Customize Steam Deck Performance Overlay

SFTP into your deck

If you haven't set a password for your Steam Deck default user account you will need to get into Desktop Mode, open the terminal and type passwd. Enter the password you want to use and write it down somewhere. I suggest you enable SSH/SFTP so you can access your SD from your PC. From the terminal type sudo systemctl start sshd to start sftp. Now enter sudo systemctl enable sshd so that it starts when the SD boots up. SSH allows you to open a "shell" from you PC and execute terminal commands. SFTP allows file access remotely.

Download a SFTP client such as Filezilla or Cyberduck (These both run on Windows and MacOS). Use steamdeck.local or replace steamdeck with whatever you have renamed your Steam Deck. Enter the password you had set with passwd.

Edit the preset.conf file

Navigate to the /home/deck/.config folder. Open the MangoHud folder or create it if it doesn't exist. Edit the file preset.conf or create it if it doesn't exist.

Example: Change Preset 1 to show FPS and Battery Percentage:

[preset 1]
control=mangohud
legacy_layout=0
horizontal
fps
battery
hud_no_margin

Here are the "variables" you can add/remove per line in the preset.conf file: MangoHud variables