So, you found a bunch of startup videos for your Deck that you like. Maybe you found them over on Steam Deck Repo. But perhaps you’re a bit disappointed that you can only use one startup video at a time.

Well, the good news is you can randomize the startup video each time you turn the Deck on. This way, you always have something fresh to watch. And it’s relatively simple. Here’s how to do it. As usual with most of my Deck tutorials, I highly recommend docking your device and connecting a keyboard and mouse.

1. Get Your Videos⌗

Steam Deck Repo is the perfect place to get custom startup videos for your Deck. Download a bunch – whatever you want. No need to truncate these files or convert them; just place them in ~/.steam/root/config/uioverrides/movies/ (you may need to create the latter two folders if they’re not there already).

2. Create a Startup Service File⌗

We need to create a .service file which will automatically execute a custom script that we’re going to make each time the Deck is turned on or restarted. In a terminal, run:

nano ~/.config/systemd/user/switch_startup_vids.service

Paste the following contents in this new file:

[Unit]
Description=Switches startup videos

[Service]
ExecStart=/bin/bash /home/deck/./update_boot_vid.sh

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

Save the file with CTRL + O. Then exit Nano with CTRL + X.

Now we need to run a command to enable this service to run at boot time:

systemctl --user enable switch_startup_vids

3. Create a Script to Randomize Startup Video⌗

Navigate back to your home directory in the terminal:

cd ~

Create a new bash script:

nano update_boot_vid.sh

Paste the following contents into the new file:

#!/bin/bash

VID_PATH=~/.steam/root/config/uioverrides/movies

if [ -f ~/.last_boot_vid ]; then
        mv "$VID_PATH"/deck_startup.webm "$VID_PATH"/$(cat ~/.last_boot_vid)
fi

RANDOM_VID=$(ls "$VID_PATH" | sort -R | head -1)
echo "$RANDOM_VID" > ~/.last_boot_vid

mv "$VID_PATH"/"$RANDOM_VID" "$VID_PATH"/deck_startup.webm

Save the script with CTRL + O, then exit the editor with CTRL + X. Make the script executable:

chmod +x update_boot_vid.sh

Then run it:

./update_boot_vid.sh

You can verify if it worked by going to your /uioverrides/movies/ folder and playing the deck_startup.webm file. Play this same file each time you run the script to ensure the startup video has changed.

Restart your Deck, and confirm if the boot video changes on each startup.

Thanks to u/Mounir9912 for the original tutorial. I had to modify the contents a little bit (for instance, it’s very important that you add the / to ExecStart=/bin/bash /home/deck/./update_boot_vid.sh in the service file, otherwise the service won’t run the script).

EDIT (10/13/2022): if you happen to understand German you can also view Steam Deck Checker’s guide in video format. He also has an English version.