SteamOS Installation Image Gets First-Time Setup And Better Support For Modern Systems

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With the announcement of the Steam Machine, Valve also gave the green light to start installing their operating system, SteamOS, on other devices. They have been consistently adding more and more support for other hardware, including other handhelds and machines with AMD GPUs, and with SteamOS 3.8, Valve says it should be ready to go. There is more support being worked on, and Valve is working with Intel and NVIDIA to support their hardware as well, but Valve feels confident enough that it should work just fine right now for those with AMD-powered handhelds or desktops with AMD GPUs.

Now, with Valve starting to support installing SteamOS on devices that aren't the Steam Deck, or their own Steam Machine, they have decided to update the installation process to make it easier for us to install SteamOS on whatever we want to.

Announced by Valve's Pierre-Loup Griffais on Bluesky, the SteamOS installation image has just been updated to 3.8, which comes with all of the updates that have come to the OS recently. On top of that, there is improved compatibility with more modern systems, and we now have a first-time setup.

This is extremely exciting, since now we could technically build our own Steam Machines or turn our more powerful handhelds, like the ROG Ally X, into Steam Decks. The price of Valve's Steam Machine is a little eye-watering as a PC gamer, but I do appreciate having the OS open so we can build our own.

Installing is relatively easy as well. All we have to do is use a program like Rufus or Balena Etcher to write the recovery image to a USB (8GB or above needed). Then, just plug in your recovery USB into the device you want to put SteamOS on and boot from it. You may need to disable Secure Boot if you have it enabled, which I definitely had to do for my ROG Ally X, but the process is fairly simple.

Still, this is a great update and should make it even easier to install SteamOS on other devices to make your own Steam Machine. Hell, you can install it on other handhelds and make your own Steam Deck! I look forward to seeing more widespread adoption of SteamOS and Linux as a whole, and I am glad we have this kind of option.

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