I am trying to find a guide for setting up a SteamOS VM. I got the headless Docker to work, but wanted to use a VM instead. Any advice would be helpful. I am running an:

 

CPU- AMD epyc rome 64core

MB- Asrock ROMED2T

RAM- ECC 128GB

GPU- RTX QUADRO 4000

Have you tried the SteamOS VM template? What it is exactly you need help with?

2 hours ago, bobbintb said:

Have you tried the SteamOS VM template? What it is exactly you need help with?

I did try. It asked for an ISO for the setup. I downloaded the Steam OS from the site, but it would not allow me to use it for the setup of the VM. I was looking for a. way to run it as a VM and seeing if anyone had a guide for setup?

Hmmm... I've been meaning to try a SteamOS VM myself. I seem to recall one could just download the ISO and install it like any other OS but it seems like that is not the case anymore. My initial research indicates that since the Steam Deck came out, SteamOS has undergone major changes with v3.0 and they only have a recovery image for SteamOS. But there is a guide of sorts on Steam to put it on other hardware:
https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/1B71-EDF2-EB6D-2BB3

I haven't tried it myself though.

There's also HoloISO, which has taken the recovery image and repackaged it into an installer. It seems many are using that for now, until Steam provides an official general use ISO.

https://github.com/HoloISO/releases

Looks like the link is broken but it's still on their site:

https://cd2.holoiso.ru.eu.org/holoiso-installer/rel/

Edited June 9, 20251 yr by bobbintb

Sorry for the radio silence. Had to rebuild my server lol. I'm going to give it a try and report back.

On 6/9/2025 at 1:28 PM, bobbintb said:

Hmmm... I've been meaning to try a SteamOS VM myself. I seem to recall one could just download the ISO and install it like any other OS but it seems like that is not the case anymore. My initial research indicates that since the Steam Deck came out, SteamOS has undergone major changes with v3.0 and they only have a recovery image for SteamOS. But there is a guide of sorts on Steam to put it on other hardware:
https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/1B71-EDF2-EB6D-2BB3

I haven't tried it myself though.

There's also HoloISO, which has taken the recovery image and repackaged it into an installer. It seems many are using that for now, until Steam provides an official general use ISO.

https://github.com/HoloISO/releases

Looks like the link is broken but it's still on their site:

https://cd2.holoiso.ru.eu.org/holoiso-installer/rel/

The Holo option may have worked, but I do not have an AMD GPU. :(

On 6/14/2025 at 12:53 PM, luminus said:

Sorry for the radio silence. Had to rebuild my server lol. I'm going to give it a try and report back.

Have you have any luck since your last post?

Hello

This maybe the first ever post I can help.

(1) Download image

(2) WinRAR extract img file

(3) Use Rufus to flash USB - on the img is 5 partitions.

(4) Plug into UNRAID

(5) Mount - not my 5th partition would not mount (to check if this is a problem with the USB)

Partitions

1 - esp vfat

2 - efi vfat

3 - rootfs - btfs

4 - var - ext4

5 - home - ext4 (unmountable?)

(6) In terminal type: ls -lha /dev/disk/by-id/

(7) Find usb-Kingston_DataTraveler_3.0_60A44C426518BEA0DB429420-0:0

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Dec 5 14:50 usb-Kingston_DataTraveler_3.0_60A44C426518BEA0DB429420-0:0 -> ../../sdx

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Dec 5 14:50 usb-Kingston_DataTraveler_3.0_60A44C426518BEA0DB429420-0:0-part1 -> ../../sdx1

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Dec 5 14:50 usb-Kingston_DataTraveler_3.0_60A44C426518BEA0DB429420-0:0-part2 -> ../../sdx2

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Dec 5 14:50 usb-Kingston_DataTraveler_3.0_60A44C426518BEA0DB429420-0:0-part3 -> ../../sdx3

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Dec 5 14:50 usb-Kingston_DataTraveler_3.0_60A44C426518BEA0DB429420-0:0-part4 -> ../../sdx4

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Dec 5 14:50 usb-Kingston_DataTraveler_3.0_60A44C426518BEA0DB429420-0:0-part5 -> ../../sdx5

(8) In SteamOS VM template; I used OVMF for bios

(9) In SteamOS VM template; add a second vdisk, select manual and type: /dev/disk/by-id/***copy the device in step 7 and dont include these 6 stars***

(10) Ensure usb devices you have not selected the USB

(11) Select virtual; note I found the RTX3060ti sluggish; VNC worked better for the install.

(12) Run steamOS template

(13) At shell type exit to go into boot manager

(14) Select "UEFI Misc Device"

(15) SteamOS installer boots

(16) At GUI select Wipe Device & Install SteamOS icon

At this point I had issues with "NVME" - if you have passed through a NVME you will unlikely have this issue, if you have a vdisk like me.

(A) Force Stop VM

(B) Into the template, select XML.

(C) Under the vdisk (not your USB) - change <target dev='hdc' bus='sata' rotation_rate='1'/> to <target dev='nvme0n1' bus='nvme'/>

(D) delete the <address type='pci'> under vdisk1.

(E) Save and restart the SteamOS

(17) Select "Wipe Device Device & Install SteamOS icon

(18) With the format caution, click proceed.

(19) Click proceed to reboot after "Reimaging Complete"

(20) Enter username, password and steam guard.

(21) Hit shutdown to shutdown VM, configure GPU in VM template. Remove rufus steam.img USB - I used a NVIDIA RTX3060ti

(22) Restart VM

(23) When booted open Konsole type "flatpak install flathub org.mozilla.firefox"

(24) Once downloaded type "flatpak run org.mozilla.firefox"

You have to set a admin password to unlock read-only, enter console and type: passwd

if you have locked yourself out you will need to reboot, and do the next steps otherwise ignore.

Goto "Terminal with repaire tools" and type:

sudo ~/tools/repair_device.sh chroot

rm -f /var/lib/overlays/etx/upper/passwd

rm -f /var/liv/overlays/etc/upper/shadow

then reboot removing USB. Goto Settings > User and set password

(25) Type sudo steamos-readonly disable

(26) Type sudo pacman-key --init

(27) Type sudo pacman-key --populate archlinux

(28) sudo pacman -S archlinux-keyring

(29) For nvidia: sudo pacman -S nvidia nvidia-utils nvidia-settings

(30) hit proceed with installation

(31) sudo reboot

After this point I just got a black screen, so went back to VNC.

No matter what I did I could not progress.

I gave up with the NVidia 3060ti, and used my Arc - it worked.

Edited December 5, 2025Dec 5 by SmokeyColes