Unofficial SteamOS for Snapdragon handhelds
Valve's SteamOS for ARM, the one made for the Steam Frame, set up for handhelds: Game Mode, the KDE desktop, PC games through FEX and Proton, and Android apps.
Install it · Supported devices · Downloads · Known issues
Warning
This is a community project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Valve. Installing it means flashing the ROCKNIX ABL bootloader, and getting that wrong can leave your device unable to boot or lose your data. Back up first and follow the install guide step by step.
Valve's ARM build of SteamOS is made for a VR headset, so out of the box a lot of it gets in the way on a handheld: services that keep crashing, the UI stuck on the slow cores, the GPU not clocking up, standby that drains the battery. I turned off what a handheld doesn't need and fixed the rest, the long version is in HOW-IT-WORKS.md.
What you get:
- Game Mode and Desktop Mode, with the controller showing up as a Steam Deck pad
- x86 PC games through FEX and ARM64 Proton, plus Epic, GOG and Amazon through Heroic
- Loadout, which installs emulators and apps picked for your SoC
- Sleep that lasts and quiet fan curves
- Updates through Steam, no reflashing
- Lossless Scaling frame gen, Decky and the performance overlay
- Android apps with the Play Store
- A dashboard on the bottom screen of the AYN Thor and AYANEO Pocket DS
| SoC | Devices | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Snapdragon 8 Elite | AYN Odin 3, KONKR Pocket FIT Elite | Stable |
| Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 | KONKR Pocket FIT, AYANEO Pocket S2 / S2 Pro | Stable |
| Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 | AYN Odin 2 / Mini / Portal / Thor, AYANEO Pocket ACE / DMG / DS / EVO / S 1K / S 2K, Retroid Pocket 6 / Nova | Stable |
There's one image per SoC, you pick your device in the ABL menu and it sets itself up. I only own a Pocket FIT, so if you have one of the others please let me know how it runs.
| Device | SoC | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Lenovo Legion Y700 Gen 3 (TB321FU) | Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 | Testing |
| Lenovo Legion Y700 Gen 4 (TB322FC) | Snapdragon 8 Elite | Testing |
| REDMAGIC 6 (NX669J) | Snapdragon 888 | Build it yourself (guide) |
The Lenovo tablets boot from a USB drive and install to internal storage, nobody has run them on a real tablet yet. If you have one and want to help, ask on Discord and see the Lenovo page.
Everything lives on the website.
| I want to… | Guide |
|---|---|
| Install it | Flash to a microSD card |
| Check my device | Supported devices |
| Move it to internal storage | Internal storage |
| Update | Updates |
| Get help | FAQ · Troubleshooting |
| Report a bug | GitHub issues |
The images are built from this repo on an ARM64 Linux machine, see docs/building.md. Issues and pull requests are welcome, and for help with installing come say hi on Discord.
Any amount raised will be used to buy devices to support and boost development, a star helps too!
Have a device you'd like to see supported? Sending one over for long term development is the fastest way to get it there, message me on Discord.
The kernels and device support come from ROCKNIX. The full list of projects and people is in CREDITS.md.
My scripts and overlays are GPL-2.0, everything in external-and-mods/ keeps
its own license. See LICENSE.
Steam and SteamOS are trademarks of Valve Corporation, used here only to say what this is based on. Please don't ask Valve for help with it.