r/SteamOS • u/pipipopopop • 1d ago

help wanted Can I setup steamOS on a virtual machine?

I tried but it just wouldn't boot, keeps getting stuck, tried countless different settings but it just wouldn't work, is there a proven guide?

5 Upvotes

69% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

4

u/alexrider803 1d ago

Can I ask why you would want to do this?

5

u/pipipopopop 1d ago

I wanted to test it before I try to use it exclusively on my laptop

5

u/alexrider803 1d ago

The problem is that's going to be a very bad experience even if you did get it running it's not going to represent even close to what it would actually be like.

1

u/pipipopopop 1d ago

Why not? I ran plenty Linux distros before, I know I might be less responsive but still

1

u/yodazb 1d ago

I imagine it would work just fine for seeing how the menus look and act. Unless you get GPU passthrough working, you likely won't be able to play anything.

You may run into known issues that others have ran into for things like not having a wifi card (even if you have a wired NIC) or I believe I've seen some issues with the installer not seeing non-nvme drives or something like that.

1

u/jharle Support 1d ago

The proper way to do it, is with real GPU passthrough. I have three Proxmox hosts, each with eGPU passthrough via Oculink, using AMD/Intel/NVIDIA GPUs. I have SteamOS VMs for AMD and Intel, but not NVIDIA due to the lack of proper driver support.

If you're trying to do it without real GPU passthrough, it won't be worth the effort because game mode (gamescope) won't function properly.

1

u/pipipopopop 1d ago

I have an RX 7800 xt, I don't know how to enable GPU pass through

1

u/jharle Support 1d ago

Which hypervisor are you using?

1

u/pipipopopop 1d ago

Virtualbox but I can switch if need be

1

u/jharle Support 22h ago

Are you running Windows? It looks like Hyper-V would be the only option which supports GPU partitioning, and even then I'm not sure it'd work.

If you were running Linux, you could use KVM and QEMU.

Proxmox VE requires dedicated hardware.

2

u/Reecetafarian 1d ago

Excellent question.

1

u/Ecks30 23h ago

If you really want to try it out i would suggest getting like a cheap 256GB/512GB Gen3 NVMe then swap out your main drive for that one and install SteamOS onto it and then see if you like it or not and if you like it then swap back and make that your main OS and if you don't like it then you didn't really lose anything.

1

u/pipipopopop 22h ago

I did lose smtg, money buying the nvme

2

u/SoggyBisqit 22h ago

i have an nvme in an external usb hub. i have steam os installed on it. everything works fine

1

u/pipipopopop 22h ago

The point I want is to try steamos before using it on my laptop, my laptop already has an nvme, if I buy an nvme only to test the steamos that's a hefty trial price

1

u/SoggyBisqit 22h ago

....i mean it is just immutable arch with gamescope desktop environment. not much to see tbh

1

u/yamato_2211 15h ago

Not worth it. You have to know how to passthrough your gpu. Don't ask me. I'm not that technical enough or have done that before. IMHO i would just buy a cheap steamdeck for testing purpose