There you go, guys. Since I didn't have UEFI support on my mobo yet, I couldn't try it. But it definitely looks cool, and I can't wait until AMD Catalyst driver support is included, and (hopefully) they'll remove UEFI BIOS as a requirement, and also I hope they also remove the "cannot have Windows as a dual-boot" requirement as well.
Anyways guys, hope you like this. Check out Austin's channel, he's got some good videos, but this one is the best.
Have fun, guys.
I for one am pretty stoked on SteamOS. I really hope it gets to the point where it can fill the hole my dead PS3 left in me.
I'm hopeful that with this, Linux might take off. We still need a lot of games to be ported.
I for one would love to see Skyrim, Guild Wars 2, Hawken, BioShock Infinite, The Witcher 2, Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon, Neverwinter (MMO) and Don't Starve having full-blown Linux ports (including full-featured settings in those games).
With better Linux drivers from AMD and nVidia, this might really help improve performance. But without Mantle support and without an AMD driver, and without any major AAA next-gen titles (still waiting on Battlefield 4 with Mantle support), we'll have to wait and see how much of a performance increase we get.
Besides the point, but Austin Evans is a huge idiot and his videos are boring as hell, not to mention he is an eyesore.
Sorry for the mini rant, but I never get to talk about him.
I'd like to disagree... but I can't. You said everything I've wanted to say, but never did because Austin is such a nice guy. I do think his videos are wayy to simple, and he's not focused enough on PC. I like Elric from Tech of Tomorrow more. A like Linus' videos more than I like Linus himself (the one from LinusTechTips - not Linus Torvald, that guy is just plain awesome, had to mention it since the topic is Linux-related). And as for Logan... well, Logan is Logan, and that's all there is to it. =P
But yeah, this is one of the few tutorials and first looks at SteamOS. Although I'd certaintly love a much more in-depth video and installation guide from TekSyndicate as well. =)
hey guys punch me in the face
Hey guys, Found this guide. It allows installation of the SteamOS without a UEFI bios.
http://www.reddit.com/r/SteamOS/comments/1su4t1/uefi_requirement_with_steamos/
Imo, installing SteamOS on bare metal is almost as stupid as installing windows on bare metal.
SteamOS is not a normal, trustworthy GNU/Linux distro, it's based on linux but looks as much as a Linux PC as your TV or your home alarm system, which are also Linux systems. It has Microsoft's signature on it in more than one way, it's as if it was partially made by Microsoft even, so it's definitely aimed at the Xbone. AMD drivers work, Intel drivers also, but not without hacking. The biggest hack however is to make it behave like a more normal linux distro, because SteamOS does some really stupid things:
- 10 GB swap, and it's being used, that's not normal, that means that there must be a nefarious purpose for this, because that really can't be when the system requirements say 4 GB of RAM and the Valve client is basically still 32-bit and so are all the Steam games.
- use of Windows filesystems, yeah... I don't have words for that, I really don't...
- hacking open source packages without respect for the quality control and rules of open source, pretty much in the same way Google or Microsoft happily hack around without maintaining the quality of the code. This is a BIG problem. All those commercial jackasses HAVE to learn that open source is about responsibility and quality, it's not grabatron for capitalists.
- SteamOS as it is now is just lame... the open source community already has all-in-console-interfaces that are better than SteamOS, and has had them for years now. SteamOS looks like it was made by amateurs, like as if it was made by Windows devs that develop something on linux for the first time. And with the time they've been working on it already, they will need at least another year to get it to the quality level of Android 2.2, whereas everything they do if they play by the open source rules to unlock the use of hardware and to bring developers to linux, will be used by open source communities right away to make better. I think Valve has failed to set an example of open source development quality, and will learn the hard way that in open source, quality always floats to the top, with extreme buoyancy, and better alternatives to SteamOS will pop up sooner than they think from communities all around. Maybe that's what they're hoping to happen, that they just promote Steam as a distribution channel and hope for communities to tune in to Steam, and that's OK, as long as they don't damage linux in the process...
It's not meant for the public yet, they didn't release the final OS yet, so there's absolutely no point in criticizing it here, rather on the steam forums where you might be helpful.
Thanks alot for this! I might end up trying it out with an old system or something of the sort.
I'm not trying to argue at all here, but how exactly does it have "Microsoft's signature on it in more than one way?"
Secondly, AMD CPUs (as well as intel 64 bit) are working but not Video Cards at the moment, at least not in a non complicated way.
I doubt that what you say about using Swap for "nefarious" purposes is correct, as you might know,
"It is normal for Linux systems to use some swap even if there is still RAM free. The Linux kernel will move to swap memory pages that are very seldom used (e.g., the getty instances when you only use X11, and some other inactive daemon)."
I know that getty and X11 might not be used in SteamOS, but it works the same way.
I give you the Windows filesystems part. I don't know why they decided to use that maybe it's because of the usability. Windows is EVERYWHERE like it or not, Maybe they thought, hmm... we should at least in some way make this usable with Windows. Maybe when dual boot is allowed Steam on Windows can use games from Steam OS (don't quote me, i have nooo idea)
People have to understand that in a corporate setting, you have to sacrifice certain parts of open source. I know that sounds horrendous, but it's true. Google doesn't release ALL their code for ALL their products! Most open source packages are freely distributable and freely editable, which means that they aren't under any obligation to make anything work with anything other than SteamOS.
I don't see how it looks like it was made by amateurs, no offense. People LOVE big picture mode (obviously some people don't but that's life, we all have opinions!)
All in all, just remember SteamOS is in beta, I'm sure by the time it's freely available it will be great, will play nice with all drivers, and will work out of the box. Again, I'm not tryna flame or anything, just thought I'd put in my opinion.
After seeing all the difficulties people have been seeing with SteamOS, bugs, difficulties in installation, lack of driver support, workarounds and other related issues, I think I'll wait until 2014 as Valve recommends.
I'm hopeful that the changes SteamOS has made to Linux might become incorporated in other distributions, along with DualBoot options enabled by default. For now, it seems like a good idea that needs refinement.
If more games can be released, it'll be awesome. Right now, the main games I'd need to see on SteamOS to make the transition to it would be Guild Wars 2, Hawken, Skyrim, Oblivion, BioShock Infinite and The Witcher 2. That'll last me for quite a while, given the modding support in Oblivion, The Witcher 2,and Skyrim, plus the never-ending content of Guild Wars 2. =)
I think Austin targets the 'Basic Technology User' by covering a wider range of gadgets such as tablets, smartphones and consoles as well as PC parts. He makes it easy for newcomers to venture into PC building. Whereas guys like Linus, Logan and others target the enthusiast computer builders who want to know every detail about every computer product even if they never buy it in their lives.
As far as I could see, the Windows file system (FAT32) is only used on the thumb drive for installation. UEFI motherboards can read FAT32, but not ext3. SteamOS itself will certainly use ext3/4. FAT32 doesn't support the kind of access controls other file systems have, and Linux relies on those for proper operation.
edit: I'm downloading steamOS right now to check it by myself.
Edit 2:
The system is installed using a preseed recipe for Debian Installer. It uses a small FAT16 to store the EFI boot files, this partition doesn't mount automatically when the system boots. The partitions that get mounted are:
They're all ext4.
I don't think criticizing a content creator for the type of content he makes is correct. You may not need to watch his videos but there is obviously a market for it. Some people who are not a technically inclined as most of the people here so his videos are probably really helpful for a specific niche.
you can:
1. take a vanilla ubuntu or mint install
2. follow these instructions .. http://www.webupd8.org/2013/12/install-steamos-session-in-ubuntu.html
3. Stop fannying around with a SteamOS only build
4. At login choose your session be it xfce/ubuntu/gnome/kde/steamOS it will use the updated compositor that valve has been working on just for that session and whatever your using for your others.. (i.e Kwin for KDE)
Enjoy no hassle.
Good post!
I don't particularily fancy Valve's hack job on those Ubuntu binaries. As I made more than clear, I was pretty disgusted by it. Then I dug a bit deeper, and learned that the main people working on SteamOS are ex-Microsoft and ex-nVidia people, and that sure explains a whole lot.
But it's one thing to criticize, and another thing to propose a solution, and I fully agree that the best way to get SteamOS is by recreating it yourself based on Ubuntu or Debian, or to install Sabayon, which has the full SteamOS experience preinstalled, as well as all the GPU binary blobs ready to go etc... that's why I highlighted Sabayon some time ago. It's more of an out-of-box experience than Ubuntu and Debian, and has quite a bit more performance, especially on Intel and AMD graphics, but it does have more issues with nVidia binary blobs, which - in contrast to AMD and Intel GPUs - don't work very well with modern kernels, but prefer older kernels. So for nVidia users, it's probably a better idea to take the time to turn an Ubuntu or Debian into SteamOS, but for Intel or AMD users, Sabayon is probably the best choice. It's also pretty easy to get Steam to run in Big Picture mode on other bleeding edge distros that have better performance for those not encumbered by nVidia hardware, like Manjaro, OpenSuSE, and even Fedora, all of which have quick install guides and packages ready to go.
Zoltan, I enjoy your posts.
I wonder if it would be fun to build a Tek Syndicate Linux ISO even if it was just a theoretical pie in the sky thing?
We could canvas users on some choices for default applications (there may be some good ones we haven’t heard of) the list could cover audio and video editing, compositor and Desktop environment choice. There could be some custom Tek art and a soundtrack from Logan thrown in
Yes, yes we could build our own TEKnux operating system with ease using arch.
Obviously suggestions for a better name would be welcome :P
^
I actually did that in the past, because it was talked about in a forum thread, I made a full-featured distro that was available for download with SuSE Studio, back when OpenSuSE was in 12.3...
Guess what... nobody downloaded it lolz...
It's just one of those things, people that have experience with linux want their own brew, and to be quite honest, I'm just like that, I use my own brews with my own secret sauce, and I use linux for the convenience, not for tinkering, so I'm not even extreme in terms of linux customization. I did migrate to linux entirely for allround and work use back in 1996, so I can easily compile kernels and source files, but I almost never do, I've pretty much settled for Fedora, Arch and Gentoo, and for Arch and Gentoo, pretty much start from Manjaro and Sabayon because it's less time consuming, because I can have them customized to my requirements within about half an hour, including all applications that I'll ever need, irc-setups, firefox finetunes, Eclipse plug-ins, virtual machines with PCI or VGA passthrough and overlay files, full network and firewall config, DE config, all screens and peripherals set up, etc... and if I were to have to do arch or gentoo from scratch, it would take half a day, and that's more time than I'm willing to spend on any bloody operating system to be honest lolz...