New SteamOS Beta Update Adds Initial Steam Frame Support

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A new SteamOS Beta update was released yesterday with a bunch of fixes and new firmware for the Steam Machine. The new firmware fixes an issue where the Machine could wake up immediately after going to sleep, and CPU performance was degraded until a reboot after waking up from sleep. Otherwise, a lot of the fixes here will affect and make using our devices better.

Valve added support for waking up from the original Steam Controller Wireless Adapter from 2015, battery indications when a device is charging have been improved, HDMI audio dropouts have been fixed, and HDMI hot plug detection has been improved. We also have the initial support for the Steam Frame Wireless Adapter, indicating even further that the Frame is around the corner. For comparison, the initial Steam Machine support was added to the SteamOS Beta about three weeks before the device started shipping, so by following that logic, we will probably see the Steam Frame at the end of this month.

We also have an update to the Linux Kernel, moving us to 6.18.42, and more support for other third-party handhelds has been added. We have gamepad support for the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+, KONKR FIT, and AYANEO Pocket S2, while the OneXPlayer Apex has updated support with its new firmware. We also have improved support for other MSI Claw and OneXPlayer devices, though no specific models are named.

You can download the updates yourself in the System Settings on the Steam Deck. Make sure your update channel is set to Beta or Preview.

SteamOS 3.8.25 Beta Update Changelog:

Known Issues - Beta

• There is a known issue with degraded performance in some cases when composition is required (such as when having FSR enabled).This issue is fixed in the latest SteamOS stable release (3.8.16). Affected users may wish to switch to the stable update channel while we work on bringing this fix to the beta channel.

General

• Added support for waking up from the Steam Controller Wireless Adapter (2015)
• Improved battery indications when the device is charging in but using more power than the charger can provide
• Preliminary support for the Steam Frame Wireless Adapter
• Added support for Steam Controller (2026) to the built-in [c]hid_steam[/c] controller driver, enabling use with native controller applications when Steam is not running
• Fixed an issue where hotplugging HDMI displays could cause lockups in Desktop Mode
• Fixed an issue where TVs supporting an HDMI "Game Mode" would display the initial boot logo before engaging said mode, causing unnecessary delay and flashing
• Fixed some cases of slow or stuck Wi-Fi connections with certain adapters
• Fixed an issue causing previous SteamOS updates to fail to apply for some users
• Security and stability fixes

Steam Machine Firmware 108

• Fixed an issue where the system could occasionally wake up immediately after going to sleep
• Fixed a rare issue where CPU performance could be degraded until reboot after waking up from sleep

Audio

• Fix for HDMI audio dropouts with some game and TV combinations
• Improve reliability of HDMI hotplug detection
• Add option to prefer lower latency audio codecs for Bluetooth devices

Non-Valve Devices

• Improve support for MSI Claw and OneXPlayer device variants
• Improve support for devices with external or no Wi-Fi adapters
• Fixed an infrequent bug where some 3rd party handhelds would have input ignored when held
• Added initial gamepad support for MSI Claw 8 EX AI+
• Added initial gamepad support for Konkr FIT
• Added initial gamepad support for AYANEO Pocket S2
• Updated gamepad support for OneXPlayer Apex with new firmware

Developer

• Updated the Linux kernel to 6.18.42

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