SteamVR Beta v2.18.1 brings more Linux fixes and general improvements

Fixed async reprojection failing on AMD GPUs.

Haha, no way, you don't fool me. I believe it only when i see it...

Still on the fence about the Frame. It seems like a overall solid improvement to my Index but battery life and especially the kinda crappy controllers make me hesitant.

Guess I'll try out the Linux improvements again. Heavy stutter while turning and complete lack of audio(mic doesn't register input and speakers don't even show up in the KDE audio settings) keep me dual-booting Windows.

The Frame will probably have better Linux support but I might be fine with the Index if support just gets a bit better. It certainly improved compared to when I tried a few months ago.

Quoting: _MarsThe Frame will probably have better Linux support but I might be fine with the Index if support just gets a bit better. It certainly improved compared to when I tried a few months ago.

I just got the Steam Frame and am very disappointed in the Linux support. First of all, the Wireless dongle they included doesn't work at all with Linux. I've tried everything I can think of on two different Linux distributions. Valve has said it's not yet supported on Linux or even the Steam Machine (their own Linux device!), and now I understand why.

The sad part is that I also can't get streaming to work right on WiFi. I've gotten it to the point where I can get the streaming working, but it's glitchy, stutters and sometimes just flat out crashes.

I also use VR to watch shows and movies, which is the one thing it seems to do well. Both Kodi and Jellyfin-desktop work without any issues. Amazingly, however, there is no native VR video player for the Steam Frame, and since there is no VR browser, you also can't watch YouTube or other streaming site's VR videos either. There is one media player I found releasing next week that says it'll have native Linux support, so we'll see if that improves. I could, of course, stream VR videos if I could get streaming to work.

There are only a handful of VR games that currently run directly on the Steam Frame. I haven't tried any of them yet as I really wanted a quality PCVR experience, and I know it's not really powerful enough to deliver that without streaming.

It's really disappointing and should be embarrassing for Valve since people with Windows seems to be having no big issues with it. Anyone who bought both the Steam Machine and Steam Frame should be pretty upset right now.

Last edited by melkemind on 24 Sep 2026 at 3:51 pm UTC

Quoting: melkemind

Quoting: _MarsThe Frame will probably have better Linux support but I might be fine with the Index if support just gets a bit better. It certainly improved compared to when I tried a few months ago.

I just got the Steam Frame and am very disappointed in the Linux support. First of all, the Wireless dongle they included doesn't work at all with Linux. I've tried everything I can think of on two different Linux distributions. Valve has said it's not yet supported on Linux or even the Steam Machine (their own Linux device!), and now I understand why.

Well, as usual, the Linux community has picked up the slack in just a day. Someone came up with a fix that is surprisingly easy. It makes me wonder why Valve couldn't find a way to automate it. Wireless streaming is now working well for me.

If anyone has the same problem:

a) Put all the various wireless dongle stuff back to controlled by Steam/automatic/whatever.
b) sudo pacman -Syu wireless-regdb
c) reboot to make the previous change work
d) iw reg get -- this will probably say it's country 0, UNDEF
e) sudo iw reg set US (or whatever the appropriate regulatory domain for your country is)
f) Dongle should now pair and connect correctly

The link to the Discord is here: Linux VR Adventures (External Link: You need to be logged in to view this.)

This was from a Reddit user. It's worth nothing that I had to do an additional step, which was turn on WiFi. Even though my desktop uses ethernet, it hadn't occurred to me that the WiFi off switch would also turn off the dongle.

Quoting: melkemindIf anyone has the same problem:

a) Put all the various wireless dongle stuff back to controlled by Steam/automatic/whatever.
b) sudo pacman -Syu wireless-regdb
c) reboot to make the previous change work
d) iw reg get -- this will probably say it's country 0, UNDEF
e) sudo iw reg set US (or whatever the appropriate regulatory domain for your country is)
f) Dongle should now pair and connect correctly

Thanks! That was indeed enough to make the dongle work.

Still have to figure out how to control things properly. KDE keeps spamming notifications of it deactivating the adapter, which is annoying. And obviously I'd like some control over settings and quality. But at least step 1 is done!

Quoting: Ehvis

Quoting: melkemindIf anyone has the same problem:

a) Put all the various wireless dongle stuff back to controlled by Steam/automatic/whatever.
b) sudo pacman -Syu wireless-regdb
c) reboot to make the previous change work
d) iw reg get -- this will probably say it's country 0, UNDEF
e) sudo iw reg set US (or whatever the appropriate regulatory domain for your country is)
f) Dongle should now pair and connect correctly

Thanks! That was indeed enough to make the dongle work.

Still have to figure out how to control things properly. KDE keeps spamming notifications of it deactivating the adapter, which is annoying. And obviously I'd like some control over settings and quality. But at least step 1 is done!

I'm glad it helped! Just the fact that we can even do these things on a Linux headset has me over the moon. I had to disable the KDE notifications. Notification Settings > Application Notifications > Network Management and uncheck Show Popups. I left Show in History on so I can see them if I need them.

I just received my Frame today but I'm very scared I'm going to have the same broken experience again on my Linux+NVidia combo. I'm already complaining without having tested because I'm too skeptical that it will actually work for me. WHY DO I BUY IT THEN. No idea. Maybe I can resell it when it won't work again like Index did or Bigscreen Beyond that didn't work in Linux+NVidia.

At least I would be able to play for an hour wireless before the headset battery is drained.

I'm only typing this to mentally prepare myself for another disappointing VR Linux experience.

Quoting: posthum4nI just received my Frame today but I'm very scared I'm going to have the same broken experience again on my Linux+NVidia combo. I'm already complaining without having tested because I'm too skeptical that it will actually work for me. WHY DO I BUY IT THEN. No idea. Maybe I can resell it when it won't work again like Index did or Bigscreen Beyond that didn't work in Linux+NVidia.

At least I would be able to play for an hour wireless before the headset battery is drained.

I'm only typing this to mentally prepare myself for another disappointing VR Linux experience.

As a long time NVidia + VR user, I can say that while this does not fix all SteamVR issues for "us", it avoids a lot of them. Most of the issues are related to hardware interfacing and those are entirely bypassed by the Frame. So you'll have a much better time once you get the dongle working properly.

I still get approximately 10% less frames in SteamVR than I did in Monado though.