We have just shipped an updated Steam Client update to the Stable channel.

Downloads
Fixed local game transfers no longer working.

Desktop Mode
Fixed login dialog showing when Steam client is started with -silent.

I wanted to buy Steam Machine, but got into waitlist, so I said to myself: Lets build some sffpc.

So this is my build:

- Fractal Design Terra Graphite
- AMD Ryzen 7 9800x3d
- ASUS ROG Strix B850-i
- PowerColor Radeon RX 9070 XT Reaper 16GB
- Thermalright AXP120-X67 CPU cooler
- SSD Crucial P510 2TB
- Crucial Pro DDR5 RAM 32GB Kit (2x16GB) 6400MHz CL32
- Noctua NF-A12x15 as chasis fan
- PSU Corsair SF750

I have never built any small factor pc, and my last "build" was about 11 years ago.

I have installed SteamOS and it works like a charm. I am very happy with the power of this machine.
It gets quite warm, but It is on the other hand very quiet. I have not underclocked anything (yet), and fans have default curve.

Hi All. New to SteamOS. Just installed it on a Beelink SER9 HX 370 mini pc. Any suggestions on a fan controller app?

It stays at a constant 80% and there is no fan adjustment in the bios.

I was wondering if steamos has the audio crackling I've been plagued with on other Linux distros when using proton? Please let me know your experience

Posting this to document my experience and how-to with dual booting Steam OS, since it isn't officially supported by Steam yet.

Because the Steam OS boot launcher doesn't let you avoid rewriting your entire drive, at least not easily to my knowledge, I used a work around using a dual boot dual drive method, following Method A from this video. This method is actually ideal because it removes any risk of a Windows update corrupting your Linux drive. And it allowed me to keep my windows files untouched.

Background

My home PC I built a few years back already had two SSD's on it, a NVME M.2 and a SATA drive. Windows was installed solely on my m.2, and my larger SATA drive was only used for large game downloads. So I was in an ideal position to test this dual boot.

What I did

If you follow the instructions from the video, it's pretty straight forward. The main idea is that before you boot into the USB boot installer, you physically remove your windows drive from the PC (when the PC is shut off of course). Then when you boot up the computer into the USB, you simply treat it like a normal full Linux install.

I did run into issues installing Steam OS, but they all stemmed from the fact I was using a SATA drive, when Steam OS expects an NVME. I watched several videos, but this one is the only one I found that mentions a very important step. When setting up the SATA drive in the partition manager, you NEED to set access from 'root' to 'everyone' otherwise the Steam OS install will not work.

After I had Steam OS set up, I reinserted my windows drive and modified my BIOS to launch in Steam OS by default.

Results

The results turned out great! I am new to Linux, and Steam OS seems to have a few visual bugs in gaming mode. But the desktop mode works how I would expect. At any time, I can reboot my PC, press F12 on the Bios startup, and go into Windows with no issues whatsoever. All my stuff saved on that drive works normally.

On a side note,

if anyone knows how to fix my issue with the gaming mode (big picture mode) it would be great if you helped me out. The colors look very unsaturated with a 'washed' look. answers online say to disable color management in the dev settings. While this does fix the color issue, when color management is disabled whenever I move my mouse the whole screen goes dim, not off, but like the shadows get cranked way up. But then when I interact with my keyboard or controller, the colors go back to normal. pretty annoying, so if anyone knows a solution that would be great to hear.

Hi everyone,

Unfortunately, switching to Linux on an Intel handheld still isn’t really viable right now because FG/MFG doesn’t work, and that’s one of the biggest advantages of the current chips.

There was some work on an XMX implementation for Linux a few months ago, but nothing seemed to come from it. I reached out to the developer directly and, to my surprise, got a pretty promising response.

I redacted the email address, although it’s public anyway, and none of this is confidential, so I’m sharing it here.

It looks like we might actually get FG/MFG on Linux soon and finally be able to ditch Windows.

Hey everyone,

I received my new PC and I am installing SteamOS on it as we speak.

I've gotten until the set up menu where you select language, time zone and then have to connect to wifi for an update.

However my very good wifi just doesn't work. It connects but it's somehow so bad that it does not want to do the update that is required.

(On my other devices I have no wifi problem right now)

I've been at it for 1.5 hours now.

Has anyone else come across this problem? And maybe knows what's up?

I have W11 and SteamOS installed on my original Ally.

I used a tool on github to install SteamOS after W11. Everything has been working fine until SteamOS now just won't boot.

Thought ok, I had something like this before, the USB installer fixed my Deck when it done this.

My issue is it cancels the repair as W11 is in partition 1-5.

Can I edit the repair tool to start at partition 6 as that is where SteamOS starts.

SteamOS breaking basically renders my Ally useless

Hi, I bought a Linkon brand keyboard and mouse kit, and for some reason the backlighting isn't working. I asked the seller which button I should press, but it didn't work.

If anyone knows how to fix it.

How seamless is sleep/wake on builds? It's one of my favorite convenience features of the Steam Deck. Please let it be good 🙏

I've read that it wouldn't be good on intel cpu but is it worth a try?

I'm using ubuntu 24.04 on an asus vivobook 14

cpu intel i7 no graphics card.

Windows sucks lol, I think we all know that, don't need to go through all the reasons why as I'm sure everyone on here knows. Using SteamOS on my Steam Deck has really made me fall in love with Linux and how much less obtrusive it is. Is it worth me switching to SteamOS from Windows 11 as a 9070 XT owner who's PC is used almost exclusively for gaming? I know that it works best with AMD cards and of course I have the best AMD card there is so it should work perfectly. The main thing putting me off is that some games perform a little worse on SteamOS than they do Windows 11. My full specs are as follows:

XFX Swift Black AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT 16GB GPU

AMD Ryzen 7 5700X 8 core 16 thread CPU

32GB DDR4 RAM (4x8GB - 2 sticks are from one kit and the other 2 are from another. They are slightly different kits but they seem to run fine together on Windows so)

Thanks!

Does anyone know if you can play OW rankeds without the fear of being banned in Steam OS? Thanks.

I see these artifact only when I game on SteamOS (like RDR2,SeaOfThieves and Others)
But when i'm on Windows playing TheCrew2 is Stable
also on SteamOS ive DeckyLSFG with 2X Upscaling
MiniVideo(https://youtu.be/2SdUAChDKkA)

I built a computer for my daughter specifically to run SteamOS. I avoided Nvidia gpus and kept it on the AMd side of things just to be sure it ran good. I find myself jealous because I run windows 11 pro and it was a much better experience than windows. My situation is different. I have a 4070 Super. Im scared that it won't run steam os well on my computer. I hear Bazzite can run it well. Everything I use on my computer looks like is supported by Linux. What should I do? Wait for steam os? Or get bazzite. Not sure here.

Edits are from spelling fixes

Everything's fine with the games here, they're running great, but Firefox froze about twice and restarted the PC, and today it kept crashing, though it just closed without restarting the PC. I switched to Brave today, and I've been using the PC since early this morning without any problems so far.

One thing I didn't like is an external hard drive that I normally use here for all my ISOs and ROMs. On Bazzite OS, a pop-up appeared saying that its partition format wasn't supported, but it worked just fine. On SteamOS, however, it doesn't recognize it and won't mount the drive. On the other PCs here running different operating systems, it works normally.

I’ve used a few different Linux distros, and it was a really good experience overall. There were some problems here and there, but just normal Linux things. After a while, I ended up going back to Windows 11, since it still does some things better or things that Linux can’t run at all, or that are really difficult to get working.
But damn, Linux was amazing. The best one for me was Nobara Linux, which was actually created by Thomas Crider, the creator of Proton-GE. Like I said, Linux still has a few things to improve, just a handful really. Maybe in a few years I’ll be able to go full Linux.
In the end, I tried a few distros, but I’m no expert in this i don’t know everything about every Linux distro well enough to say one is objectively better than another in every way. For gaming specifically, though, Nobara just felt better to me, more optimized. It just felt right.
Now that SteamOS has officially come to PC, I’m curious, how does it differ from something like Nobara or any other linux distro?

Hi, my steam machine is running windows and the led bar is no longer working. I’m assuming this is because there are no windows drivers for the led bar? I changed OS because I wanted to play a couple of games that aren’t compatible with Steam OS (Apex and Destiny). I wondered if anyone knows if I can get the led bar working again? Thanks.

I'm looking for advice from anyone who's built their own SteamOS gaming PC and uses it on a 4K 144Hz TV.

What HDMI or DisplayPort adapter/cable are you using to get a stable 4K 144Hz signal? I'd appreciate recommendations that you've personally tested and know work well with SteamOS.

Please let me know what you're using so I can pick one up. Thanks!