SteamOS install - success (or not) installing on old hardware

[Cr3anmachin3]

I'm wondering what levels of success have forum members had installing SteamOS on older hardware. I have a decent gaming rig but I want to install SteamOS on an old HP Desktop I have. This is mainly to try and run it as a game streaming client beneath the TV. I initially followed the Steam install guide, then a more detailed one on Reddit. This resulted in crashing to what looked like a frozen Linux boot loader screen immediately upon booting from USB. I have since found a non-UEFI ISO by GamePad64 on Reddit and now I'm as far as the "detect and mount CD-ROM" portion of the install.

I will list my specs below here, and the problems so far as I see it. Interested to hear how far others have got with older kit:

HP 8000 Elite SFF desktop PC
Intel Core Duo E8400 3.0GHZ
8GB Crucial Ballistix RAM
NVIDIA 8600GT 256MB (or 512..can't remember)
160GB SATA HDD
Gbit LAN (no-wifi)

So far the major hurdles I have faced or will be facing will be:
- older non-UEFI BIOS (think GamePad64s ISO has got me past this)
- older Nvidia card. I think it should still install
- HDD below rec. specs but I've read SteamOS only really needs 100GB min. The 500GB min. is a recommendation if you want to fill it with games
- no wireless. I have the desktop hardwired to router over Gbit so should be ok
- Display Port. Desktop has standard business Display Port (P++) NOT HDMI. My TV to which this will be connected has only HDMI. I believe Display Port can carry video and audio but will need adapter. Wondering if anyone else used one of these and was able to get audio working.

Interesting little project this. Looking forward to hearing similar stories and advice. Thanks

[ocelot20]

I installed SteamOS on a PC I built out of spare parts. 4gb 1333mhz ram, Core 2 DUO 2.4ghz, AMD 5450 GPU.

My motherboard does not have UEFI so I followed a work around on youtube/reddit thread. All working fine. Big Picture Mode is a little laggy with a mouse and keyboard but ok with 360 controller.

[Cr3anmachin3]

cool. I've tried a custom ISO to bypass the UEFI but I've only got as far as installing and then booting to black screen with flashing cursor. Not sure where to go from here.

[directhex]

Core Duo is a problem. SteamOS is 64-bit only, Core Duo is 32-bit. You need a Core 2 Duo or newer.

[borg_7_of_9]

core 2 duo's are 64Bit OP should be fine there but his going to need a custom install possibly due to the small HDD im guessing!

Rest looks fine, nvidia seam to have better support for older cards I can't get past the graphics driver install with older AMD cards (Affects HD 4xxx and older) yet switch out to Nvida no problem..

Spec's
Core 2 Quad Extreme 9650 3G
2G DDR 3 1800Mhz cl7
2x AMD HD4890 1G (CFX) will have to get a cheap current card or use a GTS250 witch I have
500G Seagate 7200.12
G.Bit Lan
dLink Wireless

[tarvoke]

many tries and even more fails, here:
(not exactly optimal steambox but no slouch either. the main tl;dr is probably that I need to get a cheap r9/290)

amd phenom II x4 3ghz black edition (940/am2+)
8gb ddr2
fanless amd/ati HD4550
2TB drive
official MS 360 wired controller
non-EFI mainboard (M4A785-M if that really matters)

results:

- wheezy 7.3 kde + any method
-- yeah just don't try this

- wheezy 7.3 gdm3 + just try the official steam .deb
-- r600g/mesa video drivers are amazing.
-- HL2 is perfect.
-- xbox 360 controller is perfect
-- bluetooth/pulseaudio sound works with a little effort.
-- not meant to be, use ubuntu instead. otherwise this will not work unless you want to mess with the version of lib6c and messing with libc IS VERY BAD YOU WILL REGRET IT.

- wheezy 7.3 gdm3 + valve steamos repos
-- r600g/mesa video drivers are amazing.
-- HL2 is perfect.
-- xbox 360 controller is perfect
-- zero sound thru HDMI, broken gallium driver to thank.
-- yes there is a grub param fix for F/OSS radeon hdmi audio. yes, as most places will tell you, it also breaks F/OSS radeon video. yay.
-- bluetooth sound on classic gnome desktop, with some effort. but zero on steamos desktop. pulseaudio v2 to thank. almost had pulseaudiov4 working from wheezy backports, but, no.

- ye olde steamy os
-- brilliant but won't complete the install. fglrx 13 (or basically anything 12+) considers my HD4550 as dicta, and tries the required 5 times to install base-files, and gives up. I still don't get enough about debootstrap or the iso gen to change fglrx dep to mesa and rebuild the iso myself.
-- it would be nice if the official iso or ye olde defaulted to gallium3d/mesa or nouveau/mesa (and this stuff is definitely in the alchemist_beta repos, quelle surprise) if the vidcard was outdated/legacy. (not deriding all the effort directhex has put in - it is amazing work)

[directhex]

Originally posted by tarvoke:

- ye olde steamy os
-- brilliant but won't complete the install. fglrx 13 (or basically anything 12+) considers my HD4550 as dicta, and tries the required 5 times to install base-files, and gives up. I still don't get enough about debootstrap or the iso gen to change fglrx dep to mesa and rebuild the iso myself.
-- it would be nice if the official iso or ye olde defaulted to gallium3d/mesa or nouveau/mesa (and this stuff is definitely in the alchemist_beta repos, quelle surprise) if the vidcard was outdated/legacy. (not deriding all the effort directhex has put in - it is amazing work)

Wish I had the test hardware to make this possible, but I can't test it so I don't want to try & implement it blind

[Cr3anmachin3]

I've read that some people have been able to install on much smaller HDDs. The min 500GB rec. 1TB is just a guide.
I've managed to get SteamOS installed but when it restarts after install it boots to a black screen with a flashing cursor in the top left. I was suprised to even get that far...now I just need to figure out how to get past this point.
My biggest concern (once I solve this problem) is getting sound from it. I've read that SteamOS only supports HDMI sound, not output from a stereo jack on motherboard.

[tarvoke]

Originally posted by directhex:

Wish I had the test hardware to make this possible, but I can't test it so I don't want to try & implement it blind

no worries you've already done so much for the community. thank you for that!

[directhex]

OK. I think I have a 1-line or 2-line fix for the fglrx issue on HD4000-series and older:

Add to the preseed file you care about (e.g. poweruser.preseed):

libfglrx	fglrx-driver/check-for-unsupported-gpu	boolean false
libfglrx	fglrx-driver/install-even-if-unsupported-gpu-exists	boolean true

Problem is I don't know what result it would have - i.e. I know how to suppress the error via preseed file editing, but I don't know whether the OS is then smart enough to just use the open source driver rather than try to load the proprietary driver then shit the bed

If someone with the right skills can test it & confirm success, I'll put it in a future Ye Olde SteamOSe release

[tarvoke]

thanks directhex - sorry, I really should have saved my logs (machine is back on wheezy for now)

from the last time I tried, it seems like that's basically what debootstrap tries to do anyway:

fglrx checks if the card is supported, and if not it still goes for the
"install-even-if-unsupported-gpu-exists"

and naturaly that *still* fails. but - the boolean true on your 2nd statement *might* let it slide past?

if I could just boot into a terminal and pull in some ati rv710 microcode blobs and debian repos for any extra xorg requirements, I could probably get mesa working. but I'm not sure it's worth the effort - the ati HDMI audio is still broken in gallium/mesa, and bluetooth audio is still a huge mess on its own ;-)

made some changes to the preseed on a usb stick of the 01/08 ye olde, and I'm also building a new iso from your github which I'll try later depending on how well the preseed changes work or not...

[NotAFish]

I installed successfully on a Dell Precision M4500 Laptop.

Installation went smooth, but had audio and display issues (black screen bacause SteamOS didn't prefer the TV, but tried to run on both screens.) when connecting through displayport.

Fixed it by disconnecting the internal display cable since I did not need it. ( Located under a small grey lid beneath the laptop.) And changed a line in a file in /etc/modprobe.d/ to get sound working through displayport.

This was really the hardest part of the install, I had to install alsa-utils and follow this guide religiously ftp:/download.nvidia.com/XFree86/gpu-hdmi-audio-document/gpu-hdmi-audio.html#issues_in_alsa

The probe_mask stuff in this guide finally worked for me, but to fix this, you need to know what the driver has named your HDMI/DP soundcards, and run aplay to test if it actually works. Long story short, it was not easy.

the laptop is running an intel i7 640 cpu, and a quadro fx1800 GPU, 8 GB RAM and a 120 GB SSD.

Edit: PC has displayport, bought a cheap DP to HDMI adapter on Dealextreme. Works like a charm.

[tarvoke]

thanks directhex for preseed recommendations. tried in both 01/08 ye olde and also an iso I made with gen.sh -d but still same 5x failure

(I put the lines you mentioned in poweruser.preseed, above where it looks like it's doing base files install. not sure if it matters where to put them?)

actual syslog here
http://pastebin.com/8K1vHa6D

[jpr9845]

Can Steam OS be installed on a pc as a dual boot? (Window 7 x64/Steam OS)

[borg_7_of_9]

At this stage I don't know of a work around for <5xxx cards unless the latest update supports older AMD cards if so Valve will update there steamOSinstaller file.. From what I can see at repo.steampowered.com/download the OS installer is newer than the one I was working with when I first tried on my OLD rig..

I'll wait for another Installer update before trying again as I assume it's not as current as alchemist_beta which seams to have fix a lot of the performance issues I was Having with my HD7970's

Another option may be to opt in to the beta from the console when the system fails to load the fglrx drivers to see if older cards are supported..

Dam U AMD! A pair of HD4890's in CFX still rock and would make for a mean SteamOS PC to complement my main gaming rig! (Note: I'd like the old rig to be SteamOS only for the Lounge room)

@jpr9845 yes but not from the stock installer unless you mod it! or have a separate HDD to install on :note remove/disable any HDD's that you don't want erased.. ALL drives will be erased if using Valves installer!

[directhex]

Originally posted by jpr9845:

Can Steam OS be installed on a pc as a dual boot? (Window 7 x64/Steam OS)

Not from Valve's installer. Try Ye Olde SteamOSe