There have been back-to-back updates for Steam Deck owners to enjoy lately, at least for those running on the slightly more bleeding-edge Beta channel. Valve has released SteamOS 3.9.4 Beta with a handful of improvements and fixes, including security and stability updates. And for the Steam Machine mini PC, there’s a fix for previously problematic firmware updates.

Aside from the SteamOS 3.9.4 Beta, Valve released a small Steam Client Update yesterday. The most notable change is in relation to Desktop Mode, fixing an issue that caused games using the Vulkan graphics API to ‘hang up’ after alt-tabbing. Vulkan is commonly used as the default backend on Steam Deck, as it is used as a foundation for Valve’s Proton compatibility layer.

SteamOS 3.9.4 Beta patch notes

General

• Fixed an issue causing firmware updates to occasionally fail to apply on Steam Machine
• Fixed a bug wherein changing the timezone could prevent switching to Desktop Mode until a reboot
• Fixed a regression from previous 3.9 releases that caused some apps to run behind Steam’s loading screen, such as A Plague Tale: Innocence
• Fixed a regression from previous 3.9 releases that caused screenshots to be taken at 720p even when the display and game resolution are at a higher resolution
• Reduced incidence of audio clicks on 3.5mm output with sensitive earphones/speakers
• Security and stability updates
  • Revokes certificates for certain CAs with insecure private keys such as “4”

Developer

• Improvements to hibernation support
  • Temporarily disabled hibernation on Steam Deck devices due to some outstanding driver bugs
• Improvements for experimental dirlock disk encryption support

Source: Steam

For anyone running SteamOS, whether that be on your Steam Deck, Steam Machine, or even a Linux-based desktop, you’ll need to switch to the Beta channel to access these changes. Opting in is done via Settings > System > System Update Channel.

Valve’s original SteamOS 3.9 Preview kicked things off back in August, but we’re still waiting for a Stable release, which will be available to all users (regardless of which channel you’re on). Last week, the company released a massive stable patch to add Big Art Mode and screensaver customization, among a long list of smaller improvements and bug fixes, but it’s still on version 3.8.x.

About the Author

Jack Goodall

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