u/RedTib

I have a living room PC and I cycled between Bazzite and Windows. Each have their pros and cons. On Bazzite, it would constantly crash Gamescope if you put the PC to sleep and woke it up more than 2 hours later, so sleep mode was useless.

When I finally installed SteamOS, it was fantastic. I can’t find a single system breaking bug. I will wake the PC after 2 weeks, and my game is still paused. It’s just insane how good it is.

This is just for occasional viewing. 1080p will work just fine. I'd like to spend under $300, but I don't know if that's realistic. Extra bonus points if it will support AirPlay. Thanks in advance!

I'm running a 7800X3D and a 9070XT. Leave a comment if you want me to test something.

EDIT: No luck. It's downloading the same image over and over. There needs to be an image from after February 2026. If you switch from the release to the preview release, it will change it to a steamdeck variant.

I have kids and pets, and I want to keep them away from the fire. I also want to be able to cook s’mores and hot dogs over it.

I also care about portability because I want to move the whole thing away when not in use.

Is the OEM Surround the best option or should I go with a third party?

https://gitlab.steamos.cloud/holo/inputattach-cec-units

The work is already completed. The Pulse Eight HDMI CEC adapter adds CEC compatibility over USB, and it is natively supported in the Linux kernel. This work adds it so that SteamOS can recognize it on each boot.

So if you’re interested in CEC support, you should know that Valve is listening!

With the stable release of SteamOS 3.8, there has been an influx of new users. One of the best features of couch gaming is HDMI-CEC, which will send signals to your TV to turn on and set the active source to your PC.

All consumer graphics cards lack this feature. I am only aware of the Steam Machine, Steam Deck Dock, Framework Desktop, Raspberry Pi, and some Intel NUC models that support the feature. Other devices lack the physical pin in the HDMI port.

You can add this functionality or emulate it with SteamOS. This is just a brief overview. Please do your own research if you are interested.

1. Use a DP to HDMI adapter that has the HDMI CEC pin connected.

This has been a popular option among Bazzite and CachyOS users. UGREEN has an option that works out of the box and from my experience, does not require any additional configuration in SteamOS. The other benefit is you can use 4K/120Hz/VRR at 10-bit color. I had issues with this solution glitching out on my Samsung and LG TVs.

2. Use the Pulse Eight HDMI-CEC adapter

This is not as popular as option 1 due to the complexity. The adapter supports HDMI 2.0, and it hasn’t been updated in many years. However, you can run two separate HDMI cables to your TV (one to your graphics card and one to the adapter) and use the adapter as a USB device only. The website explains this more in-depth.

The software needed for it, libCEC is installed on SteamOS. However, you will have to set it up. On Bazzite, it is set up out of the box to work.

Another downside: each time you send a CEC command, it has to fire up a connection, so it is inherently slower than the DP to HDMI adapter.

3. Use a Raspberry Pi as a CEC command center

I always thought this was really interesting because folks will have a RPi that they haven’t used for many years. But this is a very custom solution. I used this guide to test it out, and it worked well.

4. Use a Wake-on-LAN or scripting to wake your TV and set the input.

I really like this approach and I utilize it. Most smart TVs will support Wake-on-LAN and many accept scripting or custom commands using URLs. I’ve used it on LG, Sony, and Samsung TVs. LG is the easiest, Samsung was the worst. I have a script sitting in my user space on SteamOS so that it will not be wiped by updates. On my LG TV, it is incredibly reliable. I’m able to wake the TV and set the input. Since it’s through local LAN, it works very quick.

If anyone else has suggestions of methods, please add them below.

I took one for the team and updated to the Developer Beta. If you use the CarPlay Simulator on macOS, it's clear that the functionality is present and working, but a switch needs to be flipped by the automaker before it is supported in a vehicle. Apple also announced Route Sharing, and that is also not enabled.

Asking for a friend

(Originally posted in /r/f150lightning)

I’m probably the last person to figure this out, but it caught me by surprise today.

I don’t usually take road trips that require multiple charging stops, but today I completed a 12-hour round trip. The hotel I stayed at last night had a broken charger, so this morning we stopped at a Cracker Barrel with a Tesla Supercharger. While we ate, I charged to 90% using my A2Z Typhoon Pro adapter.

As I normally do, I put the adapter back into its included carrying case when I was finished.

About six hours later, I needed the adapter again (I had used a Magic Dock station during the drive, so the adapter hadn’t been needed until then). Almost immediately after plugging in, the charging session derated from 180 kW to 86 kW. I was confused, so I checked the adapter. It was extremely hot, while the liquid-cooled Supercharger cable was cool to the touch.

I finished charging and put the adapter back in its case. Three hours later, I pulled it out again and it was still noticeably warm.

That’s when it dawned on me: the protective carrying case is acting as an insulator. The adapter retains a surprising amount of heat after a charging session, and if you put it straight into the case, it may still be hot enough to affect performance at your next stop. In my experience, it took about an hour sitting in open cabin air before it cooled back down.

Something to keep in mind if you’re making multiple Supercharger stops in a day with an A2Z adapter.

EDIT: I spoke to A2Z and they confirmed that this is the intended behavior in hot environments. They recommended to leave it out of the travel case if you have multiple stops.

I’m probably the last person to figure this out, but it caught me by surprise today.

I don’t usually take road trips that require multiple charging stops, but today I completed a 12-hour trip. The hotel I stayed at last night had a broken charger, so this morning we stopped at a Cracker Barrel with a Tesla Supercharger. While we ate, I charged to 90% using my A2Z Typhoon Pro adapter.

As I normally do, I put the adapter back into its included carrying case when I was finished.

About six hours later, I needed the adapter again (I had used a Magic Dock station during the drive, so the adapter hadn’t been needed until then). Almost immediately after plugging in, the charging session derated from 180 kW to 86 kW. I was confused, so I checked the adapter. It was extremely hot, while the liquid-cooled Supercharger cable was cool to the touch.

I finished charging and put the adapter back in its case. Three hours later, I pulled it out again and it was still noticeably warm.

That’s when it dawned on me: the protective carrying case is acting as an insulator. The adapter retains a surprising amount of heat after a charging session, and if you put it straight into the case, it may still be hot enough to affect performance at your next stop. In my experience, it took about an hour sitting in open cabin air before it cooled back down.

Something to keep in mind if you’re making multiple Supercharger stops in a day with an A2Z adapter.

I have a gaming PC in my living room running SteamOS. Microsoft has made strides in the living room in the past year. Xbox Mode on Windows 11 is fantastic, and they are so close. I really hope Project Helix comes with an OS that can be installed to consumer hardware, so you can roll your own if you wish. Here’s what’s missing for me:

1. Reliable sleep and resume. SteamOS has this nearly perfected. I don’t want to exit a game each time I am finished with my PC or use hibernate and risk a game error when I resume.
2. Updates. Microsoft needs to work with AMD and NVIDIA to put their latest graphics drivers in Windows Update and they need to make updating as simple as any console. Right now, you have to open the Windows Settings app and then do an update. It works via controller but it’s still clunky.

Nice to haves:

1. Quick Resume. If Microsoft added this and added universal compatibility, I’d probably switch right away. It is the killer feature of Xbox consoles.
2. CEC library that devices like the Pulse Eight CEC adapter can utilize. Linux has CEC support in the kernel, so it would be nice for Microsoft to do the same.
3. Better mouse support. It would be great if the next Xbox controller had a trackpad, but I don’t think that’s likely. It really helps when you have a window that goes out of focus. This is less of an issue with newer games.
4. Replace legacy Windows stuff, like pop up boxes that don’t support controller input. There’s zero reason we actually need a mouse when you have a controller.

I have a home theater PC with a Ryzen 7800X3D and RX 9070XT running on an MSI motherboard. These are just some observations I’ve noticed from switching. I will update if I notice more.

1. You have to use SteamOS 3.9 (Main) for best compatibility. I think 3.8 might work, but 3.9 had fewer crashes
2. My Qualcomm WiFi 7 built-in my MSI motherboard had issues disconnecting, which would cause my Ethernet to also disconnect. This persisted across reboots and I needed to manually restart the NetworkManager service. I imagine there was a crash somewhere. An issue on the SteamOS GitHub mentioned just plugging in a Realtek WiFi adapter fixed their network crash issues. I replaced the Qualcomm adapter with an Intel AX210 and that seemed to have solved the issue. The ongoing theory is that SteamOS expects WiFi to always be present and some chipsets may go into power saving mode or otherwise crash with SteamOS. The Steam Deck uses a Realtek chipset, so if you’re buying something, I’d stick to that. I just had the Intel chip from an old build.
3. Speaking of WiFi, disable SecureBoot. Otherwise, you might have issues with SteamOS detecting your adapter.
4. I don’t like the DP-to-HDMI adapters because they can glitch out and I can’t access my BIOS, but the popular CableMatters adapter provides CEC control on SteamOS.
5. You can use the Pulse Eight USB-CEC adapter to get CEC control. You need to use inputattach with this command: sudo inputattach --daemon --pulse8-cec /dev/ttyACM0. I suggest asking an AI agent on more information. But this worked for me.
6. For me, SteamOS had a ton of better stability than Bazzite. On Bazzite, I would get a lot of Gamescope crashes relating to display and way better sleep/resume on SteamOS.