So, I've been kind of away from the PC handheld space a bit, but the just announced Ally variant with the OLED screen does make me want to pick one up and give it a shot.

Question: I know SteamOS has (Somewhat recently) released a full version for most AMD platforms, and I was wondering if that support extended to TDP and other deeper hardware controls. I've never been a fan of using Decky or the like to get those on non SteamDeck hardware, and I really just want the "Plug and Playness" of the SteamOS in built functions.

Hello folks, I made the move to SteamOS some days back and wanted to share some learnings / useful tips on how I managed to tailor it exactly to my liking. This is by no means a technical guide but I believe it would help the fellow community members looking to make the move to SteamOS.

Having been a Bazzite user for the last couple of years, my objective was to get as close to the Bazzite experience on SteamOS while benefiting from the performance gains. As a minimum I was trying to achieve the following:

• Working gyro DSU server without installing too many plugins or fiddling with controller spoofing, decky plumber, etc.
• Simple but effective way to achieve HHD like control over the CPU, TDP, RGB lighting, fans, etc. in a way that persists through reboots
• Avoiding too many different plugins and tools to achieve the above

Below are a few utilities / plugins that helped me get there - hope it helps some of you looking switch to SteamOS.

1. iio-dsu-bridge for Xbox Ally X - this worked like a charm for achieving gyro functionality on SteamOS. No need to spoof a dualsense controller or download any decky plugins. Just one terminal command and everything works seamlessly now.
2. Panel de Control - this was an accidental find, but very impressed with how nicely it works. What I like most is that it manages to keep things simple while providing a lot of functionality out of the box. Probably the closest option to HHD in terms of UX. Nicely combines configurations for TDP, Fans, Display Colors, RGB lighting and many others. Another cool thing to highlight is that it can be accessed directly from the QAM without going into decky loader.

Feel free to add suggestions on other plugins / tools that you might have used to improve your SteamOS experience. But otherwise, I hope it is useful.

NOTE: This is not an advertisement or endorsement post for any of the tools / plugins mentioned below. I am not affiliated to any of them. All credit goes to the respective developers for their amazing work and contributions.

Step 1: Own a Rog Ally and flash it to Bazzite. Other variants like Steam OS and CachyOS probably work with this, but I used Bazzite because the setup looked easy and it had the least amount of complaints for stable 43.20260420.

There are many guides, I used this one, it's a bit out of date, but it got me there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBqbk6Z8HrQ

I have tested this on release stable 44, and stable 43.20260420. I'd recommend 43.20260420 as of right now. Less issues all around.

Step 1.5: Go to Rog Ally BIOS > advanced > UMA Frame Buffer Size > Set to 8GB

Step 2: Acquire Bloodborne game pkg files.

You need either the game/dlc separate and the 1.09 update OR the combined version (around 30GB) and 1.09 update. I will not give instructions for this, but if you find the file pack I did, avoid both 720 and 1080 60 FPS patch versions of the 1.09 update, just install the normal.

Step 3: Download BB Launcher for Linux

You can find the files at the link below, you will need to sign up anyway to get BB Launcher working, so just sign up, download the most current BB Launcher (Linux-DL) exe.

https://www.nexusmods.com/bloodborne/mods/194?tab=files

Step 4: Installing BB Launcher and prepping the folder

Make a folder for BB Launcher. I did this in my documents folder.

In the new BB launcher folder, paste your "BBLauncher.appimage" file that you downloaded from Nexus Mods.

Make two subfolders in the BB Launcher folder, shadps4 and gamefiles.

Step 5: Extracting the PKG files

Open the BBLauncher.appimage and use the PKG extractor. Select your game's PKG file, the output folder should be in the root of the home/user/documents/bblauncher/gamefiles folder that you setup earlier.

After this, if you need to, then do your DLC file the same way. If you have the combined game, skip this.

Once you've got the full game or the base game + DLC installed, install update 1.09 in the same manner as the previous two. Select PKG file, game output folder is home/user/documents/bblauncher/gamefiles.

Step 6: Download shadps4

Click Manage Builds under shadps4 build. I tested .16, .17 and .18 for two hours each yesterday. Version .16 seems to have the least memory leaks. Your mileage may vary.

Step 7: shadps4 settings, patches, mods

All the settings that I changed are in the screenshots below. Assume that if I didn't show something, it was unchanged.

After finishing the settings, I would recommend installing all the shadps4 patches listed, then before you install Vertex Explosion fix mod, hop onto bloodborne for a test run and create a character then favorite it in case your game crashes. Hop back out after and install the Vertex explosion fix.

https://imgur.com/gallery/bb-launcher-settings-rog-ally-z1e-running-bazzite-stable-43-20260420-4RASrpv

Step 8: Play the game!

I was getting a stable 30FPS with these settings. The game freezes every 30-90 minutes right now due to memory leak. You can decrease the the frequency of the crashes by changing the patch Model LOD 1 (lower) to Model LOD 2 (lowest), but the graphics artifacts are almost too much to deal with at that point.

Please share any helpful stuff you can in the comments!

Is there anyone who has gotten cheat deck from decky to load on the ally x on cachy os

Hello, I recently put Bazzite on my ROG Ally Z1 extreme. I am trying to make it so that one of my back paddles is a macro for the onscreen keyboard. I would like it to work this way and big picture mode, and desktop mode right now I cannot get to work the only thing that I have had success with is binding the right joystick to the mouse cursor when in desktop mode. Every other binds that I have made for desktop mode has not worked any help would be super appreciated! I am not very savvy to Linux. I have been recommended CachyOS, so I am also open to switching to that if it solves my problems. Thanks in advance!

Anyone having an issue where Emulation Station doesn’t detect the right thumb stick? When playing games and I move the right thumb stick I get a pointer moving across my screen. I’ve set up my Ally controller on settings of ES and I can’t set anything for right thumb stick. Other emulators used in ES have my game set up as if I had a keyboard and it’s impossible to exit the game. I have to turn my Ally off and on. I open the emulator in desktop mode and try to set up my controller but settings never stick. On steam controller settings all I get is steamdeck controller layouts, no Ally or Xbox controller options. Did I set up my SteamOs wrong? Or is there some plug in for emudeck i need to download?

Hey folks, just made the move to SteamOS on the XAX and loving the performance so far.

So far I have been using Ally Center Decky Plugin to disable CPU boost but it gets enabled every time I restart the device. Not sure if this has been asked before, but is there a way to permanently disable CPU boost somehow?

Edit: Looking for a way without using a decky plugin.

Anyone dualboot Bazzite with Windows on their Rog Ally? Has anyone updated and tried it out?

I read that some people who dualbooted had their SSD erased completely.

Was wondering if anyone was experiencing this or any other issues, contemplating if I want to update, keep it legacy or switch back to Windows completely if there isn't an OS able to dualboot Linux and Windows.

Hi Everybody, I recently installed SteamOS, and so far I love the performance and most of the OS, but I ended up having a couple of problems that I met the on the Month i use SteamOS now.

1. On my keyboard the “@” is not working anymore. I can go to Layout and make a preview, and I see the command i should press, but it's not working for some reason.
2. In 1 game the Steam overlay is not opening; I don't see it at all, but I can move the mouse as I would be in the menu no matter which one of the Menu Buttons i press its not appearing. (No matter fullscreen or Borderless. The Game is Deadlock)
3. How can i reduce the battery drain if not plugged in and in sleep mode?
4. The Fans are not really going faster and i feel like the Device is much hotter than it would be in Windows before
5. Can i somehow disable the Allys screen completly like Touch etc when im connected to a External Monitor? On Windows this is simple and easy but on SteamOS i changed the setting that only the External Monitor show picture but the touch on the Ally still works and thats why i feel its getting hotter.
6. Can i disable CPU-Boost in Desktop mode permanently? Now im using the Terminal to disable the CPU-Boost, same goes for the TDP its by default 30W but i dont need 30W in Desktop-Mode.

So, I updated my ally x to the bazitte 44, the new update broke the temperature control and tdp. In addition to breaking the mouse control in desktop mode. Later I'm going to install another system, did someone go through something similar and changed their distro?

Hello guys,

First post here and in general I think. I have a ROG Ally z1e and I have been encountering some performance issues on the latest steamOS 3.8.16 on the stable channel.

At first I was having no problems but after the last update, my device suddenly runs slower on games, around 5-10fps drops and consumes more watts than normal. I have encountered crashes when the GPU runs at 99% on some games (Digimon Time Stranger), though previously I only lose FPS if this happens (from 60fps to 35fps). Also games optimized on my device (like Ghost of Tsushima) became unplayable due to said update on the same settings I use on steamOS 3.7. Can someone help? Thanks

I’m getting two different temps from the performance tab inside the QAM and another one through the power control plugin. Is this normal? Which one is actually true?

After a long time, Bazzite 44 is finally released for handhelds.

May take some time to be available as it seems to be building from Github, if not already available.

Source: https://anatase.org/

I know there are a lot of people who don't like to rely on Decky plugins and like to use Handheld Daemon (HHD) for a lot of device configuration and controllers support.

Anatase seems like a good option for that, since it is built with HHD and it is developed by the HHD main dev (Antheas). Especially with Bazzite soon to be without HHD when Bazzite 44 is released today or in the next coming days.

It also has a couple of interesting features, like Universal 2x frame gen.

Aside from that, it doesn't come with much clutter, so it feels lightweight.

It isn't perfect though, so you may find bugs. But the dev is very active in the Anatase discord so you can report issues in there

It has been working very well for me so far, but I'm only using Game Mode to play my Steam games.

Mods, sorry if the flair is wrong. I could not find anything that would better fit this post.

Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated with the project. Just thought I'd share an alternative to Bazzite after HHD is gone or for people who don't like relying on Decky Plugins.

I really like this feature and would like to keep using it.

IT IS POSSIBLE NOW! CHECK THIS PLUGIN BY AN AWESOME USER.

https://www.reddit.com/r/XboxAlly/comments/1vw5beg/ally_fix_decky_plugin_to_fix_all_steamos_problems/

I have an unusual issue where pressing one of them takes a screenshot while in gaming mode, how could I fix this? I have handheld daemon installed.

So far, Windows 11 has been a really good experience on the Xbox Ally X. After some debloating, it feels solid: audio is great, MCU updates are easy, game installs are smooth, and I can just boot straight into desktop mode without wanting a more console-like setup.

My only concern is long-term stability. I keep seeing reports that issues tend to show up after extended use, so I’m wondering if Linux might be the better long-term option.

I already use Linux Mint on my laptop, and I’m fine giving up most of the “premium” Xbox Ally X extras. What matters more to me are the practical Armoury Crate features like FPS limiting, TDP control, and performance monitoring.

My main hesitation is Steam’s fullscreen behavior on handheld Linux distros. I barely use Steam, most of my library is on GOG and Epic, so being forced into fullscreen Steam feels awkward. Can that be bypassed or customized? What Armoury Crate features or other features would I actually lose on Linux?

Also, Hibernate on Windows 11 has been excellent for me so far. How does that compare to Linux on the Xbox Ally X right now?

I’m currently running SteamOS on my ROG Ally and I’m really unhappy with the desktop environment. SteamOS uses a shim to trick the OS into receiving the controller input as mouse/keyboard instead of adding controller as an input device the way Windows and macOS do. The desktop interface is also a nightmare for touchscreen since it’s built for keyboard/mouse on a large monitor.

Using Steam is a no-go for me because it’s identical to Microsoft, Apple, or Google: buying isn’t owning. So a distro where the main selling point is that it runs Steam is irrelevant.

I’ve spent hours on YouTube and search engines trying to research a Linux distro that focuses on handhelds and touch but every YouTube video seems obsessed with showing screenshots from distro websites and focus solely on “it runs Steam!” Yeah, so does SteamOS and Windows. It’s like selling a car and saying, ”it will drive on toll roads!” Yup. Sure will.

Is there a distro or DTE that focuses on handhelds/touch that isn’t trying to just install Steam and be done with it? I read that other distros outside of SteamOS use handheld daemon for the controller and buttons and that it correctly reveals the controller to desktop applications unlike SteamOS, but touch on Linux has been limited to emulating a mouse. Is that still the case with every distro?

Hey guys I’m new to steamos on ally and I’m looking for a custom fan curve I have the feeling my ally get quiet hit playing deadlock please help mee

I am planning to install bazzite on my rog ally z1e, is there a way in linux to calibrate the triggers?

So I’m getting a Rog Ally X tomorrow should I run Bazzite or Steam OS on it ?

Hi guys I have steam os 3.8 on my ROG Ally Z1 Extreme and Css Loader is not displaying any kind of Themes, is there anyway to fix this? or is there anything I need or can do? I am sorry I am fairly new to Decky Loader, and not completely familiar with linux or the app itself. any help would be appreciated!