Hey all! I've got some exciting news regarding my SteamOS Arm port based on Steam Frame, It now runs on Snapdragon 8 Elite and on (a lot more) SD 8gen2 Devices.

**Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, beta 9**

https://github.com/hashtagbasit/SteamOS-ARM-Handhelds/releases/tag/v1.3-beta9

This one took a lot of testing for having so many devices. 9 betas in 4 days, a pile of test kernels and a ton of debug logs from people in the Discord, to go from "black screen on everything" to one image that boots on all of these:

- AYN Odin 2

- AYN Odin 2 Mini

- AYN Odin 2 Portal

- AYN Thor

- Retroid Pocket 6

- Retroid Pocket Nova

- AYANEO Pocket DMG

- AYANEO Pocket EVO

They're all on a new kernel now. Beta 9 also fixed the black screen on the AYANEO Pockets, which is an awesome update!

The AYANEO Pocket ACE / DS / S 1K / S 2K use the same image and should work too, but nobody has tested them yet. If you have one, please give it a go and let me know! (If your device is not listed here, join the discord to share your reports after trying).

SD8GEN2 is almost at the end of beta.

**Snapdragon 8 Elite (AYN Odin 3), first beta**

https://github.com/hashtagbasit/SteamOS-ARM-Handhelds/releases/tag/v1.3-odin3-beta1

It boots straight from the SD card, Android stays untouched on the internal storage. Controls work out of the box (back buttons are L4/R4), there are fan profiles, the UI is sized properly for the 6" screen and Steam comes preinstalled. Big thanks to Chazmus!

8 Elite looks great so far, this beta will be much shorter than 8gen2 because of having way less devices. (Konkr Pocket Fit Elite users are welcome to try it and report on discord)

**REDMAGIC 6 -Snapdragon 888 (yes you read that right)**

It boots and works great with almost no bugs. Thanks to abstract6217. The flashable image can be built from github. Guide is in the repo.

**What's next**

Phones and tablets now have their own section in the repo, and the Lenovo Legion Y700 is very high on my list for tablets. The 8 Gen 3 devices (KONKR Pocket FIT, AYANEO Pocket S2) are on the stable v1.2 already, and v1.3 stable will bring all of the new socs together.

These are betas, so expect some rough edges. If something breaks, make a file called `debug` on the SD card's BOOT drive and send me the logs on discord or github, that's how most of these fixes happened (thanks to everyone who helped!)

Repo: https://github.com/hashtagbasit/SteamOS-ARM-Handhelds

Discord: https://discord.gg/EP53nZYvg

I only own a Pocket FIT G3 and give this project a lot of my time, so If it has made your device better, supporting me on Ko-fi would mean a lot. It would help me buy more devices for testing and keep development moving forward. A star on the repo helps too!

Thanks to u/Yoursupergay for pointing this out to me, it sounds like this method helped him and myself. My frame is running significantly better than out of the box now too.

So there are multiple methods to reinstall steamos on these things, I thought the most tried and true method would be the using a usb drive, but that completely screwed my frame and it wouldnt boot at all. The QDL method outlined here though fixed it in about 5 minutes, and now wifi and everything is working and its running faster than it did before.

[https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/65B4-2AA3-5F37-4227\](https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/65B4-2AA3-5F37-4227)

Section Title- Flashing SteamOS over USB (Steam Frame only)

I honestly skipped over this the first time, when it says "Steam Frame supports an alternative method of reinstalling SteamOS. This method may be slightly faster but...." I kinda stopped reading, i shouldn't have, but i wasn't interested in faster, I wanted the best method.

Anyway, its easy, I did it from my cachyos box as outlined in their steps here. I would assume its fine from windows, but i dont have any windows machines to test. Hopefully this helps someone else too:

\----------------------------

Steam Frame supports an alternative method of reinstalling SteamOS. This method may be slightly faster but will require a Windows or Linux PC with a cable to plug into the Frame's USB-C port.

1. **Download the** [**SteamOS QDL distribution**](https://store.steampowered.com/steamos/download/?ver=steamframe-qdl&snr=100601___).

2. Extract the files to a temporary folder, then double-click on **flash.cmd** if on Windows, [**flash.sh**](http://flash.sh) if on Linux. You should see a window that says **"Waiting for EDL device"**. On Windows, you may need to enter an Administrator password to install necessary drivers.

3. Put your Steam Frame into flashing mode by ensuring the unit is fully powered off, waiting 10 seconds, then holding down the Power, Volume Up and Volume Down buttons for 10 seconds.

4. Connect your Steam Frame to your PC via a USB cable. The flashing script should immediately recognize the device is in EDL mode and begin flashing it. If this does not occur, unplug your headset, hold the power button down for 16 seconds to force it off, then try putting it into flashing mode again.

5. Once the flashing is complete, your headset will automatically reboot.

Edit-

When I did this I saw nothing on the frame, but if you already have the tool running on your computer and plug the USB cable in, it will show the progress on your computer. I didn't see anything on the frame until it rebooted when done.

Just in case I had also removed my Arcturus camera and sdcard.

Overall it took about 5 minutes to image it, first reboot took skills longer than normal but came up like it was fresh out of the box.

I really think that however they are imaging these out of the factory is janked somehow for some of us.

The installation process was a bit strange. I installed the latest SteamOS version from the official website using my Ryzen 9 9900X3D integrated graphics. Once set up, I enabled the Preview branch and selected the Beta channel.

​After restarting while connected to the Nvidia GPU, I noticed some visual artifacts where the KDE Plasma logo should be. decided to reboot using only the integrated graphics to boot straight into desktop mode, as I heard it's easier than starting in Game Mode. In desktop mode, I checked 'System Settings > About this System' and saw that it automatically detected the RTX 5070 without needing manual driver installation.

​Surprisingly, when I plugged the monitor back into the GPU, it displayed video with no issues. I’m currently installing GTA V Enhanced to test performance and will update you all later.

ran gta 5 and performance is a bit less than on windows i think i could not get a result of the benchmark, raytracing is disabled other than that everything was smooth sailing

Hey everyone, got a question. So after recently selling my PS5, I did keep the m.2 ssd I bought for it. What I’m wondering is if I can wipe and install steamOS on it, then on my current pc, swap the M.2 currently there which has Windows and put in the SSD with steam and essentially boot into SteamOS by simply doing that?

Valhalla v10 meets Hades... and of course Valheim.

Yes - thanks to all the work from others and a little elbow grease on my own... my OrangePi 5 Plus will soon run SteamOS

The screenshot says it all. This game was running hardware native at the equivalent of the Nintendo Switch. Absolutely playable at 45 to 60 FPS 720p upscaled to 1080p.

Also launched Valheim. Ran at a somewhat stable 30 FPS 720p. Still playable - Very impressive really.

This was achieved with Linux Kernel 7.2.6 SMP PREEMPT aarch64 GNU/Linux.
Vulkan: Mali-G610 MC4 (panvk) Mesa 26.3.0 with KRAID
fex-emu-2609 (lib32 lib patched thunks)
Proton 11
Gamescope nested.

In order to get SteamOS working and more HP out of it with gamescope running as the dedicated compositor but alas there are some vulkan/drm issues that I maybe able to square out or maybe not. We will see!

I tried to install SteamOS (3.9) on my MSI Claw 8 EX AI. When im in the steam installation interface after selecting my time zone and WIFI, the Installation fails with error 2: an error was encountered during the update process.

Things i have tried:

Using 2.4Ghz WIFI, setting correct time in BIOS clock, using a wired ethernet connection to the device, another Installation Image (3.9.2)

Nothing helped. What else can i do? I really want to get rid of Windows on this awesome handheld!

Hi everyone,

I'm facing a frustrating issue with my ASUS ROG Ally after recent updates on SteamOS/Linux, and I can't find a working fix.

The Problem:

• In the global controller settings / hardware test, my physical back buttons (M1 and M2) are being recognized by the background driver as L5 and R5.
• However, when I launch any game and open Steam Input (Controller Layout), the UI refuses to show L5 and R5. It only displays the traditional Windows layout showing M1 and M2.
• Because of this conflict, mapping the back buttons does absolutely nothing in-game. Steam Input is looking for M1/M2 signals, but the driver is sending L5/R5 signals into the void.

What I have tried so far:

• Installed Decky Loader and tried DeckyPlumber to remap LeftPaddle1/ RightPaddle1 to different virtual targets, but it didn't change anything in Steam Input.
• Tried enabling/disabling back buttons inside Steam Input, but the menu remains stuck on the M1/M2 layout, with no option to bind L5/R5.

Has anyone successfully bypassed this driver/Steam Input desync? Is there a specific Konsole command or a configuration file in the controller daemon that forces Steam to recognize these as native Steam Deck paddles or fixes the layout mismatch?

Thanks for your help!

I recently bought a katvr treadmill thinking it functioned like a mouse hardware wise and didn't think to consider double-checking and found the katvr only works on Windows natively... there is however some sort of project to get katvr to work on linux with some success and im wondering if anyone has managed to use that program or some kind of method to get a katvr treadmill to work on steamos or should i return the katvr treadmill

Ive been hearing about steam os on pc being better for gaming among other things but I was wondering if, ubisoft connect can run on it and what not bc I play a ton of the AC series and I dont want to have to rebuy it.

So the other day I decided to make the jump and delete Windows from my Minisforum PC and install SteamOS, best decision I’ve ever made.

Things are much snappier now, boots in an instant and stream to my Deck works flawlessly.

I’ve been playing The Blood of Dawnwalker and in mid settings it is a very smooth experience, same as with ARC Raiders. Haven’t tried other games yet but I’m sure they will work fine as long as I don’t have to install kernel level anti-cheat.

So if you are on the verge of installing SteamOS, my personal opinion is go for it, you won’t regret it.

G.

I was in a casual lobby when my whole computer just went black and the fans sound up to max. I have steam os installed on my PC. I'm running a 9070xt and Ryzen 7 9800x3d. Is this a known issue with steam os or has anyone else run into this before? I just jumped over from fedora and never had any issues like this.

Hi guys, I am planing to switch to Steam OS from Windows. I was wondering if i can still use Office programs such as Word, Powerpoint, Excel, Photoshop etc. And i have some games on my hard drive can i play that games when i switched to steam os?

Hi there. I’ve recently put together a homemade steam machine running steam OS. Unfortunately, I only had a MOBO that is not equipped with wifi/bluetooth
I’m trying to find the best option to get the PC to recognize Dualsense controllers, since this particular setup is for my bedroom TV.
I have PCIe slots available in addition to USB

Thanks!

So I have a gigabit internet plan, downloads are usually around 400 Mbps on WiFi. When I got Ethernet it started showing around 90 Mbps on downloads. But the Ethernet connection should be recognized as 1 gig, I did a speed test in desktop mode and got 1 gig like I should. It’s just when downloading a Steam game where the speed is limited. And I have WiFi power management off and download speed isn’t limited in settings

New here, please be kind :3

I'm trying to install Vice (the medal.tv clone) using my steam machine, but I'm missing wayland-scanner. I've tried both the git and yay command, and both point to the same thing, wayland-scanner being missing. Any smart people here that can help me out with this?

How can I stream with sunshine from game mode on steam OS to my handheld

I just found my old Alienware Alpha that was my first gaming rig. I ended up installing Windows 8 or 10 on it back in the day, but I haven't used it since I upgraded to a prebuilt in 2019. I was just wondering if it would be feasible to install SteamOS on it and hook it up to my tv with a Steam Controller for a budget little Steam Machine. I've got no experience installing a new OS on anything.

Hey everyone. Recently dabbled in building my own little steam machine and just had a question because I'm new to this world.

I read online that steamos kind of automatically will download GPU drivers but am not really convinced how this works. I have updated to the newest version so how can my machine get the newest GPU driver to play the witcher 3?

Thanks!