VR + Steam + SSH Diagnostic Skill Skill

VR + Steam + SSH Diagnostic Skill

Record of key diagnostic procedures discovered during a live eGPU + Bigscreen Beyond troubleshooting session on an ASUS laptop (AMD Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 / Radeon 8060S iGPU + NVIDIA RTX 5090 eGPU).

Key Hows

1. SSH Session Management

SSH sessions to Windows drop frequently. Reconnect pattern:

ssh bob@<IP>
# password prompt, then Windows cmd shell

Windows SSH drops into cmd.exe, not PowerShell. Wrap all diagnostics in powershell -Command "...".

2. GPU Enumeration (WMIC is deprecated on modern Windows)

Get-CimInstance Win32_VideoController | Select-Object Name, DriverVersion, Status, PNPDeviceID | Format-List

This reveals all GPUs (iGPU + eGPU) and their PCI device IDs.

3. SteamVR Process Inventory

Get-Process -Name 'vr*','steam*' -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Select-Object Name, Id | Format-Table

Key processes: vrserver, vrcompositor, vrdashboard, vrmonitor, steamtours (SteamVR Home), vrwebhelper.

4. Compositor Log Analysis — Which GPU is Rendering

Get-Content 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\logs\vrcompositor.txt' -Tail 200 | Select-String -Pattern 'GPU|adapter|NVIDIA|AMD|Radeon|render|direct|grey|gray|device|Error'

Key lines to look for:

GPU Vendor: "NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090" — confirms render GPU
Headset is using direct mode — correct for most headsets
Error: LiquidVR D3D11CreateDeviceHP3D failed (2) — AMD LiquidVR SDK conflicting with NVIDIA eGPU. Harmless if compositor still uses NVIDIA, but indicates mixed GPU confusion.
Game Info..............FPS Average Target 90 ApplicationTime CPU: 0.000ms — app not submitting frames (grey screen cause)

5. VRDashboard Crash Loop Diagnosis

Get-Content 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\logs\vrdashboard.txt' -Tail 30

Known crash pattern:

GetCursorInfo failed.
Access is denied.
Thread failed to initialize 2
Failed to initialize vrdesktop. Exiting.

Root cause: vrdashboard launched in Session 0 (services/SSH session) cannot access the interactive desktop. Fix: launch SteamVR from the actual desktop, not via SSH. Create a .bat file on the user's desktop:

@echo off
start "" "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steam.exe" steam://rungameid/250820

6. Force GPU Preference for SteamVR Executables

Set Windows Graphics Preferences via registry to force all SteamVR processes onto the eGPU:

$apps = @(
    'C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\SteamVR\bin\win64\vrdashboard.exe',
    'C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\SteamVR\bin\win64\vrcompositor.exe',
    'C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\SteamVR\bin\win64\vrserver.exe',
    'C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\SteamVR\tools\steamvr_environments\game\bin\win64\steamtours.exe',
    'C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steam.exe'
)
$regPath = 'HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\DirectX\UserGpuPreferences'
if (!(Test-Path $regPath)) { New-Item -Path $regPath -Force }
foreach ($app in $apps) {
    if (Test-Path $app) {
        Set-ItemProperty -Path $regPath -Name $app -Value 'GpuPreference=2;' -Force
        Write-Host "Set $app to High Performance GPU"
    }
}

GpuPreference=2 = High Performance (discrete/eGPU). Requires SteamVR restart to take effect.

Important: Don't forget steamtours.exe — it's the SteamVR Home renderer and lives in a different path than the other VR executables. Find its path dynamically:

(Get-Process -Name 'steamtours').Path

7. SteamVR Config File (`steamvr.vrsettings`)

Located at C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\config\steamvr.vrsettings. JSON format. Add forcedGpuIdx to the steamvr section to pin the render GPU:

{
  "steamvr": {
    "forcedGpuIdx": 1
  }
}

GPU index 0 is typically the iGPU, 1 is the eGPU. Verify by checking gpuSpeedVendor in the GpuSpeed section.

8. Lighthouse Tracking Diagnosis

Get-Content 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\logs\vrserver.txt' -Tail 50 | Select-String 'track|base|lighthouse|pose|error|warn|HMD'

If you see:

lighthouse: LHR-XXXXXXXX H: No base stations seen...
lighthouse: LHR-XXXXXXXX H: No optical frames in past 5 seconds

The headset cannot see any base stations. Bigscreen Beyond requires physical Lighthouse base stations — no software workaround exists for actual tracking.

Spoofing options (for testing without base stations):

HoboVR — SteamVR driver that feeds fake pose data
OpenVR-InputEmulator — virtual controllers and pose manipulation

9. Full SteamVR Restart via SSH

Stop-Process -Name 'vrserver','vrcompositor','vrmonitor','vrdashboard','steamtours','vrwebhelper' -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

Then relaunch from the desktop (not SSH) to avoid Session 0 issues.

10. Don't Disable the iGPU

Disabling the iGPU in Device Manager will black out the laptop screen. Only do this if an external monitor or dummy HDMI plug is connected to the eGPU. The GPU preference registry approach (How #6) is the safe alternative.

Diagnostic Decision Tree

Grey screen in headset
├── Check vrcompositor.txt → Which GPU?
│   ├── Wrong GPU → Force GPU preferences (How #6, #7)
│   └── Correct GPU → Continue
├── Check vrdashboard.txt → Crashing?
│   ├── "Access is denied" → Launched from SSH, needs desktop launch (How #5)
│   └── Not crashing → Continue
├── Check vrserver.txt → Tracking?
│   ├── "No base stations seen" → Need base stations or spoof (How #8)
│   └── Tracking OK → Check if steamtours is submitting frames
└── Check compositor "Game Info" line
    ├── CPU: 0.000ms → App not rendering, check GPU preference for steamtours
    └── CPU: >0 → Frames submitting, check headset cable/connection

Agent Skills: VR + Steam + SSH Diagnostic Skill

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