Arch Linux's 'pacman' package manager is available for use in developer mode. However, unlike most games consoles, this is a fully open device, and it can be switched into a developer mode where the operating system partition is read/write and can be modified. In normal use, the active operating system partition is read-only, to make the Steam Deck as robust as possible.

The KDE community has done a lot of work to improve the experience, including theme changes, additional UI elements and stability fixes. Of course, new operating system images are downloaded with block-based deltas, so only the changed parts need to be re-downloaded.įor your non-gaming needs, the device comes with KDE Plasma Desktop pre-installed, allowing you to use the Deck for desktop tasks and use your existing peripherals via the USB-C port. If the upgraded version does not boot successfully, then the bootloader automatically falls back to the previous system partition, and you can try again later. If the upgrade was successful, you continue to use the new OS, and the previous system partition is reused for the next upgrade. A specialized bootloader module then automatically selects the newer operating system and boots into it. When upgrading, a new operating system image is written to whichever partition is not currently in use, before rebooting the system. With its new “A/B” design, there are now two operating system partitions, with two different versions of SteamOS. SteamOS 3 is based on Arch Linux, a rolling-release distribution which includes the latest Mesa release for open-source accelerated graphics support, and supersedes the Debian-based SteamOS 2 release used on the earlier Steam Machine project.Ī handheld device needs a solid update framework, so one of Collabora's major contributions to SteamOS 3 was to help implement seamless system updates. This new device comes with a new release of SteamOS, a specialized Linux distribution for gaming devices, which Valve and Collabora have been working on together for several years. Congratulations to Valve on the release of the Steam Deck, their new handheld gaming PC!

Steam os deck