HoloISO Immutable

HoloISO

SteamOS 3 (Holo) free (as in libre) reimplementation.

Yes, Gabe. SteamOS functions well on a toaster.

This project attempts to bring the Steam Deck's SteamOS Holo redistribution into a generic, installable format, and provide a close-to-official SteamOS experience. Main point of this project focuses in re-implementing proprietary (as in runs-only-on-deck) components that Steam client, OS itself, gamescope and user-created applications for Deck rely on and making me learn Linux in a fun and unique way.

Click here to join HoloISO Telegram update channel;

Common Questions

• Is this official?

No, but it may as well be 99% of the way there. Most of the code and packages, are straight from Valve, with zero possible edits, and the ISO is being built same rootfs bootstrap as all HoloISO installations run

• I have an NVIDIA GPU that is officially supported by NVIDIA now

Some kind of support is offered on dev_nv installer branches, but do not expect it to be 100% stable

Hardware Support:

CPU:

• Mostly all CPUs work fine. But people report inoperable experience on 7xxx series. (Work for it is undergoing)

WLAN/PCIe additional cards:

• Any pre-2021 WLAN Card works fine on Valve's 5.13 Neptune kernel, but linux-zen provides support for ALL current cards

Sound:

• Everything mostly works fine(tm)

GPU:

• AMD GPUs with RADV support (Guaranteed to work fully stable. 7xxx requires testing)
• NVIDIA GPUs (BETA)
• Intel GPUs (Random experience)

Progress:

Working stuff:

• Bootup
• SteamOS OOBE (Steam Deck UI First Boot Experience)
• Deck UI (separate session)
• Deck UI (-gamepadui)
• TDP/FPS limiting (*0)
• Global FSR
• Shader Pre-Caching
• Switch to Desktop from plasma/to plasma without user interference.
• Valve's exclusive Vapor appearance for KDE Plasma
• Cool-looking neofetch?
• A/B system updates with container sealing
• Native SteamOS addons for Deck devices, and core components such as: steamos-readonly and more

Working stuff on Steam Deck compared to other distributions:

• Dock Firmware updater (additionally installable in desktop by running steamos-readonly disable && sudo pacman -S jupiter-dock-updater-bin)
• Steam Deck BIOS, Controller firmware, OS firmware updater, support for thumbstick and haptic motor calibration, native amplifier (CS35L41) support
• New fan curve control
• TDP/Clock control

(*0) Disabled for ALL systems except for Steam Deck/Steam Deck OLED (Valve Jupiter/Valve Gallileo) due to VERY LOW hardcoded TDP/Clock values, especially for dGPUs.

Installation process:

Prerequistes:

• 8GB flash drive
• More than 8 GB RAM if you plan to use "Copy-To-RAM" option to install
• AMD GPU that supports RADV Drivers instead of Radeon (Southern Islands and Sea Islands require additional kernel cmdline property), NVIDIA GPU equal or above to Maxwell generation
• UEFI-enabled device
• Disabled secure boot

Installation:

• Flash the ISO from releases using BalenaEtcher, Rufus with DD mode, or by typing sudo dd if=SteamOS.iso of=/dev/sd(your flash drive) bs=4M status=progress oflag=sync, or by simply throwing ISO into Ventoy drive
• Boot into ISO
• Click on "Install HoloISO on this device"
• Follow on-screen instructions
• Take your favourite hot beverage, and wait 'till it installs :3

Upon booting, you'll be greeted with Steam Deck's OOBE screen, from where you'll connect to your network, and login to your Steam account, from there, you can exit to KDE Plasma seamlessly by choosing Switch to desktop in the power menu, like so.

Screenshots:

Credits:

• soon to be filled