docs/hosts/console.md

@@ -150,13 +150,12 @@ Steam titles. Added as Steam shortcuts they appear in Big Picture and inherit
 Steam Input, so the controller works in them without further configuration.
 
 Steam's own **Games → Add a Non-Steam Game** is the documented route and is also
-the one that tends not to work. Both that dialog's **Browse** button and the
+the one that does not work here: the dialog never appears at all. That dialog's
-library-folder picker below go through the XDG desktop portal `FileChooser`
+file browsing goes through the XDG desktop portal `FileChooser` interface, and
-interface; when the portal is unreachable the client silently falls back to a
+when the portal is unreachable the client falls back to a legacy chooser that is
-legacy chooser that is blank or inert — Valve
+blank or inert — Valve
-[#9447](https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/9447) and
+[#9447](https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/9447), not fixed.
-[#10415](https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/10415), neither
+Check the portal side before blaming the client:
-fixed. Check the portal side before blaming the client:
 
 ```sh
 busctl --user introspect org.freedesktop.portal.Desktop \
@@ -297,22 +296,56 @@ RetroArch is pointed at these paths declaratively. The other two have to be told
 once, in their own UIs:
 
 - **Steam** — Settings → Storage → the `+` control → add `/srv/games/steam` as a
-  library folder. Games installed there survive a reinstall of the OS. That
+  library folder. Games installed there survive a reinstall of the OS. See
-  picker is the broken one described under
+  [When Steam will not register the library folder](#when-steam-will-not-register-the-library-folder)
-  [Adding non-Steam titles to Big Picture](#adding-non-steam-titles-to-big-picture);
+  below; it does not currently take.
-  when it comes up blank, use Steam's own console instead — open Steam with
-  `steam -console`, pick the **CONSOLE** tab and run:
-
-  ```
-  library_folder_add /srv/games/steam
-  ```
-
-  The directory must already exist and be writable by the user Steam runs as,
-  which `systemd.tmpfiles` guarantees. The command does not create it.
 
 - **Clone Hero** — set the song library path to `/srv/games/clonehero/songs` from
   its settings screen. Clone Hero keeps its own config in `~/.clonehero`.
 
+### When Steam will not register the library folder
+
+Current behaviour on this host: the file picker opens, Steam creates the
+directory structure at `/srv/games/steam`, and the library then never appears in
+the Storage UI. So this is not the portal problem the non-Steam-game dialog has
+— the picker works and Steam can write. The failure is in the validation Steam
+runs before it records the folder in `libraryfolders.vdf`.
+
+That validation is a write-and-execute probe: Steam drops a
+`.steam_exec_test.sh` in the candidate folder, marks it executable and runs it.
+If either step fails the folder is silently dropped, which is
+[#8450](https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/8450) and is
+usually a `noexec` mount or an ownership problem — neither of which is obviously
+true here, since `/srv` is on the ext4 root and the tree is
+`lyrathorpe:users` 2775.
+
+Reproduce the probe **inside Steam's FHS sandbox**, which is where the client
+actually runs it — `steam-run` is installed by the steam module for exactly this
+kind of thing:
+
+```sh
+steam-run sh -c '
+  printf "#!/bin/sh\nexit 0\n" > /srv/games/steam/.steam_exec_test.sh &&
+  chmod +x /srv/games/steam/.steam_exec_test.sh &&
+  /srv/games/steam/.steam_exec_test.sh &&
+  echo "probe ok"
+'
+rm -f /srv/games/steam/.steam_exec_test.sh
+```
+
+Then ask the client directly. Steam's console reports a reason where the UI
+says nothing — open Steam with `steam -console`, pick the **CONSOLE** tab and
+run:
+
+```
+library_folder_add /srv/games/steam
+```
+
+The directory must already exist and be writable by the user Steam runs as,
+which `systemd.tmpfiles` guarantees; the command does not create it. Whatever it
+prints, plus `~/.steam/steam/logs/content_log.txt`, is the evidence to work
+from.
+
 ## Steam and Proton
 
 `programs.steam.enable` already arranges most of what Proton needs, and it is
@@ -407,9 +440,13 @@ The machine is installed and Sway works. Still outstanding:
   and `__GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME=nvidia`, the standard fix, but the combination
   has a history of needing more. Read `journalctl -b -t steam-session` first —
   see [When the television lands on ReGreet instead of Steam](#when-the-television-lands-on-regreet-instead-of-steam).
-- **Steam's file pickers do not open** — both the non-Steam-game **Browse**
+- **Steam will not register `/srv/games/steam` as a library folder.** The picker
-  dialog and the library-folder picker. Upstream client bugs with usable
+  opens and the directory structure gets created; the library never appears in
-  workarounds; see the two sections above.
+  the Storage UI. Not the portal — see
+  [When Steam will not register the library folder](#when-steam-will-not-register-the-library-folder).
+- **Steam's Add a Non-Steam Game dialog never appears.** Separate symptom,
+  probably the portal `FileChooser`; `steamtinkerlaunch` writes the shortcuts
+  without it in the meantime.
 - **Boot into Big Picture has not been exercised**, since autologin has not run.
 - **Television resolution and refresh.** gamescope takes the output's native
   mode by default. Add `gamescopeSession.args = [ "-W" "3840" "-H" "2160" "-r"