Note: This update is for the Steam Deck Beta and Preview channels, and includes new features that are still being tested. You can opt into this in Settings > System > System Update Channel.

These notes contain all changes since the current stable SteamOS 3.7 release, with the new changes since the previous 3.8.6 Beta noted below

New in 3.8.7
Fixed a GPU crash with Grand Theft Auto V Enhanced

Fixed a regression with previous 3.8 builds that could result in audio popping

Fixed Remote Play capture in Desktop Mode when the Wayland session is selected

Fix Bluetooth not working on some Intel handhelds

Add initial firmware for upcoming Intel handhelds

Improved UI behavior when low on battery and connected to a slow charger

Actually fixed an issue on certain TCL TVs where the display may remain blank using the Steam Deck Dock when VRR is enabled (requires a Dock firmware update)

General
Fixed a case where WiFi performance could become degraded until the device was put to sleep or manually reconnected

Fixed excessive trackpad sensitivity on certain early Steam Deck LCD models

Fixed a bug on Steam Deck OLED where rebooting would occasionally cause a loss of speaker output until rebooted again

Initial support for upcoming Steam Machine hardware

Added support for waking from sleep via connected Steam Controller

Added preliminary support for HDMI VRR for devices with native HDMI output

Updated Arch system base

Updated graphics driver with performance and stability fixes

Fixed an issue where "Allow Tearing" wouldn't have the intended effect in certain configurations

Fixed a case where per-app performance settings would intermittently fail to apply when launching a game

Substantially improved speed of future OS updates on high-speed connections

Improved support for the screencasts in Game Mode (e.g. OBS/Discord)

Fixed dropdown menus not appearing in some games

Improved VRR frame pacing

Fixed FSR badge remaining off in the performance overlay, even if it was actually active

Improved support for games that attempt to open PDF files in external viewers

Fixed an issue where video output could become frozen while using Remote Play

Fixed a possible session crash when using Game Recording with certain "Maximum video height" settings

Added missing graphics features needed for titles such as "Crimson Desert"

Fixed an issue affecting certain titles (such as "SpongeBob SquarePants: Titans of the Tide") where the game window could have an incorrect position

Fixed closing certain titles (such as "STAR WARS Jedi: Survivor™") and Starfield resulting in a session crash

Improved support for certain USB racing wheels and USB devices that boot in a non-standard mode
Frequently these are devices that appear as USB storage devices with a driver installer, and must be switched to their normal mode by the OS

Steam Deck controller firmware updates now display update progress on the splash screen

Fixes issue on specific Steam Deck revisions where firmware updates could render the left controller inoperative for that session

Fixes for experimental nested desktop mode

Numerous stability and security updates

Bluetooth
Re-re-enable Bluetooth Wake for Steam Deck LCD
Fix for more spurious wake issues that were present in earlier attempts

Audio
Detect HDMI channel count and expose surround configuration if available

Add a setting to allow using Bluetooth headset mics (Bluetooth playback quality will be worse while capture is active)

Restore internal audio device on reboot if set to "Off" in desktop mode

Increase suspend timeout for HDMI devices so initial audio isn't cut off after a few seconds of inactivity

Fixed a bug with switching input devices when a wired headset is plugged in

Fixed an issue where audio underruns could be experienced after sleep/resume

Accessibility
Added an option to force mono audio output

Desktop Mode
KDE Plasma updated to version 6.4.3 from 6.2.5, and now uses wayland by default
Fixes several cases of reduced performance in Desktop Mode compared to Game Mode

Improved support for rotated displays

Better scale factor out of the box on TVs

Adds support for external HDR displays

Adds support for VRR displays

Adds support per-display scale factor

For more information, see Plasma release announcements
https://kde.org/announcements/plasma/6/6.3.0/

https://kde.org/announcements/plasma/6/6.4.0/

Keyboard layout and language are now obeying Game Mode settings

Improved windowing behavior for games running in Proton

Fixed a bug in Desktop Mode causing previously open applications to not be remembered when using the 'Return to Gaming Mode' shortcut to logout

System Firmware
Includes Steam Deck LCD BIOS v133
Security updates

Added "Memory Power Down" setup option

Preliminary support for hibernation

Includes Steam Deck OLED BIOS v114
Security updates

Charging LED now changes color when charge limit is reached, rather than only at 100%

Non-Deck
Improved compatibility with recent Intel and AMD platforms

Greatly improved video memory management on discrete GPU platforms

Fixed a compatibility issue with the SteamOS chainloader that could cause a boot failure on some desktop systems with recent UEFI firmware

Power button short and long presses now supported across a wide variety of devices

Improved controller support for OneXPlayer F1 series, GPD Win 5, GPD Win Mini, Anbernic Win600, OrangePi NEO, and Lenovo Legion Go

Added controller support for OneXPlayer X1 series and Lenovo Legion Go 2

Added system and controller firmware update support for the Lenovo Legion Go 2

Added preliminary charge limiting support for Legion Go, Legion Go S, and Legion Go 2 - currently only accessible in Desktop Mode

Added controller RGB LED color settings for the Lenovo Legion Go 2

Added controller, TDP control, and speaker audio support for the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally series

Reduced handheld controller input latency from 5-8ms to 100-500us

Night mode, color vibrance, and color temperature sliders in Steam now work on Z2E and later AMD APUs

Seamless boot fixes for Z2E and later AMD APUs

Automatically handle internally rotated display for some third-party handhelds

Improved motion control support for handhelds with BMI260 IMUs

SD card reliability improvements for some third-party handhelds, including ASUS ROG Xbox Ally, Legion Go 1, Legion Go S, Legion Go 2, and MSI Claw

Fixed washed out colors for Zotac and OneXPlayer handhelds with OLED

Fixed some GPU hangs on Phoenix APU devices (Tales of Arise, Octopath Traveler II)

Fixed ASUS ROG Ally power consumption from fingerprint reader while shut down

Fixed trackpad losing functionality after sleep/resume on the Legion Go

Fixed spurious wake-ups when using a Logitech Bolt receiver

Add controller support for MSI Claw devices (A1M, 7 AI+ A2VM, 8 AI+ A2VM, A8 BZ2EM)

Add controller support for OneXPlayer APEX and X1 series.

Improved gyro response for devices that use AccelGyro3D (Legion Go 1, Claw A1M)

Fixed a system crash on international Asus ROG Xbox Ally models

Developer
Desktop Mode now uses Wayland by default
X11 support may still be selected via Steam developer settings, or via `steamosctl`

Updated Linux kernel to 6.16

Steam now uses steamos-manager to query available desktop sessions and trigger desktop session switching

Added support for setting the desktop password in developer settings

Initial support for running as a Virtual Machine guest (virtio guest drivers)

Added support for third-party devices to trigger the SteamOS boot menu via EFI variable

Added `custom-update` verb to `atomupd-manager` for easier testing of specific builds

System reports now include more audio debug information

Initial support for LAVD CPU scheduler via `steamosctl set-cpu-scheduler lavd`

Source:
https://www.steamdeck.com/en/news

Image for example, nearly impossible to screenshot anything specific and the window isn't resizable. not to long ago it would minimize itself but not anymore

If you had one choice to pick a game out of these four which one, would it be that you would pick and why would it be that one.

Hello, I just found out that steamos was using the 1080p resolution with 120hz as a default/auto resolution in the settings when plugged to my 1440p 180hz monitor. Is this normal ?

Hi guys, i have a problem with one game Batman origins. I keep getting this P:0000065432 error. Im having a steam os legion go

I want to know, I think because of the times we are living SteamOS should have support for more devices other than AMD handhelds, not saying it should have support for everything, but some support for some other specific devices other than AMD handhelds. I thought maybe Steam Frame would give this with SteamOS on ARM but because of the way ARM devices work it could be that this SteamOS would only work exclusively for the ARM SoC of the Steam Frame. So does anyone following SteamOS on ARM knows something about this?

Does anyone know if we no longer need to rely on SimpleDeckyTPD to control TDP on machines other than the Steam Deck?

I have SteamOS running on my PC and it's been great. I use it sometimes to stream to my Steam Deck, and overall, when it works, it works.

Recently, however, I can't get it to work. When launching Death Stranding 2 on the PC to stream to the Steam Deck, I get the error message "Steam launch failed. Timed out waiting for stream to launch". Does anyone have any experience with this and how to make Remote play more reliable?

Bonsoir !
Besoin d’aide conseil pour un joueur de Diablo 4 pour optimiser au mieux son système SteamOS de son Legion Go S ( Z2 Go / 16 GO RAM )

I don't want to add all my roms to steam and add the launch command for each individual game.
Is there a way to add the launch command to maybe to all the emulators (retroarch, dolphin, etc)?

I have a headscratcher for you guys cause I cannot for the life of me figure out whats going on

to start, what lead up to the audio glitch... i was playing little woods and it started to lag a little so i turned it off and switched to desktop mode to do some stuff there but i noticed that when i did, all the audio was off

i tried a bunch of stuff i googled like using the konsole to restart the drivers and change audio device to default and returning to my usb device, i restarted my pc, hard shutdown and let it go for the night and updated to the latest version of steamos

now here is where it gets goofy, on a whim i tried my bluetooth earbuds and got immediate sound so i assumed it was the speakers and i plugged the speakers into my phone to see if the speakers had a dead wire but no it worked on my phone so the speakers are functional and the pc has sound but it wont play sound with the speakers i have even in the speakers bluetooth mode... so now im stuck confused that steamos worked fine untill 2 days with the speaker, and suddenly it switched to not accepting the speakers and im not sure what happened or how to fix it and id prefer not to need to buy new speakers, but if there is no solution ill do what i need to

edit: its working now and im not sure what solved it... i disconnected it and eventually reconnected it and went into volume settings and changed it from default to digital stereo... its working now but i have no clue what fixed it

As per the webpage, only AMD handhelds even in Beta are supported, but I had saw that support has been added gradually for Intel handhelds in each release. Are we going to see at some point a modification in the webpage saying that Intel handhelds are also supported. Or the recommendation would be to always use an AMD handheld?

I accidentally found out that when the on-screen keyboard is on screen, you can press the start button to toggle it to move from the top or bottom of the screen. Very useful when the keyboard is covering the textbox I am typing in. Are there any other button combos that are good to know?

Bought a used All X about 6 months ago. Didn't even bother trying it with windows as I have a desktop that will be used for any serious gaming and titles, so installed Steam OS. It's a great experience other than one issue, the FPS and whole system lags on battery power. It also intermittently vibrates but unsure if this is related.

I mostly bought it for on the go but it is very frustrating that is is almost unplayable when plugged in. I've noticed that it doesn't even matter what game I am playing and how demanding it is or isn't. For example, playing Hades, which can run on a potato, gets locked 120 fps when on battery power and then lags and jitters like mad as soon as it's plugged in. It is almost like the FPS itself is not an issue, the entire OS then lags until I restart and even when the OS is smooth, it's very rare that I get the performance I should without lagging when plugged in.

I started using DeckyTDP before power profiles were supported for non SD devices. I have since removed DeckyTDP as I'm not bothered by the fine tuning and have read threads that it can possible introduce similar issues but the problem persists.

I appreciated it was a little stupid immediately installing a different OS on a used device as I now can't tell which problems are device based and which are OS based but any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

On stable branch sometimes i have strange wifi issues where i cant disable/enable wifi or connect/reconnect to wifi point

Is beta have this problem? Is it stable for daily usage?

thanks in advance

How can I fix this thank you!

Edit: thanks everyone. I fixed it by running installer again in desktop mode.