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Valve have released two small updates to the Steam Deck OS (SteamOS) and here's what's new and improved.

Firstly, they've released SteamOS 3.4.4 which fixes an issue where a factory reset could cause the device to get stuck in an update loop. That's a bit of a woops, quite a huge one really, since that's supposed to be one of the last resorts to fix problems on Steam Deck.

SteamOS 3.4.5 is also now in Preview, which includes the above change and also fixes a focus issue with Forza Horizon 5. That was originally in 3.4.3 Preview, but re-released as 3.4.5 when 3.4.4 went out above for the emergency factory reset fix, so clearly they're not yet ready for the Forza Horizon 5 issue fix to be in stable (I assume because the fix might affect other games and needs more testing time).

Valve had quite a few problems with the roll-out of SteamOS 3.4, which was a pretty big update, like SD Cards moving location with no real notice and HDMI / DisplayPort audio issues so hopefully they will take on some lessons from the release to make SteamOS 3.5 a bit smoother. 

I did have a weird one recently with sleep / wake. One of my Steam Decks would wake up by itself, and it happened multiple times in a row. Had to fully shut it down for a while to make it stop doing it — annoying, and I'm not alone with this bug. It somewhat reminds me of my PlayStation 4, which repeatedly woke up and spat discs out in the middle of the night, until I physically ripped out the eject button after Sony failed to fix the problem.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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8 comments

1xok Dec 29, 2022
QuoteI did have a weird one recently with sleep / wake. One of my Steam Decks would wake up by itself, and it happened multiple times in a row.

This is critical because I suspect it overheats easily in its closed box.
WayneJetSki Dec 29, 2022
The biggest issue I have with my Steam Deck is that for some games it takes forever to close the game. I have needed to power off and then power on my Deck to finally close whatever game was having some kind of issue closing. I read somewhere that it apparently might have something to do with playing a game from a MicroSD card. Hopefully they can find some way to correct that issue.
mr-victory Dec 30, 2022
QuoteSteam Deck OS (SteamOS)
Lemme guess: Liam is testing full fat SteamOS now...
Squirrlz Dec 30, 2022
Some of these updates, OS at least, they push to Stable are clearly different than the ones they push to the Beta channel. I was on the Beta 3.4 OS update and then updated to 3.4 Stable and it broke some things for me and fixed another issue I had with the keyboard crashing the Deck in Desktop.

I don't know why they would do that? If the build that's pushed to Stable isn't the last one that was being tested in Beta, keep pushing builds to Beta until you have a release candidate. And then push the final RC to Stable. They're introducing issues into Stable that shouldn't be there. No build that hasn't been thoroughly tested in the Beta should go out to the main public in Stable. This whole debacle with the frantic Christmas updates and bootlooping problem never would have happened if they had done this.
assassin9527 Dec 30, 2022
Hi, new to this forum and know nothing about Linux and looking for solutions to the problem caused by the latest update. So I have a lot of non steam games and can confirm before receiving update yesterday, they were all working fine with proton experimental, but after the latest update, none of them launch at all, those that launch failed to read files. It's honestly very frustrating, cause this is part of the main reason I got a steam deck. And switching proton version didn't work either. Wondering if I'm the only having this problem, and if anyone possibly know how to solve this, many thanks.
Liam Dawe Dec 30, 2022
Quoting: mr-victory
QuoteSteam Deck OS (SteamOS)
Lemme guess: Liam is testing full fat SteamOS now...
I wish. It’s more keeping in line with Valve’s own wording. They moved over to calling it Steam Deck OS, I assume because when SteamOS releases it won’t be exactly the same.
Klaas Dec 30, 2022
QuoteOne of my Steam Decks would wake up by itself, and it happened multiple times in a row.

That sounds really annoying.



I've recently managed to get the audio crackling after standby bug that I've been reading about.
Pengling Dec 30, 2022
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Quoting: assassin9527Hi, new to this forum and know nothing about Linux and looking for solutions to the problem caused by the latest update.
Hey assassin9527! I don't have a Steam Deck myself, but you may want to post about this issue over on the forums, as it might get buried in a news-comments section.
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