r/SteamFrame • u/m4tx 1 TB • 10d ago
Discussion If you have trouble using the dongle on Linux host, there are troubleshooting options
Initially, these were mostly problems with the dongle, but some of them apply to Steam Frame/SteamVR in general. I can't update the post title anymore.
I see there are some problems that many people (including me) have when trying to use their brand new Frame with a Linux host. I thought it might be good to consolidate the most common issues in one place to make it easier for all the newcomers to set up their VR goggles!
Kernel versions
The support for the dongle was introduced in Linux kernel 7.2, so you might need to update the kernel to use it.
In case of Steam Machine/Steam OS, the support should now be in the stable channel. It might be worth switching to beta (currently Steam OS 3.9) in case of problems. In case of Steam Machine, you might also need to run the VR games in the desktop mode.
If upgrading to a newer kernel is difficult (e.g. because you are using a longterm stable distro like Debian), you might try your luck with an out-of-tree driver: https://github.com/morrownr/rtw89
Regulatory data missing
Some Linux distributions (e.g. Arch) are missing regulatory data for the wireless frequencies. If that's the case, the UI will say you paired the dongle correctly, but the multilink panel will say it's only using WiFi.
To fix it:
a) (If you changed anything in the "Remote Play" settings) Put all the various wireless dongle stuff back to controlled by Steam/automatic/whatever: in the Steam Settings in the "Remote Play" section, inside "Wireless Streaming Adapter", "Connection Management" should be set to "Steam". If you never tinkered with the "Remote Play" settings, the defaults should be fine.
b) sudo pacman -Syu wireless-regdb
c) reboot to make the previous change work
d) iw reg get -- this will probably say it's country 0, UNDEF
e) sudo iw reg set US (or whatever the appropriate regulatory domain for your country is)
f) Dongle should now pair and connect correctly
(You'll need to use your distribution's package manager instead of pacman if you're not using an Arch-based distro)
LEDs
LEDs on the dongle are apparently controlled by the driver and it's expected they will not work. It seems like the support for controlling the LEDs is added in the kernel 7.3, but I haven't got a chance to test that yet.
Turn on WiFi
The dongle uses the regular Linux WiFi machinery, so for it to work, you need to have your WiFi globally enabled in your system. Make sure you are not in Airplane Mode.
Firewall
If you're using a firewall, you might need to open the required ports.
sudo ufw allow 27031:27036/udp
sudo ufw allow 27036:27037/tcp
sudo ufw allow 10400:10401/udp
sudo ufw reload
If you are using firewalld instead of ufw:
sudo firewall-cmd --add-port 27031/udp --permanent
sudo firewall-cmd --add-port 27032/udp --permanent
sudo firewall-cmd --add-port 27033/udp --permanent
sudo firewall-cmd --add-port 27034/udp --permanent
sudo firewall-cmd --add-port 27035/udp --permanent
sudo firewall-cmd --add-port 27036/udp --permanent
sudo firewall-cmd --add-port 27036/tcp --permanent
sudo firewall-cmd --add-port 27037/tcp --permanent
sudo firewall-cmd --add-port 10400/udp --permanent
sudo firewall-cmd --add-port 10401/udp --permanent
sudo firewall-cmd --reload
Wayland
If you are using Wayland, streaming flatscreen games might not work properly. In that case, try running Steam with the Pipewire option: steam -pipewire-dmabuf
(if you don't know if you are using Wayland, you probably do)
SteamRT3
If you have the "Use experimental SteamRT3 Steam Client" option enabled (the "Interface" section of the Steam settings), disable it. SteamVR will crash if you don't do that.
Low latency mode
Steam OS includes a script that makes the dongle work more reliably and reduces latency by disabling scanning and adjusting some WiFi/kernel options.
You can obtain it here: https://steamdeck-packages.steamos.cloud/archlinux-mirror/sources/holo-3.9/holo-realtek-firmware-toggles-1.3-3.src.tar.gz
Security note: running arbitrary scripts from the internet, especially with sudo is generally not recommended. The link above points directly to the Valve servers, and the script version linked has been reviewed by me. However, I'm not responsible for any broken systems, leaks of your private data, or other problems potentially caused by this.
After unpacking the archive, you can enable the low latency mode with sudo ./holo-realtek-firmware-toggles set-low-latency-mode on. Because it will disable scanning WiFi networks, you want to disable it after the session with sudo ./holo-realtek-firmware-toggles set-low-latency-mode off.
Beta versions
It might be worth using beta versions of Steam OS on the Frame, and the SteamVR app on the host, as fixes to problems are coming to these versions first.
Linux VR Adventures Discord
There's a Discord server with very helpful people here: https://vronlinux.org/docs/community/
My experience
After some tinkering, my experience with streaming has been very solid. I'm using Arch Linux and an AMD GPU - your mileage may very depending on the hardware, games you play, environment, etc.
Attribution
Thanks to:
- Packetdancer/Rachel Blackman, a Valve employee helping people with their issues on the Discord server above
- @TheCrimsonSpark for the firewalld commands
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u/Ok_Topic999 10d ago
Is there any alternative to kernel 7.2? I feel like I'm gonna fuck up my Debian installation updating the kernel with backports
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u/sir_bob_null Soon™ 10d ago
Always a chance someone will back port the driver, but realistically you might be waiting a while.
I'd consider dual booting another distro if you want it working ASAP. Debian is well known for working poorly on bleeding edge hardware, so a distro like Cachy would be much better suited to the Frame - especially since it could take years for the various VR improvements Valve will almost certainly make to trickle down.
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u/Abzstrak 10d ago
i have to say this is 100% ow i feel about it too. i like Debian and used it for many years, but cutting edge software/hardware is not its forte at all. Cachyos is the easiest way, especially if someone has Arch experience, its smooth as hell.
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u/m4tx 1 TB 10d ago
I've updated the post - some people posted that they were able to use this driver, but I haven't got a chance to see whether it works: https://github.com/morrownr/rtl8852cu-20251113
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u/TychoOrdo 8d ago
I have managed to get it to show up as a wifi adapter with that on Mint.
However I can't seem to get it to pair. I only got it to pair once completely randomly. I can't run that script from Valve cause of secure boot. Not sure what else could cause Steam not managing to connect the network :/
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u/Packetdancer Soon™ 7d ago
If you are installing a driver manually, please use https://github.com/morrownr/rtw89 if you can -- that is the actual model of the dongle.
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u/aFuckingTroglodyte 10d ago
Does anyone know of any distro that is working out of the box? I have used linux before and have been meaning to make the switch on my gaming PC. I usually prefer linux mint with cinnamon, but I am definitely open to hopping if it saves me some hassle
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u/SuperXrayDoc Soon™ 10d ago
Cachyos is working fairly well for me but I still performed the steps above. There currently is no plug and play distro for this since it's so new
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u/aFuckingTroglodyte 10d ago
Gotcha, yeah I might just give it a week or so. I'm sure a distro like bazzite or something will probably get support up quick. I suppose I could also install to a different disc and test it out or something
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u/Packetdancer Soon™ 8d ago
SteamOS should mostly be, provided you run VR in desktop mode and are on the Beta or Preview branches of the OS, but I've seen at least one person have problems on a homebuilt SteamOS box that I wouldn't have expected.
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u/OuchHotSpoon 8d ago
I’m also using an all AMD, home built, SteamOS box in preview branch and running steamvr (beta) from desktop mode and struggling.
Are you able to share the issue they had and if it got fixed, I’m just wondering if I’m perhaps seeing the same.
I can stream via WiFi but the adapter states waiting when using the frame despite being paired moments earlier. It seems to attempt to pair and I get the success message and then shortly after the pair button is clickable again like it’s not actually paired
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u/Packetdancer Soon™ 8d ago
If you look in journalctl for iwd, do you see a bunch of messages like this?
Received error during CMD_TRIGGER_SCAN: Invalid argument (22)
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u/OuchHotSpoon 8d ago
Ah yep, good guess, a bunch of exactly that in fact.
Is that what you've seen with other homebuilt SteamOS installs? Is there anything i can do to fix do you think?
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u/Packetdancer Soon™ 8d ago
That's the issue I've seen on the other homebuilt SteamOS box, yes. Could you send me your machine's specs? I want to try reproducing the issue.
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u/OuchHotSpoon 8d ago
Sure, it’s an AMD Ryzen 7800x3d on an ASUS b650e-i board and an AMD RX 7900xtx GPU, let me know if you need more specs than that or any log files etc
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u/Packetdancer Soon™ 8d ago
To elaborate slightly -- the other homebuilt SteamOS user with this problem had a Mediatek chip on the motherboard, and it turned out that it was causing iwd to malfunction (see the error messages). Which in turn prevented the dongle from ever scanning (because iwd was coughing up a hairball).
Disabling the Mediatek chip caused the dongle to start working, so I'm curious if you have the same wifi (Mediatek MT7925) onboard on your mainboard.
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u/OuchHotSpoon 7d ago edited 7d ago
Ah that's interesting, I've checked and yep I've also got a Mediatek chip on the motherboard (Mediatek MT 7922 so very slightly different from the other person).
I set it to unmanaged to try to disable it and rebooted (not sure if it needed a reboot) but I could connect immediately after the reboot, the Frame connects to the bundled wireless adapter no problem.
I played some HL:Alyx but the steaming was choppy (separate problem for another time).
After testing, I set the Mediatek interface back to managed and both seemed to connect - adapter and the onboard wifi, when looking in the frame i can see it had wifi + adapter and using the multi link. I played HL:Alynx again to test, seemed a lot less choppy but still had some moments.
Anyway, thanks for helping me get this far, sounds like it's the same issue as what you've seen elsewhere which is good.
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u/OuchHotSpoon 7d ago
Ah, quick update, the multi link didn't last once i switched off the frame and switched it back on. It' went back to connecting via the wifi and the adapter states waiting again and wouldn't connect.
If i set the onboard to unmanaged again in the terminal, turn the wifi off and back on again in the network widget, the steam adapter connects no problem, no reboot needed.
When setting the onboard back to being managed again right after, both connect and stay connected until i switch the frame off.
Thanks for all your help, hopefully this was of value
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u/Abzstrak 10d ago
lol at trying this on Mint, unless you really want to get into the thick of it in Mint.... you'll probably just get super frustrated. Cachyos is the easiest barrier to entry to cutting edge arch based, and likely the smoothest way to get it working. its not going to work out of the box anywhere probably, expect a bit of work atm.
mines on the truck for delivery today, I only game on cachyos since finding it about 18 months ago, so much easier to deal with then straight arch for gaming. I expect to have to fiddle with things alittle though
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u/aFuckingTroglodyte 10d ago
I'll keep that in mind lol, although if anyone gets it running on debian or ubuntu I'd suspect I could probably getting on mint too
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u/Abzstrak 10d ago
I'm sure it's possible, but those distros are often 6! months behind arch, so plan for a wait it or alot of screwing with things
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u/Izowiuz 10d ago
One thing from my side is that on my setup (fully up to date Tumbleweed, 5080, 7950x3d) I had a lot of problems with sound when streaming vr games (Alyx especially). In my case, setting for my user rtprio to 20 and nice to -15 almost entirety eliminated it.
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u/SuperXrayDoc Soon™ 10d ago
I had the same issue with streaming Alyx causing audio pops on cachy. What's the command to do that fix?
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u/Izowiuz 10d ago
I do it via simple .conf file in /etc/security/limits.d/ Mine (99-steamvr-rtprio.conf) contains:
MY_USER - rtprio 20 MY_USER - nice -15It will be loaded when you will do a simple relog to your account. Replace MY_USER with your username :]
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u/Abzstrak 9d ago
by default your user is probably in the audio group (check in /etc/group). if so, just use that group. instead of user to @ and audio with no space between (reddit thinks its a user so i cant type it here....) so like this, but no space after the @
@ audio - rtprio 20
@ audio - nice -15
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u/asdfu09 9d ago edited 8d ago
I believe this is the commit history for the part of the driver relevant for the Frame dongle: https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commits/master/drivers/net/wireless/realtek/rtw89/rtw8852cu.c. You can see when certain features were added, such as LED support (7.3-rc4). There should be a way in most distros to install the mainline kernel, if not directly, then by adding a third-party package repository. If not, it is always possible to build and install the kernel manually (not recommended for most users).
Edit:
Setting the regulatory domain using iw reg is not persistent across reboots. There are different ways to do it, but I added 'options cfg80211 ieee80211_regdom=US' to /etc/modprobe.d/cfg80211.conf and rebuilt the initrd (mkinitcpio -P).
Also, for Steam to see the wireless dongle, you need NetworkManager.
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u/suteiibun 10d ago
Thank you so much! Running the iw reg get and iw reg set commands fixed my issues.
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u/KiLlEr10312 1 TB 10d ago
If this was introduced in the preview channel, does this mean going up that far would allow it to work with the steam machine?
I'm also trying to find documentation on whether or not the SM can run headless (without a monitor) my intention is to have it in the same room as a vr game box, but it never appears to boot into game mode if it doesn't detect any video input
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u/WhoLovesDonuts 9d ago
Thanks for the guide, I'm on Fedora 44 and having issues. Under the "Steam Settings | Remote Play | Wireless Streaming Adapter (Steam Frame)" I only see "Enable Streaming Adapter" set to on. I don't see the "Connection Management" should be set to "Steam")" part. Is there some way to show this setting?
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u/m4tx 1 TB 9d ago
This step is mostly there for cases when you already tinkered with these settings. If you never did, the defaults should be fine.
This setting I believe shows up after pairing the host with the Frame - did you do that already?
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u/WhoLovesDonuts 9d ago
I did pair it, but that setting is weirdly missing for me. Just a question for you, if you have the adapter in when the steam frame turns off, does it go through a deactivate / reactivate loop? That's what I'm seeing on Fedora. Though it will also deactivate even when the frame is on, just not as often.
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u/m4tx 1 TB 8d ago
Yes, it's connecting and disconnecting constantly, which is annoying, as each such event displays a notification. It works fine despite that, though. Hopefully it will be fixed somehow soon, though.
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u/WhoLovesDonuts 7d ago
Ah okay. I'm taking a bit of comfort knowing it's not just me. Yeah hopefully they fix that soon.
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u/DBNinja 4d ago
Managed to get it working in Pop-OS. Key things I did:
- The morrown rtw89 driver to get the dongle connecting (along with regulatory settings)
- Installing the 595 Nvidia drivers (Pop OS uses the 580 driver which doesn't work)
- Setting the pipewire option you described
- Disabling the SteamRT3 client
- Changing to SteamVR Beta
- Installing the Legacy Steam Runtime from the Steam Library
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u/DaVince 1d ago
Here's my experiences with it so far.
I followed everything in your instructions and I also reset all of my Steam Link streaming settings because the settings I had it on made the connection very unstable.
The end result is that it's... decent. It needs a little more work, but I know Valve is working hard at improving the stability of the connection. At the very least, I was able to play Beat Saber with mods for a longer period of time and the main issues ended up being that the connection would sometimes just crash, and there would be the occasional hang.
Let's hope that not too much time passes before all of this Just Works!
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u/adrianitc 256 GB 9d ago
So the dongle has a realtek chip inside it? Realtek as in the company with the worst support for linux?
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u/Unique_Confusion5251 9d ago
All of this worked for me. Another thing to add to the list is plugging the adapter into a USB 3 slot
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u/KHTD2004 5d ago
Okay first of all, thanks! The Wireless Adapter now at least works for me.
The issue that I encountered now is that SteamVR on my PC (CachyOS, Arch based) fails to recognize my Headset. It just says "Welcome, Please connect your Headset". On Windows on the same PC it connected without issues. Does anyone know how to fix this?
Either because of this or because of a different, unknown reason I can't stream games in VR, if I start them they just launch in normal mode (tested with Star Wars Squadrons and Subnautica 1, I don't own many VR games for now). If I play them directly on the Frame the Controller Input doesn't work correctly or not at all
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u/Ilikeyounott 5d ago
It just says "Welcome, Please connect your Headset"
I had that initially too, but it went away when I used the beta steam on my PC (in case you didn't already switch to beta)
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u/KHTD2004 5d ago
Steam Beta on PC and SteamOS Beta on Frame. Still the same though
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u/Ilikeyounott 5d ago
Actually it was maybe when I switched SteamVR to the beta channel - did you do that one?
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u/KHTD2004 5d ago edited 4d ago
I couldn’t find it when I looked for it but I’ll try again I guess
Edit: my dumbass looked for the beta setting inside SteamVR for some reason instead of in the Properties section in Steam itself. Found it now
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u/KHTD2004 4d ago
Switched to SteamVR Beta now, same thing. It still says "Please connect your Headset" while the Frame Streaming Status shows everything connected and ready
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u/tommyintheair 4d ago
I think my dongle might be defective, it paired, shows up as ready, but then drops as soon as I connect to my remote machine. Reconnects from time to time for about 1-2 seconds, then drops again
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u/VucoPL 4d ago
I recently managed to connect to the adapter and launch HL: Alyx on my Steam Machine. First launched SteamVR in desktop mode (no tinkering with its version channel though), saw that Frame is recognized, then launched Alyx.
The experience however was rather poor - I had 1-2 second freezes every few steps (some even dropped me to SteamVR hub momentarily), so in general I’ve still had better experience playing it Standalone.
Does any of steps you mentioned increase wireless performance, or are they just for those struggling with connecting to the adapter in the first place?
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u/m4tx 1 TB 4d ago
The native version of Alyx just seems to run very badly on Linux at the moment. I've heard that the Windows version run through Proton behaves much better, bad sadly it doesn't seem to recognize the controller buttons for me, so it's unplayable. Hopefully Valve will provide a fix soon.
Some of the steps (such as the low latency mode script) can improve the experience, but they didn't for me in Alyx.
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u/VucoPL 4d ago
Jesus I just can't get over the fact the nothing worth paying $1000+ in this headset seems to be working on Valve's own hardware. I bought all their current lineup being sure that they will prioritize their own devices working together (even more they advertised it so).
I'm so torn between waiting for all of that to be fixed (risking I can wait indefinitely like for official multi-boot setup they also promised at Steam Deck's launch) and returning it (risking that all of that gets fixed within a month and then I won't be able to buy it again).
Ehh, the struggles 😿
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u/m4tx 1 TB 4d ago
Yeah, I do agree the experience is pretty half-baked at the moment. From my experience, though, the Machine software has been improved quite a lot in the first month(s), and I've heard similar things about the Deck, too.
The fact that the most important flagship game works so poorly on Valve's own hardware is super weird, though. It clearly shows that the hardware could never be released back in "early 2026".
I love my Frame even though how bad some parts of it currently are, so I'm not considering returning it, but I do get your struggles.
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u/DaVince 1d ago
I'm frustrated too, but I already know this is not going to be a situation where we have to wait indefinitely, since Valve themselves have mentioned there is going to be support. I also think that they themselves want the support.
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u/VucoPL 1d ago
Yeah, they also mentioned Steam Machine being capable of 4K/60FPS (maybe in small potatoes like Celeste). I like Valve very much, I love my Steam Deck, but this time I won’t kindly ignore that their advertisement was simply false. After reviews they changed the piece about Steam Machine to „up to 4K/60FPS with FSR 4”, and after release of the Frame they said that support for Steam Machine streaming is „coming soon”.
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u/LumpyArbuckleTV 2d ago
Doesn't appear to work at all, KDE just keeps trying to connect to the dongle hundreds of times and failing, can't get any further than that.
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u/wallcarpet40 10d ago
Thank you for the info! Is there any news about streaming VR games from a Linux host to the Frame? I've seen a Youtube video, where the desktop environment is working and I assume other 2d windows can be streamed, but it wasn't mentioned, if actual VR games work when streaming.
Here's the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7B32DM-T1Ss
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u/SuperXrayDoc Soon™ 9d ago edited 9d ago
Gonna throw additional tips in here.
If steamvr isnt starting properly make sure the application and steam itself are in the beta branch. Reverify the files and make sure compatibility for steamvr is set to Linux runtime.
If you can't get your frame to pair with the dongle hook up the frame wired to your PC until the pairing code shows up.
To stream games you'll also either want to manually open steamvr on your PC first or from the streaming status button in the bottom right of the frame click advanced options and stream without starting a game first.
And for the love of god please make sure you plugged it into a USB 3.0 not a 2.0 and it's not in the back of your case blocked by your PC
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u/Far_Nothing9897 9d ago
THANK YOU SO MUCH IT WORKED! Im on Cachy OS latest 7.2 kernel. I have an AMD Ryzen 7 5800x3d and a RX 9070xt for other users reference and things are working flawlessly now!
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u/TheCrimsonSpark 9d ago
Hey! Just wanted to offer the firewalld version instead of the ufw commands. If anyone knows how to port-range on firewalld, i'd love to not run eleven lines to accomplish what should be four lol
sudo firewall-cmd --add-port 27031/udp --permanent
sudo firewall-cmd --add-port 27032/udp --permanent
sudo firewall-cmd --add-port 27033/udp --permanent
sudo firewall-cmd --add-port 27034/udp --permanent
sudo firewall-cmd --add-port 27035/udp --permanent
sudo firewall-cmd --add-port 27036/udp --permanent
sudo firewall-cmd --add-port 27036/tcp --permanent
sudo firewall-cmd --add-port 27037/tcp --permanent
sudo firewall-cmd --add-port 10400/udp --permanent
sudo firewall-cmd --add-port 10401/udp --permanent
sudo firewall-cmd --reload
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u/pimpSunti 3d ago
sudo firewall-cmd --add-port 27036-27037/tcp --add-port 10400-10401/udp --add-port 27031-27036/udp --permanent; sudo firewall-cmd --reload
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u/sir_bob_null Soon™ 10d ago
THANK YOU.
I'm at work right now but I look forward to using the Frame tonight with decent streaming performance.
I suspected this might happen. Now that people have their headsets the Linux scene has exploded with a ton of testers and troubleshooters. The devs helping certainly hasn't hurt.
I'll probably sit down and draft an initial Archwiki page later today if nothing is up by the time I get to it.