SteamOS Official Thread.

Hades · 16 Dec 2013 at 16:30

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

Pick a Linux distro that looks like the car you want because someone has already put it together for you. That's why there are so many different distro's. You pick can one that does exactly what you want and then customise it if you want to, or leave it alone.

** Except gaming

Skeeter · 21 Dec 2013 at 23:10

Thinking ahead, I have little interest in Steam OS as a full game playing platform, but a lot of interest in the Home Streaming part.

Would Gigabit Ethernet have the bandwidth to stream HD video and audio, plus feed back control inputs, all with zero lag? If so then a Raspberry Pi style device streaming my main PC has much more potential than being stuck with a fraction of the Steam catalogue on a fully blown 2nd machine.

Although a 15m HDMI lead and wireless Xbox pad have served me well so far.

Boomstick777 · 9 Jan 2014 at 20:12

AMD Catalyst™ 13.11 LINUX Beta V9.95 Driver

http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/Latest-LINUX-Beta-Driver.aspx

Boomstick777 · 15 Jan 2014 at 21:52

Installed and had a play with SteamOS today on the PC in my sig. Installation was easy. The desktop mode runs fine, setup the browser the way my Windows one is and everything seems fine. Games seem to look great but run weird, I'm not even sure if my GPU drivers have installed, on Steam info it shows 0 vram memory on my GPU. I am new to Linux so will take some time to get used to.

Overall, very impressed so far. I could live with the desktop enviroment for 24/7 use, I need to work out how to install VLC, and latest AMD drivers, then will be happy with it..

panyan · 16 Jan 2014 at 02:11

I wonder if its possible to just install the steamos packages into a current linux system?

uncle_rufus · 16 Jan 2014 at 07:32

Depends if SteamOS is just the steam client running in big-picture mode, which you can already install onto several linux distros, or something with deeper hooks into the window manager, kernel, etc. I suspect it's the latter, as if all they needed was a custom Ubuntu with the steam client on it they could have launched that and branded it an "OS" ages ago

mortals · 16 Jan 2014 at 13:46

uncle_rufus said:
Depends if SteamOS is just the steam client running in big-picture mode, which you can already install onto several linux distros, or something with deeper hooks into the window manager, kernel, etc. I suspect it's the latter, as if all they needed was a custom Ubuntu with the steam client on it they could have launched that and branded it an "OS" ages ago

I think at the moment it is just debian made to boot into the linux steam client in big picture mode

A while ago they did say about improving input latency and maybe improving performance which I guess could be more a driver module level improvement but I would think any improvements made to driver modules could benefit all linux as they would be usable on any linux kernel :confused:

I do like how they didn't ubuntu as a base for the os tho.

panyan · 16 Jan 2014 at 16:58

mortals said:
I do like how they didn't ubuntu as a base for the os tho.

why is that?

uncle_rufus · 16 Jan 2014 at 19:05

Ubuntu has gotten a bit corporate for a lot of peoples tastes these days... Like their menu (start menu basically) which now has Ads... ADS?! I don't want to see bloody Amazon adverts as part of the OS itself, it's just obnoxious...

Boomstick777 · 20 Jan 2014 at 17:11

If more games were supported, and programs were made easier to install during desktop mode, I would switch for good. Until then it's Windows for me. Using Linux made me appreciate just how good Windows is tbh. SteamOS has great potential though, maybe 1 or 2 years and it will be a good alternative..

panyan · 20 Jan 2014 at 19:11

Boomstick777 said:
Using Linux made me appreciate just how good Windows is tbh.

For me it is the exact opposite

uncle_rufus · 20 Jan 2014 at 21:57

Boomstick777 said:
Using Linux made me appreciate just how good Windows is tbh

Geeeuuurrrrrrgggggggghhharaahhhh (imagine the sound that Sideshow Bob makes in the simpsons when he steps on the rake and it hits him in the face)

In all seriousness though I can understand why someone very used to Windows might be put off... And frankly for a lot of the most typical tasks most people use their Windows machine for Linux isn't really any better (it's not a lot worse either but hey)...

Gregster · 20 Jan 2014 at 22:04

I want this to succeed in a big way. I love open standards and SteamOS is pushing that the right way. For those who have this installed, I want to run this in a dual boot OS with my W7, so have a couple of questions:

1. Can I use my current steam games from the same HDD I have them on for W7 and is it just like using steam mover or do I have to have them on a seperate HDD/partition?
2. Does W7 recognise this as an OS for a Dual boot or would I have something else to do first?
3. Do you have to have the games on the same drive as the OS or again can you have the OS on a 60GB SSD for instance and use a HDD just for the games or does the OS need to be on the same partition/HDD for the games.

Sorry if these have been answered already and I am a complete noob with Linux and I mean complete.

Boomstick777 · 20 Jan 2014 at 23:10

uncle_rufus said:
Geeeuuurrrrrrgggggggghhharaahhhh (imagine the sound that Sideshow Bob makes in the simpsons when he steps on the rake and it hits him in the face)

In all seriousness though I can understand why someone very used to Windows might be put off... And frankly for a lot of the most typical tasks most people use their Windows machine for Linux isn't really any better (it's not a lot worse either but hey)...

Yeah I'm not anti Linux, but it's just not compatible with 90% of the stuff I use on my Windows PC. If I was just web browsing etc, SteamOS (Linux) would be fine. SteamOS looks like it could be great, especially if the hardware can get more performance, but right now, it didn't run or look as good as Windows titles. In a year or two I imagine it will have come a long way, will def consider using it again then, as I would love a solid alternative for Windows. SteamOS just not quite ready for prime time yet...

uncle_rufus · 21 Jan 2014 at 07:33

Gregster said:
1. Can I use my current steam games from the same HDD I have them on for W7 and is it just like using steam mover or do I have to have them on a seperate HDD/partition?

Linux and Windows tend to use different file-systems (i.e. W7 uses NTFS whereas I imagine SteamOS will be using ext3 or ext4) meaning Windows wouldn't be able to understand the files SteamOS can. I tried to see if this was possible with the Steam client on a dual booting Win7-Ubuntu machine and it isn't. The Linux native version of Valves own games like TF2 for example uses a totally different set of files which don't appear to be compatible with the Windows equivalents

Gregster said:
2. Does W7 recognise this as an OS for a Dual boot or would I have something else to do first?

Dual boots aren't really a case of the existing OS "recognising" the other one. You just create a new partition on the drive and install the second OS into it, then use something like a boot manager to allow you to select which one to boot into on startup. Most OS (Linux certainly) are designed to let you specify exactly what partition on the drive you want them to install to, but last I heard SteamOS didn't have that functionality yet - so it just expects to wipe the entire drive and install itself on it (which would take out any existing Windows 7 partition and destroy everything). So yeah unless that has changed proceed with caution (I think I recall someone saying there was a way to dual boot but it must require a few extra tricks)

Gregster said:
3. Do you have to have the games on the same drive as the OS or again can you have the OS on a 60GB SSD for instance and use a HDD just for the games or does the OS need to be on the same partition/HDD for the games.

On my Linux steam client (not SteamOS just Steam on Ubuntu) there was no option of installing it to a different drive like there is in the Windows client. This may have changed, but even if not I don't see why it wouldn't be possible on Linux to install to the OS drive and then manually relocate the game files and use a symbolic link to point the original folder location to the new one. This is essentially what Steam-Mover does in Windows.

Gregster · 21 Jan 2014 at 08:55

Thanks Rufus and for the most part, it seems fairly standard. It would make sense to buy a 2TB+ drive and install SteamOS onto that and just download the current games I have on to that as well. Easy switching in the BIOS for what drive to boot from would do the trick nicely.

I will certainly be giving this a go when I have a faster internet and some free time. Thanks again

uncle_rufus · 21 Jan 2014 at 09:43

Gregster said:
Thanks Rufus and for the most part, it seems fairly standard. It would make sense to buy a 2TB+ drive and install SteamOS onto that and just download the current games I have on to that as well. Easy switching in the BIOS for what drive to boot from would do the trick nicely.

I will certainly be giving this a go when I have a faster internet and some free time. Thanks again

No problem... Your above suggestions sounds pretty sensible although it shouldn't be necessary to use the BIOS to switch which drive to boot from... You can just install a boot manager onto whatever drive the BIOS is set to try and boot from that which will then allow you to select...

(So for instance I use the rEFInd boot manager on my machine so after the Gigabyte splash screen I get a nice graphical menu popup where I can select from Windows 7, Ubuntu or Linux Mint, and if nothing is pressed after 10 seconds it just boots into the default (Win7 at the moment)). Technically I do have all 3 on one drive, but as far as I know there is no reason you can't set it up so one of the menu entries directs the system to try and boot from a different disk.

My advice would be to back up everything first in case anything breaks and then mess about with it a bit to get it setup in a nice way. Good luck!!

Gregster · 21 Jan 2014 at 10:29

Nice one. I used to dual boot XP with Vista and that worked a charm but wasn't sure if SSD's came with any hiccups

Thanks for the info.

Phantom Shadow · 21 Jan 2014 at 11:35

No problems using SSD with dual booting, works just like a normal hard drive. Not tried steamos yet but I've got windows and linux both installed on an ssd using grub to pick between them. (Set with no splash screen and 1 second timer, so it appears to just go straight to linux but you can hit escape on boot to then pick windows).

I've got a 3TB hard drive with all the steam files on, at least with the steam client you just add a library location same as on windows and games go there instead. You can't share game files with windows though, atleast you won't be able to for most games as they will use different binaries on linux then on windows. I've just got a 'Steam Windows' and a 'Steam Linux' folder on the hard drive to keep things separate.

Boomstick777 · 23 Jan 2014 at 01:38

New SteamOS beta tempts more testers with support for older PCs and dual-booting

Valve released its SteamOS beta with a warning: Only touch this if you know what you're doing. While that surely did something to separate true testers from the first wave of eager users, there were a few problems. Even the qualified needed a relatively new machine with UEFI, and a dedicated one at that, given attempts to make the OS a secondary boot option were troublesome at best. However, a fresh beta that folds in efforts by both Valve and the community is now available.

http://www.engadget.com/2014/01/22/steamos-beta/?ncid=rss_truncated