It's finally here! SteamOS is available to download!

[ThorBuildingLegos]

Interesting... after downloading and checking out the archive listed here I see Steam went with using partimg. Not a bad idea actually. Judging by their automatic partition setup  -- 1 fat32 EFI partition, 1 root (or system partition), one recovery partition (in the same size as the system partition, which is probably only accessible when you boot via recovery mode), 1 SWAP partition (ofc) and 1 home partition -- they've made it so that instead of installing packages individually they just "flash" a partition. Both the system and recovery partitions are 10G each and can therefor easily be imaged in to smaller files that can be written to try to form a new identical 10GB partition. All games are stored in the home partition which means you won't have to re-download the games when you reinstall. This way if you somehow botch your system you can easily just use partimage to "reinstall" SteamOS... not that it woud ever have to come to that.. I mean it's LinuX after all. Prepare for epic uptimes.

[ThorBuildingLegos]

First of all you COULD technically install SteamOS on an MBR disk (i.e not an EFI or UEFI system). You need to write the mbr file to the first sectors on the usb stick or CD/DVD drive. There's a workaround guide for non-UEFI systems on the Steam U forums.

 

As for me I've litterally given up. This is because I found out that SteamOS includes its own costum graphics compositor built on top of Xorg, and reinstalling a different version of X or trying to find a decent version of Wayland for Weezy (is it weezy?) is not a comprimise I'm willing to take just to see some GUI and perhaps play the few games I have available for LinuX. Oh they all work, I've played them all on an Arch Linux install I made some time ago -- which I will be installing side-by-side and comparing with the ATI-ready version of Steam when it's released, since I believe Arch to be more "cutting edge" (translation: unstable) and minimal enough to cut off a little extra performance overhead -- plus I'd like to see Wayland vs Xorg+Valves.

[qwertywarrior]

do the "custom installer" method

its much easier

 

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/12/everything-you-need-to-know-to-install-steamos-on-your-very-own-computer/

[ThorBuildingLegos]

do the "custom installer" method

its much easier

 

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/12/everything-you-need-to-know-to-install-steamos-on-your-very-own-computer/

 

I did, the first time, but was miffed that I couldn't get X to start. Tried to reinstall using the recovery (or diskimage) version. Found out about the new largely unsupported graphics overlay and I flipped my table and gave up No DRI, no go (and like I said: i don't wanna go about replacing Xorg or adding Wayland -- I'll just wait untill ATI support is added to their OS).

[Mo5]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

 

Time to pull out my secret weapon, MY LAPTOP!

Someone's forgetting about virtual machines

[Khraft]

Someone's forgetting about virtual machines

 

I don't think my virtualbox is equipped with an Nvidia graphics card, at least the last time I used one it didn't.

[TheProfosist]

Its gnome 3 on top of the linux kernel. You have to actively try to fuck it up for it to not take preexisting hardware drivers.

Well they did actively screw with it for what ever reasons they have.

[TheProfosist]

I did, the first time, but was miffed that I couldn't get X to start. Tried to reinstall using the recovery (or diskimage) version. Found out about the new largely unsupported graphics overlay and I flipped my table and gave up No DRI, no go (and like I said: i don't wanna go about replacing Xorg or adding Wayland -- I'll just wait untill ATI support is added to their OS).

yep that be your best bet for ATI is my guess. From what ive read from posts its pretty closed even though its a modified version of debian.