SteamOS Beta: Installation and Test

Despite my stance on DRM (I abhor the entire concept for many, many reasons, but that's for another post), due to demands gentle encouragement from friends I decided to try out Steam (and specifically, SteamOS) and see what it's all about.

At this point SteamOS is in Beta, and while it's got a lot of areas to iron out, once you get it installed it works pretty well, including fully functional AMD GPU drivers despite no official support.

Initially I tried to run this on my old Core 2 Quad system, but the install failed because the BIOS wasn't new enough (needed to have UEFI Boot option). But on a newer machine the install process was much smoother. It was a fairly low-specced machine with the following parts: Intel G1610, 2GB RAM, AMD HD7770, 128GB Sandisk Ultra Plus SSD.

SteamOS desktop

Here are the steps:

• I chose the SteamOSIntaller.zip option, mainly because I thought the CloneZilla-based image option wouldn't work because I didn't have a 1TB HDD, which was apparently required for the image.
• Instead of following the installer instructions in the SteamOS FAQ, I converted it to an ISO using the following command:
grub-mkrescue -o SteamOS.iso steam/
• Next I put the ISO on a flash drive (using Unetbootin or ISO writer of choice). I discovered that even with the ISO, UEFI boot is required.
• Selected "Automated Install" from the boot list. Everything went smoothly for me from this point.
• Initially I was just running with Intel onboard graphics. After install, I plugged in the HD7770. It picked up the fglrx_pci drivers and "just worked" which was nice.
• The first time, you have to run "steam" from the console. It downloads and installs Steam (about 220MB). After installing and creating my account, it "crashed" (spat out a crash ID anyway). I restarted using the "Steam" icon on the desktop, which worked fine.

The first game I installed was Killing Floor. I was only running it at 1680x1050 (using an old monitor), but it looked great at High settings.

Killing Floor on SteamOS at 1450x900

Only games with a Linux target will work. Non-linux games appear in the Steam client window, but don't have an "Install" button. I assume that someone will work out how to get a wine option to run Windows only games via SteamOS, but I haven't tried this yet.

Things of interest to note:

• The installer erases the target drive, and potentially any other drives plugged in. I installed on a fresh system to make sure no data was accidentally lost.
• USB drives mount as read-only by default, and the "steam" user doesn't have permission to do even that. Makes it a pain trying to transfer screenshots or anything between computers.
• The software sources are limited basically to Steam repos. I assume you can add other sources in, but haven't explored this.