u/maishu1

Hi everyone, I’m trying to get Red Dead Redemption 2 working on my Steam Deck and I’ve been stuck since yesterday.

Version: Epic Games version
Bought from: Green gift, redeemed through Epic Games
Launcher: Heroic Games Launcher
Heroic version: 2.22.1

The problem:
In Gaming Mode, when I try to launch RDR2 through Heroic/its Steam shortcut, I get:
“Steam failed to initialize. Please verify that the Steam client is running and try again.”
Then it says:
“Unable to launch game. Please try reinstalling the game.”
The game does launch from Heroic in Desktop Mode, so the game itself appears to be installed correctly.

What I’ve tried:
Added RDR2 to Steam as a Non-Steam Game
Added Heroic Games Launcher to Steam
Tried launching RDR2 directly from Gaming Mode
Tried launching it through Heroic
Disable UMU is already ON
Added environment variable:
USE_FAKE_EPIC_EXE= true
Restarted the Steam Deck
Tried different Wine/Proton settings
Installed Proton-GE and tried it
My current Wine prefix is:
/home/deck/Games/Eroot prefixes/reddeadredemption2
Tried adding/removing the Steam shortcut
Tried Gaming Mode and Desktop Mode

Another problem:
When I launch the game in Desktop Mode, Rockstar Games Launcher opens, but I cannot type into the Rockstar login fields.
The Steam Deck virtual keyboard appears, but pressing the letters doesn’t enter anything into Rockstar.
I also tried Steam Link from my iPhone to control the Deck. That lets me type, but the @ symbol gets entered as 2, and copy/paste doesn’t work through Steam Link.
I have never logged into my Rockstar account on this Steam Deck before.

I’m completely stuck at this point. 😭
Has anyone successfully gotten the Epic version of RDR2 working through Heroic 2.22.1 on Steam Deck, especially in Gaming Mode? Is there a workaround for the Rockstar launcher keyboard/input problem?
I don’t want to reinstall the entire game because it already works/launches from Heroic in Desktop Mode.
Any help would be massively appreciated