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I have been debating whether to write this up for a while, but here I am. I have completely ditched SteamOS in favour of Ubuntu Mate.

If you follow me on Twitter, you would have probably known this article was coming due to how frustrating an experience it has been for me.

I was spurred on due to the BoilingSteam website writing about it, and they echo some of my own thoughts and frustrations.

Recently I was sat with my son and wanted to play a point & click adventure game called Putt-Putt with him. SteamOS needed to restart to update, so I did and it just flashed into a black screen. We waited quite a long time to see if anything happened but nothing did. After rebooting, the system was completely broken with another black screen.

Oh god #SteamOS what have you done to yourself! pic.twitter.com/tQdzSuPuQs

— LiamLinux (@thenaughtysquid) August 20, 2016

I tried everything I could find to fix it. I trawled through the SteamOS help pages, ran their automated recovery scripts from the terminal and nothing worked, everything just resulted in the same black screen. Their help pages mentioned some recovery option that would reset SteamOS, but that doesn't seem to exist if you do the advanced install method (as I had multiple drives with other things on).

I'm not the only person this has happened to; I've seen quite a number of people have a "fatal error loop" requiring a re-install. That is the sort of thing that is going to put people off and already has in some cases. You can see a bug report here that was closed, but people are still having issues. There's another post here, another here and so on. Quite a few people get issues like this and it's not looking good.

That was the final nail in the coffin for my time with SteamOS. I don't have time to deal with such breakage.

That wasn't the first time SteamOS gave me a black screen. It has actually happened to me 3-4 times now, but this time it just didn't want to come back alive. A lot of hassle for something that's supposed to be console-like and be easier to work with to just load up and go. The whole thing feels like it's still in its infancy.

My PS4 has had problems before, so SteamOS certainly isn't alone in having issues, but the difference here is massive. On the PS4 I was able to boot into some sort of safe mode and essentially re-do the PS4 operating system. All achieved with a controller and without any terminals, no resorting to keyboard commands or anything of the sort.

My other issue is that, honestly, I feel like Valve themselves are doing very little for SteamOS to progress into something. Other than driver updates and security fixes they don't seem to be doing anything with it — not even talking about it anymore. I am hoping they have something planned for the next Steam Dev Days, but I'm not holding out hope for something SteamOS related there.

I feel like SteamOS is still missing even some of the most basic things that makes a console-like box attractive to a wider audience. Things like Netflix, Spotify and other simple but useful things like that. You may not agree with me, but everyone I know that owns a console uses a mixture of those two or both rather a lot.

They also missed an important feature of having a party-like system, where you can gather multiple people into a chat/voice chat easily on SteamOS. Something like that is rather essential for setting up games together. I tried it a couple times with Samsai and other people and the built-in voice chat never worked for any of us.

Hell, I feel Valve really missed the mark by not having any livestreaming options in SteamOS. They still haven't even put their own Broadcasting feature into the Linux desktop client nor the SteamOS build yet.

I later setup Ubuntu Mate and within about half an hour it was running solidly with Steam and everything was dandy. For someone like me with whom Linux is the norm, SteamOS is no better than a normal desktop distribution with Steam installed. Since you can have Steam boot directly into Big Picture mode it does seem a little pointless for me now personally. If Steam breaks on Ubuntu Mate, I can find ways to fix it on the same machine — and it won't take the whole machine with it like it will on SteamOS.

The Steam Controller is by far the most useful thing Valve has done recently. I will still happily play from my sofa on Linux thanks to this wonderful device. Thanks to it, I can stay on my sofa, come out of Steam Big Picture and still navigate to other things I want to do all without having to get closer to my TV with a keyboard and mouse.

I still believe SteamOS has its place though. On pre-built machines of course it is much easier (and likely more attractive to consumers) to have SteamOS sold on it, and it makes a good target for developers who use the line of "there's too many distributions". It has done a lot to help push Linux gaming, that goes without saying, but for me it's just not a good fit.

I don't think Valve plan to drop SteamOS any time soon nor do I think it has been a failure. A great experiment and something that has utterly catapulted Linux gaming to where it is now. If Valve ever do a big update to it, I may return to it to see if it's worth it, but considering the few minor updates it gets this may be a long ways off.

So, there ends my experimenting with SteamOS for now.

My final take on this whole experience is this: SteamOS is built for the people making systems and selling them, not for us in reality, Valve just provide it for us because they can. Valve only really care about the problems on the systems sold with it. So I would personally just steer clear of SteamOS unless you're buying it on a supported system.

How have you found your time with SteamOS? Have you also replaced it with a normal distribution like me? Let me know in the comments.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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102 comments
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wvstolzing Aug 31, 2016
Quoting: dubigrasuIndeed, SteamOS basically can be installed on whatever hardware a Debian Jessie can be installed.

So a Raspberry Pi too? :P
simulacrum Aug 31, 2016
I haven't ditched SteamOS yet - it's still IMO the best option for my TV PC, whose main use is to play video games, with a side business of running Dolphin and playing flash videos in Chrome. For other things I have an nvidia shield which handles the netflix, youtube, google play, etc requirements fairly well.

You are right, though, that the Steam controller should work in the desktop mode so I don't have to fish out a keyboard every now and then and that the voice chat situation is completely broken (which is fine at the moment since I am mainly playing single player games with it) and when (he says hopefully) Rocket League comes out that is gonna get real annoying.
dubigrasu Aug 31, 2016
Quoting: wvstolzing
Quoting: dubigrasuIndeed, SteamOS basically can be installed on whatever hardware a Debian Jessie can be installed.

So a Raspberry Pi too? :P
That would be the thing :)
m2mg2 Aug 31, 2016
Quoting: dubigrasu
Quoting: jedidiahlnx...which could be nearly anything. Unless Valve has some very Draconian system requirements, what's in random user systems and what's in "sanctioned" Steam Boxes probably overlaps a great deal.
Indeed, SteamOS basically can be installed on whatever hardware a Debian Jessie can be installed.

It will run on any hardware Linux will with, at least with an x86_64 cpu. Even if it doesn't if you have the skills you should be able to make it. But it will not have been tested and debugged. Official Steam Machines "should" have been tested and debugged to ensure they don't have issues, anything else is untested and unsupported (at least not in any major way). So if you want a problem free experience with SteamOS you should use an official Steam Machine. If you want to fix issues that might come up (basically being a beta tester and debugging their stuff) make your own Steam Machine. If you just want to play Steam games in Linux without altering your standard operating procedures, just use the Steam Client in you chosen distro.

I did fool around with installing SteamOS in a dual boot with my primary distro (Fedora). The install is nothing like a standard Linux install. I had to basically hack up the install process to even get it to work. It was a while back and I don't remember exactly what the problem was, something to do with my drive configurations and the bootloader. It never stood a chance with me, I only booted into it a few times and wiped it out rather quickly.
m2mg2 Aug 31, 2016
Quoting: dubigrasu
Quoting: wvstolzing
Quoting: dubigrasuIndeed, SteamOS basically can be installed on whatever hardware a Debian Jessie can be installed.

So a Raspberry Pi too? :P
That would be the thing :)

I was actually looking into that. Steam has nothing for ARM architecture except the Steam Link, and you cannot download the OS for that, or any kind of installer. The steam client has no ARM package, so Steam itself cannot be installed on a Pi. I was looking at setting up something like a steam link with a Pi, but this fact stopped me. I did find moonlight which enable's Nvidia steaming to a Pi. But unfortunately it only supports Nvidia Gamestream which isn't available in Linux, meaning you have to stream from a Windows box and receive the stream on the Linux based Pi. Since you can't get the Steam Client on ARM/Pi you can't do Steam streaming from Linux Steam to the Pi.

Unless I'm missing something, would love to hear it if so.

Edited to fix my stupid typos.


Last edited by m2mg2 on 31 August 2016 at 4:29 pm UTC
dubigrasu Aug 31, 2016
Quoting: m2mg2It will run on any hardware Linux will with, at least with an x86_64 cpu. Even if it doesn't if you have the skills you should be able to make it. But it will not have been tested and debugged. Official Steam Machines "should" have been tested and debugged to ensure they don't have issues, anything else is untested and unsupported (at least not in any major way). So if you want a problem free experience with SteamOS you should use an official Steam Machine. If you want to fix issues that might come up (basically being a beta tester and debugging their stuff) make your own Steam Machine. If you just want to play Steam games in Linux without altering your standard operating procedures, just use the Steam Client in you chosen distro.
Exactly this. Actual Steam Machines are Valve's supporting target, the rest of us (custom Steam Machines owners) are, well, enthusiasts and SteamOS promoters giving a helping hand while satisfying our own curiosity.
The installation procedure is indeed customized and outside the norm.
About the Raspberry Pi thing, it was just a joke, have no idea about Steam for ARM.
Halifax Aug 31, 2016
Quoting: dubigrasuExactly this. Actual Steam Machines are Valve's supporting target, the rest of us (custom Steam Machines owners) are, well, enthusiasts and SteamOS promoters giving a helping hand while satisfying our own curiosity.
The installation procedure is indeed customized and outside the norm.
About the Raspberry Pi thing, it was just a joke, have no idea about Steam for ARM.

And don't forget about dipsticks like me that want both. A Steam Machine + SteamOS combo, and be an enthusiast hacker/promoter that has no intention of running my SM + SteamOS "as intended".

To SteamOS's credit, as I mentioned several pages back, after this last 2.8x round of patches... SteamOS performs pretty damn well when you hack it to just be a full Debian 8 KDE desktop experience.

Since I run Debian 8 KDE on my main PC, I know what I'm talking about here - I have the control test. SteamOS hacked into this role works better than I thought it would. There are quirks and missteps, but all fixable if you look into it. Valve has kept SteamOS very close and compatible with one of the best Linux distros of all time.

For the other 1 maybe 2 people on Planet Earth that are looking for what I am out of my Steam Machine, that's gotta count for something, right? I feel like it was money well spent :)
LinuxGamesTV Aug 31, 2016
You all forget: SteamOS is BETA Software


Last edited by LinuxGamesTV on 31 August 2016 at 6:40 pm UTC
dubigrasu Aug 31, 2016
Quoting: HalifaxAnd don't forget about dipsticks like me that want both. A Steam Machine + SteamOS combo, and be an enthusiast hacker/promoter that has no intention of running my SM + SteamOS "as intended".
Is that the first Alienware Steam Machine? I'd love to get one, there are more performant SM out-here, but that one is (or will be) a piece of history.
dubigrasu Aug 31, 2016
Quoting: BdMdesigNYou all forget: SteamOS is BETA Software
There is a beta (2.91) branch indeed (which incidentally was updated few minutes ago), but a stable (2.87) branch too.
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