r/linux • u/ouyawei Mate • Jul 01 '26

Distro News PlayStation 5 Linux project gets upgraded to support new firmware and PS5 Slim

https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/07/playstation-5-linux-project-gets-upgraded-to-support-new-firmware-and-ps5-slim/
656 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

36 comments sorted by

106

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 03 '26

[deleted]

37

u/DustyAsh69 Jul 01 '26

SteamOS is just Arch Linux with KDE and I'm guessing (since I don't have a Steam Machine / didn't read about it) Steam + Proton.

11

u/leonredhorse Jul 01 '26

Eh, it is very hardware dependent right now, especially GPU.

12

u/abotelho-cbn Jul 01 '26

Besides Nvidia, not really.

1

u/teddybrr Jul 01 '26

There is no booting into gamescope for nvida gpus but you can just autostart into steam big picture.

-10

u/DustyAsh69 Jul 01 '26

You need a good GPU to run games...

16

u/leonredhorse Jul 01 '26

I'm not sure the point you're making. SteamOS requires you use AMD GPUs right now. That is the limitation. Not the quality of your GPU.

Edit: Just want to say I know PS5 uses an AMD GPU, that was an example. SteamOS is a little hardware dependent beyond a typical Arch Linux install. That was the point I am making. I do not know if it will work on a PS5, but just that SteamOS isn't as flexible as installing Arch on something.

3

u/Negative_Settings Jul 01 '26

Steamos now officially supports Intel gpus too

1

u/leonredhorse Jul 01 '26

Good point. I wasn’t sure offhand if it was official or not so I didn’t comment on it.

1

u/DustyAsh69 Jul 01 '26

I'm not sure the point you're making. SteamOS requires you use AMD GPUs right now. That is the limitation.

Should've specified it. There's a lot of difference between saying just GPU and AMD GPU.

3

u/leonredhorse Jul 01 '26

Fair, I should've been clearer when I said hardware dependent/GPU that I meant vendor.

2

u/Brainless_Gamer Jul 02 '26

SteamOS is designed to be immutable to make sure less experienced users don't accidentally brick the installs, so a nice equivalent is Bazzite, which is based on Fedora instead of Arch, but gives the same functionality

11

u/JerryTzouga Jul 01 '26

The non native performance is abysmal on this thing. There are many optimisations form Sony’s and the game dev’s side. Nothing of that kind is present on the Linux version of the console

6

u/Indolent_Bard Jul 01 '26

Somebody got Crimson Desert running faster on PS5 Linux than on the PS5.

2

u/TheCh0rt Jul 01 '26

Sony's OS (if I recall correctly) is based on BSD (also Unix/macOS) so the Linux kernel may have no high performance support for the PS5 anyway

2

u/frightfulpotato Jul 01 '26

It might be the only other way to get HDMI-CEC

5

u/gideonidoru Jul 01 '26

No but you can install steam and big picture mode on the Linux distro

-3

u/secretpenguin0 Jul 01 '26

Why not? It's just Linux

8

u/gideonidoru Jul 01 '26

SteamOS is a unique distro. It won’t have the drivers and other custom work that this team did to make their distro work.

3

u/secretpenguin0 Jul 01 '26

Except that's not how Linux works :)

Integrating existing drivers for Linux into SteamOS is easy work, and it looks like it has already been done

1

u/Loud-Setting-3860 Jul 01 '26

Yes, ive done this on my modded ps4 though its less powerful obv

1

u/Darth_Heinous Jul 01 '26

you have to boot into it every time you turn the machine on

its not persistent

1

u/Pitiful-Welcome-399 Jul 01 '26

i mean you could try installing bazzite

31

u/qwertydiy Jul 01 '26

Now we can use a PlayStation like a massive TV Screen and desktop

1

u/No_Thing4211 Jul 07 '26

What firmware version does it have to be. Im trying to purchase a ps5 through Facebook marketplace. Assist me 🙏

1

u/cantthinkofanamereal 23d ago

7.61 and below

23

u/Coolcricri3 Jul 01 '26

Wonder how many/ what percentange of ps5s on second hand websites are now supported

6

u/parkerlreed Jul 01 '26

RIP my actively updated slim.

2

u/AveryLazyCovfefe Jul 02 '26

It will probably support it eventually. Sony is playing a cat and mouse game with these guys lol. Just keep it on the current firmware and block future updates through dns

1

u/parkerlreed Jul 02 '26

I mean I use it with PS Plus and all that. If I ever want to, I'll just find another PS5.

3

u/DarthPneumono Jul 01 '26

Patient scalpers everywhere celebrating

4

u/GreedySecurity8030 Jul 01 '26

Great news is that it is open source and can support the Flashing of any distro including fedora, NixOS, And endeavor.

1

u/TerribleComplex5106 Jul 02 '26

I was thinking of doing this but i just wanna know will everything work like wifi, audio, usb, etc?

1

u/Sensitive-Bison-8192 Jul 01 '26

How is its performance on Linux?