SteamOS Official Thread.

[two00lbwaster]

Word to the wise doing the UEFI/Grub work around.

On boot, the installer will just trash the first disk and install SteamOS on it. Just lost my Windows install, and wasn't even presented with an option.

Just booted, trashed partitions, installed itself and that was that.

BE CAREFUL!

Beta my arse.

edit - just realised my Fallout 3 saves were on that volume. ******** rage. Up yours Gabe, up yours.

Unfortunately, pretty much everywhere says that this is exactly what happens

I have a spare PC I don't mind trashing, currently has Ubuntu on it, and I'll be using the BIOS based workaround as per this link on reddit.

 

[Oh Ed not again.]

Oh I'd read the docs before doing it, and I'd seen the UEFI boot work with the menu+options so thought I was going to get to see something before the fireworks kicked off...

However when you syslinux the installer it autoboots into Automatic Install mode, and proceeds to annihilate your first boot disk without so much as a warning message!

 

[Gzero]

Got sound working, now how to get the 3d driver on there for vmware hmmmm....

 

[two00lbwaster]

Oh I'd read the docs before doing it, and I'd seen the UEFI boot work with the menu+options so thought I was going to get to see something before the fireworks kicked off...

However when you syslinux the installer it autoboots into Automatic Install mode, and proceeds to annihilate your first boot disk without so much as a warning message!

No backups either I guess? (It's the one nice thing with Steam's cloud saves which I have with Civ 5 that you won't lose that data if you trash your machine.)

I had both of my encrypted partitions destroyed earlier this year, one of which contained my backups from the previous 4 or so months.

I had to rebuild from scratch, nearly but for the cloud backups of my Documents folder and stuff stored in Firefox Sync and Lastpass. I now keep a lot more stuff in various cloud storage accounts.

I still have my Documents folder backed up and I still have my backup volumes on a separate RAID 1 array (currently degraded and awaiting a replacement drive) and I try to remember to copy my latest full monthly backup over to my Home Server.

 

[uncle_rufus]

As I begin to read information coming in about the install it's sounding really positive (not talking about the erasing issue above of course)

If I had a spare machine I'd throw it on there to test for myself, but sadly I don't at the moment. If nothing puts me off in the meantime I think I will be building one in the future though, to act as a Steam Machine XBMC hybrid...

So until then my most pressing question I want somebody to answer:

- I see it's possible to drop out of the Steam interface on SteamOS and drop back to what is essentially a stripped down Debian... That's great, and it means I can install XBMC or whatever other things I need... But there needs to be a way of triggering or issuing commands from inside the Steam part itself. For instance:

- I install XBMC, plus something which provides window-manager control like wmctrl or xdotool.... Set XBMC to launch on startup behind the Steam interface... Then I just need a way of adding something like a custom menu-entry to the main menu in the Steam part which can trigger a wmctrl/xdotool command to force the XBMC window to be fullscreen above the Steam one (or something like that). Then in XBMC you just modify what would normally be "Exit"/"Quit" to force the XBMC window back into the background.

It's similar to what people have done with their XBMC systems and emulators... and would make this such an awesome living room machine

 

[phill1978]

I just cant work out why they went with Gnome 3 ?

Imo they could have done more here and i think they have come in at this on the wrong angle. It should have been a stripped down Valve themed using XFCE or a nice flashly animated KDE with some custom applet to make tiles simular to windows 8 but without the confusion associated i.e but a slide out menu only.

This way they could have slapped a nice big picture icon on the desktop or written a top corner app icon to go straight into big picture.

Furthermore all they needed to do was install a mouse to joypad utility to make their pad work like a mouse so if your sat on the TV in desktop mode you either navigate to the corner using the analogue sticks OR press their center button to launch imediatley into big picture

This would make a pathway for migrating windows users and gamers.

The way they have done it makes it confusing for people.. let alone the confusion associated with Gnome 3's lack of windows buttons

 

[Boomstick777]

The First NVIDIA GeForce Benchmarks On The SteamOS Beta

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=steamos_linux_benchmarks&num=1

 

[Oh Ed not again.]

No backups either I guess? (It's the one nice thing with Steam's cloud saves which I have with Civ 5 that you won't lose that data if you trash your machine.)

I had both of my encrypted partitions destroyed earlier this year, one of which contained my backups from the previous 4 or so months.

I had to rebuild from scratch, nearly but for the cloud backups of my Documents folder and stuff stored in Firefox Sync and Lastpass. I now keep a lot more stuff in various cloud storage accounts.

I still have my Documents folder backed up and I still have my backup volumes on a separate RAID 1 array (currently degraded and awaiting a replacement drive) and I try to remember to copy my latest full monthly backup over to my Home Server.

Nah, tbh it's not the end of the world it's more an annoyance. The PC is only used for gaming so the first drive was a W7 base install with drivers, Steam and Origin on it for access to games. All the games are on another disk, and the main OS runs off another disk (Xubuntu) so that was untouched. Just typical the one thing I wanted was the FO3 save, which is saved in My Docs on C: lol.

I might follow your lead though and get some kind of monthly image done and copied over to the Microserver of an evening or something. PITA to do that in Windows, however Linux will be much easier.

 

[Gzero]

??

Eh? It's gnome underneath, they have actually set it up to launch straight to Big Picture mode? Would you boot Windows in that way?

 

[Gzero]

Nah, tbh it's not the end of the world it's more an annoyance. The PC is only used for gaming so the first drive was a W7 base install with drivers, Steam and Origin on it for access to games. All the games are on another disk, and the main OS runs off another disk (Xubuntu) so that was untouched. Just typical the one thing I wanted was the FO3 save, which is saved in My Docs on C: lol.

I might follow your lead though and get some kind of monthly image done and copied over to the Microserver of an evening or something. PITA to do that in Windows, however Linux will be much easier.

Or right click on the folder Documents and set the location to D:\<whereever>? Or batch file on every hour xcopy or robocopy so you have a secondary set of the data to prune manually?

 

[phill1978]

Eh? It's gnome underneath, they have actually set it up to launch straight to Big Picture mode? Would you boot Windows in that way?

yes but big picture is arse and wont replace the browser version for a long time. Plus people can game on windows fine .. but many want to game on linux without big picture and have a fully usuable (and generally better than windows) desktop.. BUT have the optimisations

So if you think Gnome is good thats fine, but i prefer KDE and that uses KWIN compositor so how will valves custom compositor work with KDE .. ? will it at all.

Linux gaming is great 'IF' everyone who has XFCE/Cinnamon/KDE/MATE/Crunch/LXDE/Enlightenment etc.. can enjoy the optimisations

but if its really just riding on top of linux and is just really about big picture then im not interested because it means valve are doing a canoical (apple) and stealing the best bits with no real use for everyone else upstream (which i dont think they are yet ..)

Its not hard now ( 10 mins) to setup the kind of desktop that works well on a 50" plasma using scalable launchers on KDE for example and also use a joypad instead of a mouse with shortcut's for launchers on buttons. Really easy..

So imo they should have done what they have with optimisations which is great BUT kept it to a standard desktop look (or a fancy one) and then allowed for a big picture snap in

 

[Oh Ed not again.]

Or right click on the folder Documents and set the location to D:\<whereever>? Or batch file on every hour xcopy or robocopy so you have a secondary set of the data to prune manually?

Yep, that would do it too...

/slaps forehead

Really did drop the ball on that one.

 

[Gzero]

yes but big picture is arse and wont replace the browser version for a long time. Plus people can game on windows fine .. but many want to game on linux without big picture and have a fully usuable (and generally better than windows) desktop.. BUT have the optimisations

So if you think Gnome is good thats fine, but i prefer KDE and that uses KWIN compositor so how will valves custom compositor work with KDE .. ? will it at all.

Linux gaming is great 'IF' everyone who has XFCE/Cinnamon/KDE/MATE/Crunch/LXDE/Enlightenment etc.. can enjoy the optimisations

but if its really just riding on top of linux and is just really about big picture then im not interested because it means valve are doing a canoical (apple) and stealing the best bits with no real use for everyone else upstream (which i dont think they are yet ..)

Its not hard now ( 10 mins) to setup the kind of desktop that works well on a 50" plasma using scalable launchers on KDE for example and also use a joypad instead of a mouse with shortcut's for launchers on buttons. Really easy..

So imo they should have done what they have with optimisations which is great BUT kept it to a standard desktop look (or a fancy one) and then allowed for a big picture snap in

I agree with what you are saying, but it is still early days to expect that find of functionality. Remember what Steam used to be like? This may take a long time.

Actually hating the new Gnome as I never tried it before. Can't see a way to reboot/shutdown from the options given. Keep hitting my keyboard when shutdown -r now doesn't work!

Getting a little further with this though, ljbade has provided the patched debian 3d drivers.

https://github.com/ValveSoftware/SteamOS/issues/28

Once I'm happy with the tweaks I'll give post install / big picture mode a shot.

Oh and 1400 fps, yay for cpu graphics emu.

6000 fps with gpu extension installed. (only 25% usage on my gtx670 though).

Yay, big picture mode working, forgot to set root password as post install deletes the user account passwords.

 

[Dreadhead]

Yep, that would do it too...

/slaps forehead

Really did drop the ball on that one.

It might be quite simple to recover the saves. Steam OS should have only written about 3GB to disk, so its possible the save is still intact further into the disk.

Load up the drive as a secondary disk on another windows boot and run the freeware programme 'Recuuva' from Piriform (makers of CCleaner).
That little tool has saved my bacon a few times

 

[Oh Ed not again.]

Nice one bud, I'll have a squizz.

 

[KIA]

Just booted, trashed partitions, installed itself and that was that.

BE CAREFUL!

Beta my arse.

edit - just realised my Fallout 3 saves were on that volume. ******** rage. Up yours Gabe, up yours.

Ouch. It's always wise to disconnect critical disks before installing a new OS.

This guy made the same mistake:

 

[Oh Ed not again.]

In Valve's defence, their installer doesn't exhibit that destructive behaviour out of the box. The automatic install still at least lets you select a few options before it trashes the disk, as per it's warning.

Should have dawned on me that when I ran the syslinux guide from reddit that you point it at the installer folder thusly skipping all the customisations that Valve put in on their installer.

It's a beta, YMMV, etc.

To be honest, it's probably a good thing I don't put another 160+ hours into FO3 anyway lol.

 

[Boomstick777]

How to Install and Configure SteamOS Beta

A not-so-simple set of instructions

Valve released to the world the first beta of SteamOS, a Linux-based operating system built specifically for PC gaming, on Friday evening. We have spent quite a lot of time discussing and debating the merits of SteamOS, but this weekend we wanted to do an installation of the new OS on a system and see how it all worked.

 

[Mockingbird]

Think of it this way: Windows is a toy car and Linux is a Lego kit for a toy car. With Windows it is only ever a toy car but you dont have to put it together. With Linux if you are willing to put the time and creativity into building it it can be a plane or a robot or a car or whatever you want it to be.

Yeah, but what if you just want a toy car?

 

[Oh Ed not again.]

One that works?

Buy a mac.