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Steam Deck and JRiver

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Doc4:
Hi, I use my MC master license on several machines and am pretty happy with it. One of the devices I use it on is a steam deck, which doesn't by default support any existing distribution of media center since there is no flatpak, and since regular OS updates wipe any changes to the immutable system partition since the last update (breaking programs like media center if you disable read only to install them) make the AUR install script unfeasible, I've opted to install it via a program available on github called distrobox. It's a program that uses podman to install other linux distributions like debian in a sandbox, and install apps inside those distributions which you can run mostly seamlessly from the host desktop.

With all this DIY solution junk out of the way, it works fairly well once configured correctly, and makes steam deck a very effective portable media center. Even theater mode displays correctly, which is a problem I had on many other linux distros normally. My problem is today is the second time I've seen the program randomly become unlicensed despite no major system changes or reconfigurations. I'd rather not keep burning restore uses over an unpredictable technical issue that causes no further problems.

Anyone have any ideas on what if anything might have made it deactivate, and what I might be able to do about this? IIRC JRiver has said they have no plans to release a flatpak version, and while I think it's quite technically possible and that the sandboxing in flatpak doesn't make it unfeasible, it would be simpler to fix the currently mostly working use case. Thanks for reading.

BryanC:
Why not just run a normal (non-immutable) Linux distro on the Deck? And if you don't want to do that, have you tried using podman directly in conjunction with max096's container? https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,136004.0.html

You've got several layers of abstraction going on, my guess is that when distrobox pulls a new OS image, from MC's perspective it's basically a new machine. I'm not familiar enough with that piece of software to know if there are workarounds or if it supports persistence in any form.

Also, JRiver will provide more restores if you ask, so don't worry about that.

bob:
Disable MAC address randomization if it's enabled.

Doc4:
Thank you both for your input, I looked into MAC address randomization and whether or not it was being used on either the OS or the guest OS, couldn't find any evidence that it was. IIRC, MAC randomization is more frequent than every few months, so I'd expect this problem to happen more if it were enabled, but I might be wrong about that.

I'd prefer not using another distro, as it would then forego the benefits of somewhat low level hardware control in an easy to use interface, and several other features of which no other distros I'm aware of have. The closest I know of is ChimeraOS. Disabling readonly on the system partition would cause far more problems than it would solve, and certainly result in having to reinstall MC every time a major system update installs, a slightly worse version of the existing problem. I generally hold off on updating the container itself or any packages, so there should be no major modifications to the system environment there.

As for why I don't use the docker container, I'm not super familiar with using podman manually, but would that result in a usable GUI? I'd considered using the docker image for a central headless server on a different machine, not also as a client. I'd also be worried about missing dependencies, as steamOS does have several packages it doesn't ship with. Said packages would also be needed to use the AUR script, which then means I'm stuck back at the host system package manager being off limits problem. Was tricky to devise a solution that even let me get this far ;D

Awesome Donkey:
I have a feeling this may be unavoidable, I think Bryan's right, it pulls a new OS image, and then registration is lost because it's a 'new' system. Ultimately you may be better off temporarily enabling write support, then build a MC package and install it, then disable write support. From there once you get everything setup, I'd close MC and make a backup of the .jriver folder somewhere if/when the OS updates wipes everything, you can restore your settings. It's a bit of a pain, yeah, but it's probably going to be better than it is now.

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