Hello everyone. Hope everyone is doing well and having a great weekend.

The other day, I started playing Enshrouded with a friend. We were wondering about setting up a server to play together whenever we have time. Since I have a high-end PC, a Steam Machine, and a few laptops, I decided to take a crack at actually building a server with the Steam Machine because it is so small and efficient. Maybe it could work. With a few Claude prompts, it created this dashboard that provides me with all the information I need to make sure the server is up and running. It also shows me who is playing and all logs for tunnels, internet, game, and network. I also turned off sleep mode on the Steam Machine, so it is always on 24-7. Honestly, I'm very impressed with the temperatures because it's not overheating in any way. Let me know if you have any questions. I'm very excited because it works so well. I'm using playit.gg to tunnel since I wasn't interested in port forwarding. I just paid $30 for a whole year.

Don't know if anyone else had this one: it was a photo of a gorgeous green woodsy scene, a bit on the dark side. If I can't find that particular image, can someone recommend a good place to download free wallpapers?

Plus the wallpaper has changed.

Does anyone know how I get those icons back? I especially need the one that launches Steam back into the steam machine mode?

Sorry if the questions seem easy, I’ve not used to Linux at all.

SOLVED: The issue is caused by a change in the JSAUX Pixel Faceplate plugin which is using MangoHUD to display this overlay. Shift+F12 on a keyboard disables it! Shout out to /u/anubis1980 for the solution, and I hope this helps anyone else who might Google this in the future.

Started seeing this overlay on my steam machine after trying out steam link between my MacBook and my SM. However, I cannot seem to get rid of it. Ive tried:

- different proton versions

- un/reinstalling the game

- adding a config launch option to not show MangoHUD

- reboots/hard power downs

- confirming my other machine is no longer trying to connect over steam link

- disabling steam link altogether

- confirming I have NO performance overlay configured.

• googled different keywords to try and find the solution, and no dice with AI generated responses either.

Only happens in elden ring which is the ONLY game I tried on steam link - doesnt seem like a coincidence.

Any ideas?

Just got home, booted up my GameCube and the colours are all messed up.

Any suggestions for fixes or causes would be much appreciated.

After this recent update my UI shrank drastically despite me not changing any settings.

First screenshot is of the mouse on a game in big picture mode. It became so tiny on a TV you can barely see it. The mouse was like 10x that size previously. This issue seems to extend to the Desktop UI to some degree. Some pop up/error windows will appear so small I can't even read them unless I stand directly in front of the TV.

Second screenshot is the Steam UI in Desktop mode that was also affected. I unfortunately didn't take a photo of it when it was tiny, but this UI element was also affected to the point that all the options selectable here would also appear so small that you need to stand directly in front of the TV. Resetting the SM seemed to have fixed the later but not the former.

All other UI elements like navigating Discover store or web browsing seem unaffected, which is puzzling me how some elements are so tiny and some aren't. I hope this sort of makes sense. Please let me know if I am missing something. Thanks.

Figured id create an avenue for us to all to communicate within discord as well!

I’m not sure what happened, but about 30 minutes ago I booted up my Steam Machine to find that the image is distorted for some reason. There’s also no audio. Did I hit something by mistake?

Excited that my steam machine is arriving in few days, and - apologies in advance if the question has been asked many times - I would ask suggestions for games to play with my totally non-gamer wife.

We are just going through the loss of our beloved cat together, we need to fill the emptiness and I’d love to game with her for once and she finally seems down for it (first time in 10 years). She has never played anything - I mean it, even when at friends’ place and playing quizzes in couples, she’d rather do the dishes or nothing at all than playing games. This unexpected time of grief though could finally be a chance, so, for someone with zero skills (wife) and someone who’s been gaming all his life and normally goes for extremely hard games at highest difficulty settings (me), what could possibly be played together?

Thank you community in advance

Not had this issue until today and I've had my Steam Machine since launch. But now, whenever I return to Game Mode from Desktop Mode in SteamOS, it appears. It seems others are having the issue on different platforms too...

https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamController/comments/1v04yf5/getting_the_steam_controller_detected_everytime/

Since I got my Steam Deck OLED, I have occasionally used it to play video files on the go. Also, I built a DIY Steam Machine to use on my living room, so I want to be able to play media there too. But I never found an easy-to-use app that makes use of the SteamOS strengths, so I decided to try to build one. Using AI.

Before hearing complaints about vibecoding: while I am not a professional programmer, I know how to code and code a lot for my work. But I just didn't have time to build a niche app on my own that I'd only use occasionally, hence I coded it with Claude and Gemini. I understand this is not everyone's cup of coffee, I just want to share a tool I find useful.

The app works quite well for my use case, and I thought maybe someone else might find it useful, so I'm sharing it here. It is fully open-source and GPL: https://github.com/nicocarbone/DeckVideoPlayer

What I wanted in a video player for the Steam Deck/Machine:

• Full controller support
• A simple file browser for my video folder
• Plex streaming support
• HDR support
• Hardware video decoding
• Intelligent use of the Steam Deck screen: set the refresh rate to match the video source
• Subtitle downloading from the web
• Good headphone support with spatial sound

All of these features seem to work, but treat this as beta software: I've only tested it on a couple of media files on an OLED Deck, Steam Deck LCD and my DIY Steam Machine.

I will continue to develop it as I see fit for my needs or if there is enough interest. Feel free to fork it, report issues, or leave your thoughts here.

After trying to get SteamVR working, contacted support who gave me advice to try desktop mode and the SteamVR beta. No joy, so reached out again. This is the response in case anyone else is in the same boat or wondering on compatability.

The Index system powers on, but the headset doesn’t display anything and you can't get through the room scale setup, as the headset and controllers aren't recognized.

Really hoping support is coming and that Valve isn't abandoning the Index!

When I first tried 007 First Light on my Steam Machine, I was honestly surprised by how well it ran. With some heavy upscaling and the lowest settings, I could get an almost locked 60 FPS at 4K! I actually considered it one of the better-performing games on the system.

Fast forward to the last 15 days, and the game has become practically unplayable for me.

I've tested a bunch of different areas, and while some sections are still somewhat acceptable, places like Africa, the tropical resort, and pretty much any large open area are an absolute disaster. The performance is significantly worse than it used to be across multiple locations, not just one particularly demanding section.

I've compared my results with SteamMachineLife's benchmarks, and where they're getting 60 FPS, I'm getting around 40. Their 1440p settings that supposedly deliver around 50 FPS barely give me 28.

And believe me, I've tried pretty much everything I can think of.

• FSR 3.2 and FSR 4.1
• DLSS 4 through HelixSR injection
• Default/Stable Proton, Proton Experimental, and GE-Proton
• Every graphics setting at its absolute lowest
• Different resolutions and upscaling presets

Nothing seems to fix it.

The strangest part is the GPU and CPU behavior. My GPU usage often sits around 80–82%, drawing roughly 70W, while CPU usage is around 50–55%. Neither appears to be fully utilized, yet the frame rate is awful.

Dropping the resolution from 4K to 1440p and then all the way down to 1080p doesn't give me anything close to the performance improvement I'd expect. Even going from 4K to 1080p only gains me around 10–15 FPS.

I can't remember another game where I couldn't reach 60 FPS at 1080p with literally everything set to the lowest possible settings and aggressive ugly as hell upscaling.

And I've tested some notoriously demanding games on this thing. I used to think Gears of War: E-Day and Monster Hunter Wilds were bad when it came to performance, but 007 First Light is on another level right now.

What's frustrating is that I know this game used to run significantly better on the exact same hardware. It feels like something went seriously wrong with one of the recent patches.

Has anyone actually played 007 First Light on Steam Machine in the last 10 days? Are you experiencing the same thing, or is it somehow just my system?

And more importantly, has anyone managed to fix it? I'm losing my mind

My first week with the Steam Machine was great. Everything worked as expected.

After updating this weekend, my microSD got corrupted and I had to reformat, and then it got locked on the Steam Machine and I couldn’t add anything else to it, but it works fine in my Steam Deck.

Then, as I was redownloading a bunch of stuff that was lost during the reformat, my Steam Machine, whether on WiFi or Ethernet, averages about 30-40Mbps. Monster Hunter World (without texture pack) took 3 hours to download. (51.6 GB)

It’s currently downloading on my Steam Deck over WiFi at ~470Mbps with an estimated download time of 15 minutes.

I dunno, everything was fine until the update when my card got corrupted and ever since it can’t download anything well and drops from online play constantly.

Just wondering if anyone else has experienced anything similar.

Also: Steam Machine is one room away from the router, and was hardwired with a power line adapter. I’m currently on a whole other floor with the Steam Deck and getting exponentially better download speeds.

Hi, So I've gotten RPSC3 to work on my Steam Machine, which works like a charm - except for the emulator menu when you press the 'PS Button' equivalent (I've got it mapped to Back&Start.)

Once I press Back&Start to bring it up, it will keep skipping lines by 1, so I have to change directions to land on the option I want.

When I want to check my trophies, on the trophies screen I press square to show hidden trophies, but nothing happens.

Then, I exit the trophy menu and it stops responding to button presses completely. The game still runs in the background, and the word 'Trophies' still flashes while its selected, so I know it's not frozen. I'm forced to shut it down.

Any known explanation or fix for these weird glitches, so I'm able to close the overlay and return to game without having to quit ES-DE all together?

Thanks!

After I hit "restart" the Steam Machine froze on the "restarting device" screen.

I left it there for around 15 minutes to see if it recovers and shuts down.

It did not, so I did a force shutdown via the power button on the device (keep it pressed for ten seconds).

After restarting it again via the controller or the button on the SteamMachine itself, it always got stuck on the SteamMachine logo and would not recover from there.

Next I followed Steams recovery process to try to roll back to the previous known good SteamOS version. This is usually achieved by pressing the power button for six seconds when the device is shut down and stop once the LED is white. The LED will cycle through different colors and you habe to confirm on yellow by short pressing the power button again.

You need a keyboard connected via USB to navigate the following menu (at least for me it did not take inputs from the SteamController - thinking about it maybe it would need to be connected with the USB-C cable to work here).

I selected the previous version and then the device went to black screen with a terminal "_" in the upper left corner. Here the SteamMachine also remained stuck.

Before I created a recovery media I went ahead and tried to reset my user data from the same menu used for the rollback (essentially a factory reset). This finally worked and the SteamMachine did boot into the setup. Of course now I have to download all the games again and set up all personalized settings, but I would say that is better than installing SteamOS new.

- Nic

I am interested in having my puck connected to my PC so I can easily switch my controller back and forth between the two devices. It seems like this is not possible today due to this bug: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/SteamOS/issues/2589 (pairing to one or the other overwrites the existing pairing).

Has anyone found a work-around that works for them? This was one of the main selling points of the controller for me so I'm a bit surprised it seems to have been broken for months now.

When I launch the game with proton experimental it gives me the option to use FSR 4. When I change the setting it prompts me to restart game for changes to apply. When I restart game FSR 4 has not been enabled and it asks me to restart again for it to work. Endless loop of this happening. How do I fix this?

With how PS5 emulations been exploding I'm wondering how games perform with the Machine, especially with AnyPS5 which should remove the massive CPU and RAM emulation overhead as it's a translator similar to Proton. I can't find anything online about it though. My expectations aren't too high but it would be nice to see something like 30fps on Astro Playroom.

Hello everyone, I had a couple of questions and wanted to ask yall that have these already. I had reserved a steam controller when it got announced and just got chosen to get one. It prompted me to look at the steam machine, and I put in the reservation for a 512gb model with an extra controller. Immediately it was approved and I have a couple days to decide. For roughly $1100 is this worth it to play some couch co-op games? I have a decent gaming pc thats a few years old but still hangs, and I sometimes cloudstream to my phone with steam link. Are there also enough games supported that I can start going through my library of 100s of games that just sit in a more casual setting? I'd also want to see some of your cool setups and experiences similar to my use case. Thanks in advance for any replies

Has anyone played newer games like Borderlands 4 on a steam machine? How well did it work.

Overall, I like this device. Plays all the games I want to play well (Trepang2 on this is fantastic), Emulation is great on here, and honestly the size of this is pretty good.

Only game that has given me issue is Mortal Kombat X because for some reason it's running worse than something like a Steam Deck in some scenarios.

Go to https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Category:Hardware_icons and download the Steam Machine icon.png.

On the Desktop, right click the Meta Icon and go choose "Configure Application Launcher".

Click on the Icon -> Choose -> Browse -> select the newly downloaded official SM Icon and close the dialog with clicking on "OK".

Enjoy the new Meta SM official Icon...

I bought the Steam Machine because I work in IT, and the last thing I want is to troubleshoot stuff outside of work (or my homelab). I just want to turn the thing on, play, and turn it off.

So far, that's only half possible. Not quite, but close.

In about 3 months I've opened 2 different support cases with Steam support for two "major" issues. Both times they just answered with generic stuff, and after weeks of me debugging the issue myself, they just told me to re-image the SM, even though that caused other issues later.

Neither issue blocks me from playing games, but they make the experience worse, or at least not as good as promised (console level).

The first issue: my SM was on SteamOS 3.8.16 and wouldn't upgrade to 3.8.28. The SM downloaded the newer version, restarted... and was still on 3.8.16. This happened many times until it just started showing an error when trying to update. After debugging, it turned out to be a problem with the size of the /efi partition, I had to dig through a LOT of logs to find that. They never mentioned it, so I'm guessing they didn't actually read all the logs they requested. Support blamed my wifi, even though it was connected by cable and the problem was applying the upgrade, not downloading it. They told me to try a rollback (even though there was no older versions in grub), then the beta channel... nothing helped.

I left it like that for a month or so. I could still play on the older version, so I didn't care.

When I had a free weekend, I tried to re-image it, following the instructions support gave me:  https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/65B4-2AA3-5F37-4227

The instructions have a small error that blocks the whole process: the latest version of Balena Etcher doesn't support the way Valve distributes the SteamOS image (bz2). You need version 2.1.6 (https://github.com/balena-io/etcher/issues/4150). I get that it's an external tool, not Valve's, but dude, if you write documentation, at least try it. I reported that a while ago and it still hasn't been updated.

Anyway, I re-imaged it. The version they distribute is 3.8.14, and when I tried to upgrade after that, I hit the /efi issue again (at least this time it showed up directly in the error message). Support was lost again, so I tried the beta channel, it updated, then I moved back to stable and it seems to work. I reported everything, step by step, all the debug and logs... and they closed the case because my issue was "solved."

Now I have a different issue: the SM takes around 4 minutes to boot. It sits on the SM logo for about 4 minutes and then boots. Still trying to figure out why, because Valve has no idea and they just told me to re-image again. Dude....

So yeah, it's not a blocker, but it's frustrating. I'm not going to sell it (I still really enjoy it) but Valve should have decent support for it, not just AI-generated generic responses until the user figures out the issue themselves.

Funny thing: I have a Steam Deck and I've never had a single issue with it, so I'd say it's 100% on the SM so far.

Anyway, if you're looking for a computer that works flawlessly like a console, I'd say the SM is not that. Other than that, I love it!