Steam OS Installation Guide (UEFI Work-Around)

[Alpha17x]

Steam OS Installation Guide (UEFI Work-Around)

YOU ASSUME ALL RISK FOR FOLLOWING THIS GUIDE. VALVE DOES NOT SUPPORT THIS GUIDE, VALVE DID NOT WRITE THIS GUIDE. THIS IS NOT GAURANTEED TO WORK.

There are easy install ISO's out there now made by other users. look for them and see if they work for you before you try this. This guide is a 'last resort because nothing else worked' kind of thing.

Credit: FrostyCoolSlug on Reddit
Kisa, Doc Holliday, SudoAptGetPlay, StevenRaith, darkkterror on the Steam Universe Group

Disclaimer: Remember this before you begin. Doing this will likely get SteamOS installed on the desired system, however the hard drive will be wiped in the process. These instructions do not take dual boot into account. These instructions assume you are getting set to do this using a Windows based PC.



Part1: Getting the USB stick ready.


Download Steam OS (Get the Custom Beta Installation)
http://store.steampowered.com/steamos/buildyourown

Make a folder on your computer and name it ‘SteamOS USB’ or whatever you want as long as you keep track of it.

Within the folder you’ve created, create a folder called ‘grub’ and ‘syslinux’
Unzip the contents of the steamos zip file into the root folder you created.
-Make sure you’re not using the sysrestore.zip file.

Download syslinux and unzip it into the syslinux folder
https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinux/syslinux-6.02.zip

Now go get the two grub packages provided to us by FrostyCoolSlug from reddit.

http://www.l4d3.org/grub-pc_1.99-27+deb7u1+steamos3+bsos1_amd64.deb

http://www.l4d3.org/grub-pc-bin_1.99-27+deb7u1+steamos3+bsos1_amd64.deb

Save these files into the grub folder of under your SteamOS USB folder.

Get a USB stick/key and make note of the drive letter that windows assigns to it.
As with FrostyCoolSlug’s original instructions; we’ll assume it’s d: but make sure you get it right.

Once you’ve got the USB stick in, right click on it in the computer window. Choose to format it. Use the Fat32 file system and set the allocation size to default if it’s not already. Once it’s finished go ahead and close the format dialogue. You’re ready to move to the next step.
Open command prompt as an administrator. Using the drive letter that windows assigned to your usbkey type the following, replacing the example drive letter with your own

d:\syslinux\win32\syslinux.exe --install --mbr --active d:

Make sure you’re using the correct drive letter or you will have a very bad time. If you get a message saying that it’s not a removable drive stop. Cancel, and double check. If you do this on your root drive you are screwed hard. After you’re done, go ahead and close command prompt.

Now, open up notepad and paste the following into it;

DEFAULT linux
TIMEOUT 50
LABEL linux
kernel install.amd/vmlinuz
append initrd=install.amd/gtk/initrd.gz preseed/file=/cdrom/default.preseed DEBCONF_DEBUG=developer desktop=steamos auto=true priority=critical video=vesa:ywrap,mtrr vga=788 – quiet

Go to file> save as. Name it syslinux.cfg and change the file type from txt to all. Save it into the root folder of your SteamOS USB folder. It should be in the same folder you unzipped the OS zip file into.

After all of the files have successfully copied to your usb stick in the computer dialogue screen (the one that shows your hard drives) and choose the eject option. After you get notice saying it’s safe, take your usb stick out. Your SteamOS USB stick is ready.



Part 2: Installing SteamOS

This could be smooth and easy for you, you could be pulling your hair out. Best of luck to you.

Turn on your target PC and enter the bios.
Make sure that the first boot device on the list is one or all of your usb ports if your computer has multiple usb boot options just put them all at the top of the list. You want to make sure the system boots from your SteamOS stick before it boots the hard drive.

Once you’ve got it set, put your USB stick in and do a ‘save settings and exit’ Your system will restart and should boot from the USB stick. The installer will start automatically, at this point the old contents of your hard drive are pretty much gone. The installer will eventually say that it failed to install GRUB. Don’t worry. FrostyCoolSlug has our backs.
After you see the screen stating that GRUB failed to install, do not hit continue. Press Ctrl+Alt+F2 . You’ll be in a command line interface
Press Enter once it comes up.

Type the following 4 command lines in order;

chroot /target /bin/bash
apt-get install grub-common grub2-common
dpkg -i /media/cdrom/grub/grub-pc-bin_1.99-27+deb7u1+steamos3+bsos1_amd64.deb
dpkg -i /media/cdrom/grub/grub-pc_1.99-27+deb7u1+steamos3+bsos1_amd64.deb

It is really easy to get these wrong. Go slow. Triple check for typos.
The dpkg commands will show a lot of text if they succeed or fail so check the top line after you enter each command. It will tell you if the command worked. If it did, move on to the next step.

You should see a blue screen asking you to make a selection just press enter. it will ask you you want to continue without installing GRUB. Say yes and don't worry, we're just going to do it from the UI.

Once you’ve successfully entered those four lines press Ctrl+Alt+F5 to get back to the OS Installer UI.

Press ‘Continue’ to try the grub install. It should work this time. It may give you a dialogue saying it’s about to install grub. If you get this just press continue on it.

If all goes well the rest of the OS should install. You’ll get a message that says the install was successful and to take your media (the USB stick) out so it doesn’t restart the install. Make sure you take your stick out at this point. If you do not, your hard drive will get wiped by the USB stick and you will have to start from the beginning of the install process. Pay attention to what is happening here.



Part 3: You will beg for death before the end!

So you’ve got the OS installed, but that doesn’t mean you have anything working. You’re in the home-stretch now!

When the OS loads for the first time you’ll be greeted with a login screen. It will have a picture of a PC with the name ‘steamos’ this is not the account name, it’s the name of your computer.

Click on ‘Default XSession’ and change it to ‘GNOME’ use ‘GNOME’, not gnome classic, not anything else. Just ‘GNOME’ in the user field type in ‘steam’ all in lower case and press continue/enter. It will then ask for a password. Enter ‘steam’ all lower case.
Congratulations you’re inside a linux desktop. This doesn’t look very fancy or Steam-ish. Don’t worry, you’re not done. Yep, you’ve got EVEN MORE to do!

Got to the activities menu on the top left. Then click on applications. Open the ‘Terminal’ Application.

Once the terminal window opens you’ll notice if you’ve never seen it before that it’s a command prompt. Type in ‘steam’ and press enter. A steam EULA should open. Agree to it, and press okay and next whenever you are prompted to do so. Once it’s done and off of your screen close the terminal. You are ready for yet another step.

At the top right of your screen where it says ‘steam’ click on it and choose the logout option. You’ll see a 60 second count down. Just tell it to logout now. There is another account we need to sign into. This time enter the username of ‘desktop’ and the password of ‘desktop’
Open the terminal window again. Enter the following command;

./post_logon.sh

Include the period at the front of the command. Steam will now create a recovery partition and remove the setup account and restart.

At this point you may fail to boot. If you do one of two things are going to happen. It will boot or it won’t. Restart your computer if you have to. If you see the same thing and it failed to boot again, you are SOL for the time being. If you see a loading bar on the bottom of the screen, cry tears of joy. You are F-ing done. It will take a minute or so to load and you will see what looks like Steam Big Picture Mode come up.


Congratulation, you did it. Drink a bottle of vodka and cry softly into your pillow.
All you have to do now is make a new, or log into an existing steam account. You can ask it to save your password to avoid having to enter it every time if you don’t share your computer with others. You can enable a desktop option in the settings if you need to do any back-end admin or configuration things.

You may not have sound. You’re on own for getting that working if it’s not.

All credit for this guide goes to the people mentioned at the beginning of it. I simply compiled it based on the help they provided to me from the thread on reddit and the Steam Universe discussion.

[*****User5671089]

I got no graphics support for my geforce 550ti. need help installing the driver. I tried to run the nvidia installer but it wants me to uninstall the debian packages first

[jason.mcmullan]

Followed this guide (adapted the syslinux portion a bit, I used a Linux host to make my USB stick), works great on my ancient NVidia 9800 GT.

[pghammer21]

Schotz - I have the same GPU you do, and I only had to apply the UEFI workaround (ASUS P5G41-M LX2/GB, Q6600, nV GTX550Ti, SoundBlaster Recon3D Fatality PCI-E). The Creative sound card IS detected (and properly, as snd_hda_intel - that is how it should be detected, folks); I'm entering this from Iceweasel (in SteamOS desktop mode). I'm not using HDMI because this particular GTX550Ti uses a mini (not full-sized) HDMI port, and I don't have a mini-HDMI or DVI HDMI-adapter dongle.

[Grumpy Wolf]

It would be awesome if steam just released an iso, like every other version of linux out there......

[*****User5671089]

I'm using the mini HDMI (I got the adaptor). I followed some step by step instructions for manually installing nvidia packages in the wheezy terminal and after several attempts the video was working. Steam loaded in big picture mode and the little games I had like Toki Tori and Trine 2 played beautifully. Team Fortress 2 and Left for Dead 2 were very laggy and a slide show until I turned down the graphics. Those 2 games play perfectly in Windows, so I switched back to windows yesterday. I'm sure SteamOS will work better for me in the future, just not right now. I enjoyed using the SteamOS, it was a fun experience. I just don't have the best hardware for it right now.

[neuroKip]

Thanks for the guide!

I have managed to install the OS and it boots fine, even saw the loading bar, but after that the screen stays black. I do get some response when pressing esc though ( backlight goes off ). Anyone with the same issue?

Update:
On a second look the loading bar does not fill up, around 1/4 the screen goes black.

Edit:
If anyone has my same issue, the problem seems to be a black screen on top of an agreement page.
http://www.reddit.com/r/SteamOS/comments/1t7rb8/possible_solution_to_those_getting_a_black_screen/

[Pizza with Pineapple]

I can confirm this process works.

For me,
1. Different folder for the syslinux command, and 64 bit version.

2. It rebooted twice at the end, first time looked like an automatic (3rd?) menu selection, said it failed, then rebooted and with first menu item selected, started loading. WOOT!

3. Had to open a terminal and set the desktop account password with passwd in order to use sudo command.

4. Installed Ralink wireless adapter manually, instructions from Debian website; https://wiki.debian.org/tr2800usb

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list
#Debian 7 "Wheezy"
deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ wheezy main contrib non-free

(You might only need the last two commands)

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install firmware-ralink

5. Used gparted to shrink largest volume (I need the space)

6. Plugged second Windows drive back in, edited grub configuration

sudo nano etc/default/grub
GRUB_DEFAULT=saved
GRUB_TIMEOUT=5

sudo update-grub

and now it dual boots with a 5 second delay for the last selection.

Major Kudos to The President!

[directhex]

Ye Olde SteamOSe supports install to both BIOS and EFI systems, cleanly & transparently, including all the boot loader and recovery stuff. And dual boot, via Power User mode.

[UnkendTech]

Цитата допису directhex:

Ye Olde SteamOSe supports install to both BIOS and EFI systems, cleanly & transparently, including all the boot loader and recovery stuff. And dual boot, via Power User mode.

yes but it breaks sound did any one report this to you?

[directhex]

Цитата допису Doc Holliday:

Цитата допису directhex:

Ye Olde SteamOSe supports install to both BIOS and EFI systems, cleanly & transparently, including all the boot loader and recovery stuff. And dual boot, via Power User mode.

yes but it breaks sound did any one report this to you?

It doesn't touch sound vs. Valve's release. I need to work on some possible solutions to the recurring sound issue, but it's not clear to me yet what the best way to do it is.

[directhex]

Цитата допису Doc Holliday:

Цитата допису directhex:

Ye Olde SteamOSe supports install to both BIOS and EFI systems, cleanly & transparently, including all the boot loader and recovery stuff. And dual boot, via Power User mode.

yes but it breaks sound did any one report this to you?

Argh.

Worked out the audio problem - it's down to missing something Valve added to post_install.sh between the first and second release.

Still testing a rebuilt ISO, but in theory, to fix audio:

sudo adduser desktop pulse-access
sudo adduser steam pulse-access

[UnkendTech]

Цитата допису directhex:

Цитата допису Doc Holliday:

yes but it breaks sound did any one report this to you?

Argh.

Worked out the audio problem - it's down to missing something Valve added to post_install.sh between the first and second release.

Still testing a rebuilt ISO, but in theory, to fix audio:

sudo adduser desktop pulse-access
sudo adduser steam pulse-access

yeah it's not a big deal but non-linux users don't have a cue on how to fix thing's also i don't like how out of date Pulseaudio is in SteamOS

Ye Olde SteamOSe

chroot /target adduser --gecos "" --disabled-password steam
chroot /target usermod -a -G desktop,audio,dip,video,plugdev,netdev,bluetooth steam
echo "steam:steam" | chroot /target chpasswd
cp -r /cdrom/recovery /target/boot > /target/var/log/post_install.log
mv /target/boot/recovery/live /target/boot/recovery/live-hd
chroot /target date > /target/etc/skel/.imageversion
cp /target/etc/skel/.imageversion /target/home/steam/.imageversion

SteamOS

chroot /target adduser --gecos "" --disabled-password steam
chroot /target usermod -a -G desktop,audio,dip,video,plugdev,netdev,bluetooth,pulse-access steam
chroot /target usermod -a -G pulse-access desktop
echo "steam:steam" | chroot /target chpasswd
cp -r /cdrom/recovery /target/boot > /target/var/log/post_install.log
mv /target/boot/recovery/live /target/boot/recovery/live-hd
chroot /target date > /target/etc/skel/.imageversion
cp /target/etc/skel/.imageversion /target/home/steam/.imageversion

[directhex]

I'm conferring with a co-worker on fixing audio for good (e.g. not muted by default when you unmute it then reboot)

[MrSleepyguy]

I have a question, if I have a computer without an OS on it, can I still install SteamOS?

[borg_7_of_9]

Цитата допису MrSleepyguy:

I have a question, if I have a computer without an OS on it, can I still install SteamOS?

yes u can just make a bootable USB or CD/DVD on a working PC
Boot from that on the PC with no OS and your good to go..