SteamOS - Revision history

Goldbolt: /* Arch chroot install */

2023-07-13T19:48:47Z

‎Arch chroot install

Goldbolt: /* Arch chroot install */

2023-07-13T19:42:01Z

‎Arch chroot install

Goldbolt at 19:28, 13 July 2023

2023-07-13T19:28:24Z

Goldbolt: Created page with "SteamOS is a Linux distribution developed by Valve. It incorporates Valve's popular namesake Steam video game storefront and is the primary operating system for Steam Machines..."

2023-07-13T19:24:58Z

Created page with "SteamOS is a Linux distribution developed by Valve. It incorporates Valve's popular namesake Steam video game storefront and is the primary operating system for Steam Machines..."

New page

SteamOS is a Linux distribution developed by Valve. It incorporates Valve's popular namesake Steam video game storefront and is the primary operating system for Steam Machines and the Steam Deck. SteamOS is open source with some closed source components.

SteamOS was originally built to support streaming of video games from one personal computer to the one running SteamOS within the same network, although the operating system can support standalone systems and was intended to be used as part of Valve's Steam Machine platform. SteamOS versions 1.0, released in December 2013, and 2.0 were based on the Debian distribution of Linux with GNOME desktop. With SteamOS, Valve encouraged developers to incorporate Linux compatibility into their releases to better support Linux gaming options.

In February 2022, Valve released the handheld gaming computer Steam Deck running SteamOS 3.0. SteamOS 3 is based on the Arch Linux distribution with KDE Plasma 5.

=Arch chroot install=

This is for installing and using programs like 'tmux' and 'neofetch' on the Steam Deck and it be kept after an OS upgrade. This will set up and install a chroot environment so there is a file system structure in which pacman can download and install packages and their dependencies within here. A chroot environment is not necessary but it can be added it to the $PATH.

mkdir -p ~/.local/chroot
cd ~/.local
sudo pacman -Sy archlinux-keyring
sudo pacman-key --populate archlinux
sudo pacman-key --refresh-keys
sudo pacstrap ./chroot base base-devel archlinux-keyring nano htop
echo alias pac=\'sudo pacstrap -C /home/deck/.local/chroot/etc/pacman.conf /home/deck/.local/chroot\' >> ~/.bashrc
touch /etc/ld.so.conf.d/deck-local-arch.conf
echo export PATH=\"/home/deck/.local/chroot/bin/:$PATH\" >> ~/.bashrc

Now those packages are accessible for use as the 'deck' user from within SteamOS. It does not work for every package like those requiring a kernel module or systemd service but most normal shell tools will work. Install using 'pac package'.

@@ Line 13: / Line 13: @@
      sudo mv /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.BAK
      sudo touch /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
      sudo echo "Server = https://geo.mirror.pkgbuild.com/\$repo/os/\$arch" >> /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
      sudo pacman -Sy archlinux-keyring
      sudo pacman-key --populate archlinux

@@ Line 11: / Line 11: @@
      mkdir -p ~/.local/chroot
      cd ~/.local
      sudo pacman -Sy archlinux-keyring
      sudo pacman-key --populate archlinux
@@ Line 18: / Line 21: @@
      touch /etc/ld.so.conf.d/deck-local-arch.conf
      echo export PATH=\"$PATH:/home/deck/.local/chroot/bin/\" >> ~/.bashrc
 Now those packages are accessible for use as the 'deck' user from within SteamOS. It does not work for every package like those requiring a kernel module or systemd service but most normal shell tools will work. Install using 'pac package'.