Valve adds SteamOS support for its Steam Deck rivals

Valve’s huge new SteamOS update is finally here, and with it arrives support for the Steam Deck’s rivals, Lenovo’s Legion Go and Asus’ ROG Ally series. SteamOS update 3.7.8 improves support for these third-party devices and other AMD-powered handhelds, fixes a previous bug that prevented some apps from installing on the Legion Go S, while a “Steam OS Compatible” library tab has also been added to the handheld device. Valve made enhancements to the SteamOS recovery image, repairing the Steam operating system on the Steam Deck and the Legion Go S.

Valve outlines two requirements for the third-party devices not explicitly named in the update to run SteamOS on the handheld: they must be AMD-powered and have an NVMe SSD. Specific instructions for installing the operating system have been updated and listed here.

Before this huge update, players had to use an alternative like Bazzite to achieve a similar SteamOS experience on their devices. The new update also piggybacks off of Valve expanding the Steam Deck Verified categorization system to “any device running SteamOS that’s not a Steam Deck” in mid-May. To make matters sweeter, a SteamOS-powered version of the Lenovo Legion Go S is scheduled to release on May 25.

Elsewhere in the update, the Steam Deck was shown a tremendous amount of love with adding a new battery-saving option called battery charge limit. Players can locate the setting under the power submenu in the Deck’s settings. Much like a Nintendo Switch 2 feature, the setting allows users to set a charge limit for the Steam Deck. Patch notes recommended that users set the limit to 80% to prolong the system’s battery life.

The new Steam OS update also improved the Steam Deck’s Linux base, enhanced the system’s Mesa graphics driver, updated the desktop feature to Plasma 6.2.5 — a step up from 5.27.10 — and tons of other minor bug fixes.

You can find the full SteamOS 3.7.8 update here.