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Yesterday, the next version of SteamOS officially released for everyone, bringing updates the operating system's base components, drivers, and so much more. It's an incredible update with tons of wonderful improvements that make it even better to use. On top of that, it officially added support for the Lenovo Legion Go S, the first non-Steam Deck device to ship with SteamOS. However, one other part of the update was also introduced that many may have missed, and it's fantastic.
A lot of the recent SteamOS updates have also started adding in support for any handheld PCs with AMD APUs, and with this update, Valve has provided confirmation that you can now install SteamOS on any of these handhelds with the recovery image! The only non-Steam Deck handheld that is officially supported is the Legion Go S, but Valve has provided information on how to install SteamOS on any other handheld like the ROG Ally or original Legion Go.
At the bottom of their SteamOS Recovery FAQ, Valve has a dedicated section for installing SteamOS on other devices. They mention that they currently support any handheld with AMD hardware and an NVMe drive. They do also mention that it is targeted towards handhelds, which means it could technically be installed on any computer that meets this criteria, but there may be other problems. They also mention you will have to disable secure boot for a device to install from a USB drive, and provide instructions on how to do so for the Legion Go and ROG Ally.
From there, it's as simple as following the instructions on installing SteamOS! You use a USB Stick that has 8GB or more of space and write the SteamOS recovery image you download to the drive. After that, just go to your boot menu and select to boot from the "EFI USB Device." It will handle the rest and just follow any prompts that come up.
Again, this isn't official support, but it sounds like Valve is confident enough that it will work on other AMD devices. I haven't personally tested it out yet, but I plan to go all in and start playing around with SteamOS on other handhelds this weekend. I couldn't be more excited though, and I am looking forward to expanded support that will one day encompass desktop PCs.
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Let’s see if Epic sues them as well!
the sdcard slot is completely non-functional on the rog ally (original) and the controller didnt work when i first installed it but it did work after and update (the tdp controls work too)
But will it work on my Ryzen AI Max+ 395? It's currently running Bazzite, which is okay.
No. I like playing my games without playing a guessing game of wether it will work or not or if I need an older or experimental proton version to even get the game to start, let alone run at a playable frame rate.
For the vast majority of games you don't need to worry at all, and for the ones you do, the people behind Proton are doing a pretty darn good job at solving the issues.
What do you mean by "will one day encompasses desktop pc"? Didn't Steam OS start on desktop pc?
Unfortunately the controller doesn’t work on the Ally X, and the TDP control is still missing.
I'm not surprised since it isn't official yet, but hopefully they iron those kinks out soon!
I hope so, sooner than later… 🙂