How to Install SteamOS on Your PC – Default and Custom Method

Step by Step guide to install SteamOS on your PC both by Default and Custom methods.

Hardcore PC gamers seem very enthusiastic over the release of the first dedicated gaming OS ever! Recently, 300 Steam machines have been dispatched to their beta testers along with instructions on how to install Steam OS on them.

Since the day of the arrival of steam machines, YouTube has been swarmed with videos of people unboxing their newly acquired console-killing machines.

The Steam OS is an operating system based on Linux and is called Alchemist. The OS is currently in its beta phase and is only supported by Nvidia GPUs. The support for AMD and Intel GPUs is expected to hit in forthcoming updates. Steam OS also requires 4GB of memory and 64-bit systems.

There are good chances that you are not one of those 300 beta testers. But still, in case you are itching to get your hands on this OS, you can download it for free from Steam Store and follow the instructions provided below to know how to install it.

Since the installation can get a little tricky at times, we would advise you to restrain from manual installation and proceed with the automatic process. The choice is yours! You also need to make sure that you have enabled UEFI Boot Support from your Boot Setup.

Prerequisites: Steam OS, 4GB or larger USB stick, and some basic computer knowledge.

How to Install SteamOS on Your PC

Default Method

Step #1
Format your USB stick with FAT32 system and name it as “SYSRESTORE” without inverted commas.

Step #2
Use any unzipping software and place the contents of your downloaded OS into your USB stick.

Step #3
Now, plug your USB containing the Steam OS in your PC and restart your machine.

Step #4
Go to your Boot Sequence and change it to boot via USB first.

Step #5
Next, choose the option which reads something like UEFI: Patriot Memory PMAP.

Step #6
And finally, choose ‘Restore Entire Disk’ from the GRUB menu. Your OS will begin installation and your machine will restart after it is completed. Ta-da! You have your very own steam machine; in a way!

Custom Method

The manual installation is a bit tricky and I would once again recommend that you use the method mentioned above! Anyway, for the manual installation, the first five steps are same as mentioned above.

Step #1
After selecting the UEFI: Patriot Memory PMAP, choose Automated Install.

Step #2
Once the installation is complete, log onto the Genome Session with the pre-existing Steam account; the password will be ‘steam’ without commas.

Step #3
Accept the Terms and Conditions and run Steam. Once the bootstrap is completed, log out and log in to your Desktop account using ‘desktop’ as the password.

Step #4
Now, run ~/post_logon.sh and enter ‘desktop’ without commas as the password. It will ask you to create a recovery partition, press ‘y’ to proceed and you will have Steam OS installed on your PC.

Prior to installing the Steam OS, note that there aren’t many third-party applications and games supported by it. You also need to know that installing Steam OS on your machine will cause the removal of any data available on your computer. Make sure to have a backup!

Haider is a freelance contributor, who loves video games, playing guitar, and aviation. He is a competitive FPS player and also enjoys exotic RPG games like Diablo and Xenogears (his favorite game of all time) ...