New SteamOS update arrives following Steam Frame launch with bug fixes, FPS improvements, and more

Valve is wasting no time making more improvements to SteamOS following the Steam Frame launch yesterday. SteamOS 3.8.27 Beta and SteamOS 3.9.1 Preview have been released on back-to-back days. While the former consists of just one patch note to fix a “rare issue” with “higher than normal fan speeds,” the new Preview build has much more to offer for multiple systems.

Along with the new Steam Frame, both the Steam Machine and Steam Deck ship with SteamOS as standard. The Linux-based operating system is ever-improving and has become one of the biggest selling points for Valve’s handheld versus all the competition out there these days. The new 3.9.1 build also improves support for third-party devices such as the Legion Go 2.

SteamOS 3.9.1 Preview patch notes

Note on Preview Releases

This is an early Preview build of SteamOS 3.9, and may contain unexpected bugs or stability issues. If you encounter problems, please consider filing a bug on the SteamOS issue tracker.

These notes contain all changes since the current stable SteamOS 3.8 release, with the changes added since the previous preview noted below

New in SteamOS 3.9.1

General

• Fixed a system crash when launching Forza Horizon 6 on Legion Go 2
• Fixed an issue causing frame limits to result in lower than intended FPS on certain external displays
• Fixed issues with suspend/resume on systems with RDNA1 or RDNA2 based dedicated GPUs
• Fixed a regression in seamless boot causing the boot logo to disappear prior to the Steam startup animation
• Fixed a rare issue where fan speed would revert to BIOS control until a reboot, resulting in higher than normal fan speeds on Steam Deck
• Security and stability updates

Developer

• Fixed verbose-mode boots, triggered by the steamos-bootdebug utility or chainloader menu, having their output hidden by plymouth
• Updated included renderdoc version

SteamOS 3.9

General

• Updated Arch Linux base
• Updated Desktop Mode from Plasma 6.4.3 to Plasma 6.7.3
  • For more information, see
    https://kde.org/announcements/plasma/6/6.7.0/
    https://kde.org/announcements/plasma/6/6.6.0/
    https://kde.org/announcements/plasma/6/6.5.0/

Misc

• Updated the bootloader to improve compatibility with certain motherboards
• The Desktop Mode lockscreen is no longer prevented from being explicitly enabled in settings (but remains off by default)

Developer

• Switched WiFi backend to wpa_supplicant by default for new installations, improving compatibility with various WiFi networks
  • Enhanced wpa_supplicant to support fast WiFi reconnect on resume from sleep, previously only available in the iwd backend
  • Known issue: Existing installations will continue to use iwd unless manually enabled in Developer Settings
• Linux kernel rebased on Linux 7.2
• Added preliminary support for hibernation, not yet exposed in Game Mode UI
  • Enhanced Linux kernel hibernation support to enable interrupting hibernate requests and fixed various driver issues
• Various scripts and packages have been renamed from `steamos-` to `holo-`, with aliases to the former names where appropriate
• Improved support for running SteamOS as a VM guest with accelerated graphics (virtio-gpu, venus)

Source: Steam Community

General improvements to SteamOS in the latest version include improved support for RDNA1- or RDNA2-based dedicated GPUs. In terms of the discrete GPU space, this refers to AMD’s RX 5000 and RX 6000 series, respectively. RDNA 2 architecture is also used for the Steam Deck (albeit not on a dedicated GPU), while the Steam Machine is a step above on RDNA 3. In contrast, the Steam Frame uses an ARM-based Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip for playing in standalone mode.

Written by

Jack Goodall

At PC Guide, Jack is most responsible for reporting on and editing news. He also specializes in monitors, TVs, and headsets and can be found putting his findings together in a review or best-of guide.

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