New SteamOS Update Brings Steam Machine Support & Steam Deck Improvements

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Announced in late 2025, the Steam Machine was initially planned for “early 2026.” As we head into late March, “early” is becoming a bit of a stretch, but Valve continues to affirm that the lineup will be released in 2026. That “early” window seems to have fallen off from more recent communications, but Valve is definitely still preparing to launch its new PC/console hybrid. In fact, the latest preview for an upcoming SteamOS update includes language geared at the arrival of the Steam Machine, along with other improvements.

SteamOS 3.8.0 Preview Prepares for “Upcoming Steam Machine Hardware” & More

Late in the day on March 19th, Valve shared patch notes for the preview build of an upcoming SteamOS 3.8.0 update. This build is still undergoing testing, but Steam users can check it out by opting into the System Update Channel. This is a pretty sweeping update with plenty of general QoL improvements and fixes. But one detail caught my eye, and it’s the very first line of the patch notes. This update is set to bring “Initial support for upcoming Steam Machine hardware.” Upcoming is a pretty vague term, but it does affirm that Valve is getting its OS ready for the new platform. And that supports continued assurances that the new tech will release this year.

The update also brings in plenty of other improvements, even for those who won’t be excited about the Steam Machine until Valve gives us a price. The update also brings in an updated graphics driver and several bug fixes for specific games and general issues. It has some audio fixes and will re-enable Bluetooth Wake for the discontinued Steam Deck LCD. In addition, the Steam Deck LCD and OLED will get some security updates.

Image courtesy of Valve

For the complete list of upcoming changes for SteamOS 3.8.0, you can check out the full patch notes from Valve below:

General

Initial support for upcoming Steam Machine hardware
Updated Arch system base
Updated graphics driver with performance and stability fixes
Fix a case where per-app performance settings would intermittently fail to apply when launching a game
Improved support for the screencasts in Game Mode (e.g. OBS/Discord)
Fixed dropdown menus not appearing in some games
Improved VRR frame pacing
Fixed FSR badge remaining off in the performance overlay, even if it was actually active
Improved support for games that attempt to open PDF files in external viewers
Fixed an issue affecting certain titles (such as “SpongeBob SquarePants: Titans of the Tide”) where the game window could have an incorrect position
Fixed closing certain titles (such as “STAR WARS Jedi: Survivor™”) and Starfield resulting in a session crash
Improved support for certain USB racing wheels and USB devices that boot in a non-standard mode
- Frequently these are devices that appear as USB storage devices with a driver installer, and must be switched to their normal mode by the OS
Steam Deck controller firmware updates now display update progress on the splash screen
Fixes issue on specific Steam Deck revisions where firmware updates could render the left controller inoperative for that session
Numerous stability and security updates

Bluetooth

Re-re-enable Bluetooth Wake for Steam Deck LCD
- Fix for more spurious wake issues that were present in earlier attempts

Audio

Detect HDMI channel count and expose surround configuration if available
Add a setting to allow using Bluetooth headset mics (Bluetooth playback quality will be worse while capture is active)
Restore internal audio device on reboot if set to “Off” in desktop mode
Increase suspend timeout for HDMI devices so initial audio isn’t cut off after a few seconds of inactivity
Fixed a bug with switching input devices when a wired headset is plugged in
Fixed an issue where audio underruns could be experienced after sleep/resume

Accessibility

Added an option to force mono audio output

Desktop Mode

KDE Plasma updated to version 6.4.3 from 6.2.5, and now uses wayland by default
- Fixes several cases of reduced performance in Desktop Mode compared to Game Mode
- Improved support for rotated displays
- Better scale factor out of the box on TVs
- Adds support for external HDR displays
- Adds support for VRR displays
- Adds support per-display scale factor
- For more information, see Plasma release announcements
  - https://kde.org/announcements/plasma/6/6.3.0/
  - https://kde.org/announcements/plasma/6/6.4.0/
Keyboard layout and language are now obeying Game Mode settings
Improved windowing behavior for games running in Proton

System Firmware

Includes Steam Deck LCD BIOS v133
- Security updates
- Added “Memory Power Down” setup option
- Preliminary support for hibernation
Includes Steam Deck OLED BIOS v114
- Security updates
- Charging LED now changes color when charge limit is reached, rather than only at 100%

Non-Deck

Improved compatibility with recent Intel and AMD platforms
Greatly improved video memory management with discrete GPU platforms
Fixed a compatibility issue with the SteamOS chainloader that could cause a boot failure on some desktop systems with recent UEFI firmware
Power button short and long presses now supported across a wide variety of devices
Improved controller support for OneXPlayer F1 series, GPD Win 5, GPD Win Mini, Anbernic Win600, OrangePi NEO, and Lenovo Legion Go
Added controller support for OneXPlayer X1 series and Lenovo Legion Go 2
Added system and controller firmware update support for the Lenovo Legion Go 2
Added preliminary charge limiting support for Legion Go, Legion Go S, and Legion Go 2 – currently only accessible in Desktop Mode
Added controller RGB LED color settings for the Lenovo Legion Go 2
Added controller, TDP control, and speaker audio support for the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally series
Reduced handheld controller input latency from 5-8ms to 100-500us
Night mode, color vibrance, and color temperature sliders in Steam now work on Z2E and later AMD APUs
Seamless boot fixes for Z2E and later AMD APUs
Automatically handle internally rotated display for some third-party handhelds
Improved motion control support for handhelds with BMI260 IMUs
SD card reliability improvements for some third-party handhelds, including ASUS ROG Xbox Ally, Legion Go 1, Legion Go S, Legion Go 2, and MSI Claw
Fixed washed out colors for Zotac and OneXPlayer handhelds with OLED
Fixed some GPU hangs on Phoenix APU devices (Tales of Arise, Octopath Traveler II)
Fixed ASUS ROG Ally power consumption from fingerprint reader while shut down

Developer

Desktop Mode now uses Wayland by default
- X11 support may still be selected via Steam developer settings, or via `steamosctl`
Updated Linux kernel to 6.16
Steam now uses steamos-manager to query available desktop sessions and trigger desktop session switching
Added support for setting the desktop password in developer settings
Initial support for running as a Virtual Machine guest (virtio guest drivers)
Added support for third-party devices to trigger the SteamOS boot menu via EFI variable
Added `custom-update` verb to `atomupd-manager` for easier testing of specific builds
System reports now include more audio debug information
Initial support for LAVD CPU scheduler via `steamosctl set-cpu-scheduler lavd`