management but for things owned
+by _you_. This lets you get mounts for things like your network
+storage mounts, grouping with targets so that you only enable some
+things while gaming, and more.</xeblog-conv>
+
+SSH into your Deck and download the [most recent release of
+Syncthing](https://syncthing.net/downloads/).
+
+```
+wget https://domain.tld/path/syncthing-linux-amd64-<version>.tar.gz
+```
+
+Extract it with `tar xf`:
+
+```
+tar xf syncthing-linux-amd64-<version>.tar.gz
+```
+
+Then enter the folder:
+
+```
+cd syncthing-linux-amd64-<version>
+```
+
+Make a folder in ~ called `bin`, this is where Syncthing will live:
+
+```
+mkdir -p ~/bin
+```
+
+Move the Syncthing binary to `~/bin`:
+
+```
+mv syncthing ~/bin/
+```
+
+Then create a Syncthing user service at
+`~/.config/systemd/user/syncthing.service`:
+
+```
+[Unit]
+Description=Syncthing - Open Source Continuous File Synchronization
+Documentation=man:syncthing(1)
+StartLimitIntervalSec=60
+StartLimitBurst=4
+
+[Service]
+ExecStart=/home/deck/bin/syncthing serve --no-browser --no-restart --logflags=0
+Restart=on-failure
+RestartSec=1
+SuccessExitStatus=3 4
+RestartForceExitStatus=3 4
+
+# Hardening
+SystemCallArchitectures=native
+MemoryDenyWriteExecute=true
+NoNewPrivileges=true
+
+# Elevated permissions to sync ownership (disabled by default),
+# see https://docs.syncthing.net/advanced/folder-sync-ownership
+#AmbientCapabilities=CAP_CHOWN CAP_FOWNER
+
+[Install]
+WantedBy=default.target
+```
+
+And then start it once to make the configuration file:
+
+```
+systemctl --user start syncthing.service
+sleep 2
+systemctl --user stop syncthing.service
+```
+
+<xeblog-conv name="Cadey" mood="enby" standalone>If you aren't using
+Tailscale on your Deck, click [here](#postTailscale) to skip past this
+step.</xeblog-conv>
+
+Now we need to set up Tailscale Serve to point to Syncthing and let
+Syncthing allow the Tailscale DNS name. Open the syncthing 
+configuration file with vim, your favorite text editor:
+
+```
+vim ~/.config/syncthing/config.xml
+```
+
+In the `<gui>` element, add the following configuration:
+
+```xml
+<insecureSkipHostcheck>true</insecureSkipHostcheck>
+```
+
+<xeblog-conv name="Mara" mood="hacker" standalone>Normally this is a
+somewhat bad idea, but we're going to be exposing things over
+Tailscale so it doesn't matter as much. This check makes sure that the
+HTTP Host header from your browser matches "localhost" so that only
+someone sitting at that machine can access it.</xeblog-conv>
+
+Next, configure Tailscale Serve with this command:
+
+```
+sudo tailscale serve https / http://127.0.0.1:8384
+```
+
+This will make every request to `https://yourdeck.tailnet.ts.net` go
+directly to Syncthing.
+
+<span id="postTailscale"></span>
+
+Next, enable the Syncthing unit to automatically start on boot:
+
+```
+systemctl --user enable syncthing --now
+```
+
+<xeblog-conv name="Mara" mood="hacker" standalone>The `--now` flag
+will also issue a `systemctl start` command for you!</xeblog-conv>
+
+## Syncing the things
+
+Once Syncthing is running on both machines, open Syncthing's UI on
+your PC. You should have both devices open in the same screen for the
+best effect (this is where Tailscale Serve helps).
+
+You will need to pair the devices together. If Syncthing is running on
+both machines, then choose "Add remote device" and select the device
+that matches the identification on the other machine. You will need to
+do this for both sides.
+
+Once you do that, you need to configure syncing your save folder. Make
+a new synced folder with the "Add Folder" button and it will open a
+modal dialog box.
+
+Give it a name and choose a memorable folder ID such as "yuzu-saves".
+Copy the path from your scratchpad into the folder path.
+
+Then make a new shared folder on your PC pointing to the same location
+(two levels up from yorur game save folder found via Yuzu). Give it the
+same name and ID, but change the path as needed.
+
+Next, on your Deck's Syncthing edit that folder with the edit button
+and change over to the Sharing tab. Select your PC and check it. Click
+Save and then it will trigger a sync. This will copy all your data
+between both machines.
+
+If you want, you can also set up a sync for the Yuzu `nand` folder.
+This will automatically sync over dumped firmware and game updates. I
+do this so that this is more effortless for me, but your needs may
+differ. Also feel free to set up syncing for other emulators like
+Dolphin.
+
+<xeblog-conv name="Numa" mood="delet" standalone>Cloud saves at
+home!</xeblog-conv>
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