SteamOS NVIDIA Installer

Your RTX PC. Your Steam library. SteamOS.

Turn Valve's official recovery image into a bootable SteamOS installer for a PC with NVIDIA graphics. Start from USB, install on an internal or external USB disk, and use Game Mode with a controller or switch to Desktop Mode when you need a full Linux desktop.

Get started · Build your USB image · Troubleshooting

This is the project's new home. Earlier releases were published from 60plus/steamos-nvidia-installer, which stays in place and keeps serving them. Release 0.2.2 is available in both places and moves an existing installation's official update channel here, without changing a verification key or an update configuration that points somewhere else. See Update installer tools for what it changes, and for the stepping order that still applies below 0.1.9.

Built for a living-room PC

• NVIDIA ready: builds the open kernel driver for the exact kernel in your recovery image.
• Change drivers from the desktop: choose a compatible NVIDIA release and prepare it without rebuilding your USB installer.
• Updates from Steam: rebuilds the selected NVIDIA driver for the updated OS before completing repair.
• A comfortable first start: new display profiles start with HDR off. Turn it on later for a compatible display; your choice is preserved.
• Menus that stay readable: on NVIDIA, Game Mode menus over a running game could break into displaced fragments and colored bands. This build refuses the presentation route that causes it, so the performance overlay, HDR and image scaling can all stay as you want them. The correction comes from this project's own Gamescope build, which is selected whenever that build accepts the flags your SteamOS session passes it, whatever the OS release or the installed Gamescope package, so read checking the Gamescope build after an OS update.
• Clean switches to 4K: on NVIDIA, raising Game Mode to 3840x2160, or turning HDR on at that resolution, could break the picture. This project's Gamescope build now hands the display images allocated through GBM, which kept those changes correct on the 4K monitor it was measured on, over DisplayPort and over HDMI.
• Controller friendly: uses SteamOS controller support by default, with optional xpadneo for controllers that need it.
• Install or refresh: desktop shortcuts offer a fresh installation or an OS reinstall that keeps the existing SteamOS data partition.
• Help when you need it: optional Safe Graphics and local diagnostic reports make troubleshooting easier.
• Remote Play in both directions: build with capture and receiver color fixes, plus an NVIDIA hardware-encoding bridge.
• Useful performance readings: the corrected overlay shows GPU metrics and detected CPU/GPU names.
• Installer tools stay current: configured images include a desktop updater for signed project fixes.
• Built on your machine: the original recovery image is kept intact. Choose a driver version and produce your own USB image.

Installer 0.2.7 uses Gamescope 3.17.0. Two earlier capture patches have been removed because their fixes are now included upstream; the remaining NVIDIA corrections are retained. The update was tested through the desktop updater and remained intact after a SteamOS update to 3.9.5. See the release notes and Gamescope details.

The aim is to return to plain SteamOS

This project addresses gaps in SteamOS support for NVIDIA. As Valve fixes those gaps upstream, we review and remove the corresponding project patches. The aim is to keep an installation as close to plain SteamOS as possible and reduce our changes over time. Once SteamOS provides full NVIDIA support, this project will have fulfilled its purpose.

What you need

An NVIDIA RTX desktop PC, UEFI with Secure Boot disabled, a USB drive of at least 16 GB, and a Linux machine to build the image. Intel and AMD desktop CPUs are both in scope. Hybrid graphics laptops need separate validation.

GeForce GTX 10xx and older cards are not supported by this installer. It uses NVIDIA's open kernel modules, which require Turing or newer. GTX 16xx and RTX cards fall within that architecture range; the selected driver must also support the exact GPU. See NVIDIA's GPU support documentation.

Fresh installation erases the selected disk. Read the preparation guide before writing the USB or installing.

Display tip: if HDMI gives you a green screen, flickering or trouble with HDR and VRR, try a direct DisplayPort connection when available. See the display troubleshooting guide.

Quick start

Build the complete installer with the overlay, Remote Play fixes and desktop updater included. Start with Linux, Bazzite or a Linux VM on Windows. Allow at least 50 GiB free on the Linux work filesystem after downloading the input.

1. Download Valve's SteamOS recovery image through the official recovery page and unpack it. Valve publishes one current image and replaces it over time. The builder reports the release it finds and warns if it is one this project has not validated, listed in config/build-baselines.json. It does not refuse it.

2. Download and extract Source code (zip) from Releases. Open the extracted repository folder and run:

   sudo bash tools/build-complete.sh /path/to/recovery.img

3. Write the resulting recovery-nvidia-usbinstall.img to a USB drive, boot the PC and choose Install SteamOS (NVIDIA) on the desktop.

The script prepares the build environment and components for you, preserves the original image and writes a SHA256 checksum beside the result. The project does not distribute Valve's recovery image or a complete SteamOS image.

See the complete build guide for prerequisites and options, then installation instructions.

Help improve PC support

Found a problem or tried a new setup? Share a bug report, suggest a feature, or send a hardware compatibility report. The diagnostics guide explains what to include.

Based on 28allday/steamos-nvidia-installer, with additional PC integration, recovery checks and desktop maintenance tools. The original MIT license and copyright notice are retained. See How it works for the architecture.

Sharing that origin does not make existing installations interchangeable. Migrating an installation from 28allday/steamos-nvidia-installer to this project is not a validated procedure. The tested starting point is a clean installation from an image built by this project. You can test it on a separate USB drive before replacing your current system; installation erases the selected target drive. This is separate from the documented update-source transition between this project's own repositories in 0.2.2.

Independent project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Valve or NVIDIA. The build instructions use Valve's official recovery download as the starting point. See LICENSE.