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[Mutanthands]

Nope, not even that. It looks like an MSDOS prompt or a "terminal". I have very little experience with Linux so I don't know exactly how to describe what it is.

I had the same issue, and used the solution noted here:

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamuniverse/discussions/1/648814395824119462/

 

[ashecitism]

Is there any hint in SteamOS currently of the cross-platform game streaming feature?

Streaming beta will go live soon. Not just for SteamOS, but for the main client for those in the group. The function itself has been spotted in the beta client a while ago, it just needs to go live (currently doesn't allow an account to be logged into two machines at the same time).

 

[brandonh83]

Idiotic question time! Can this be a Windows replacement or is it just strictly for gaming? Like if I want to use Photoshop or music players and whatnot, should I not install it?

 

[Danj]

Idiotic question time! Can this be a Windows replacement or is it just strictly for gaming? Like if I want to use Photoshop or music players and whatnot, should I not install it?

You can't run Photoshop on Linux* so no, you should not install it

* - before everyone chimes in, a) yes there are Photoshop alternatives for Linux and b) maybe you could get it to work with WINE or in a VM

 

[ashecitism]

In its current state it's definitely NOT a replacement and Valve themselves said it's not aimed to be one. It's mainly for gaming on the big screen. It has a desktop though, and people will tinker with it. I doubt PS will ever come to linux though, but there's Gimp (lol?)

 

[Mr.Mike]

Idiotic question time! Can this be a Windows replacement or is it just strictly for gaming? Like if I want to use Photoshop or music players and whatnot, should I not install it?

I wouldn't install the Steam OS beta as my sole OS at this time. Even if it could run any of the programs you want to run it's still a beta OS.

 

[sekrit]

Is there any hint in SteamOS currently of the cross-platform game streaming feature?

THe beta should start "soon". There already is some parts of it in the client but you can't enable it yet.

 

[brandonh83]

Okay, figured as much-- thanks for the replies. I just wasn't sure how functional the OS was beyond games.

 

[SteveWinwood]

In its current state it's definitely NOT a replacement and Valve themselves said it's not aimed to be one. It's mainly for gaming on the big screen. It has a desktop though, and people will tinker with it. I doubt PS will ever come to linux though, but there's Gimp (lol?)

hey man gimp is solid

 

[Diprosalic]

Idiotic question time! Can this be a Windows replacement or is it just strictly for gaming? Like if I want to use Photoshop or music players and whatnot, should I not install it?

no. it's a living room OS not a machine for doing serious work.

 

[ashecitism]

hey man gimp is solid

lol, I just wasn't sure how good of an alternative it is. I recall someone on another forum laughing at it when compared to PS. I used it a couple of times back then, thought it was okay.

 

[Khaz]

It's a bare Debian, not a full fledged Ubuntu where everything is one click away. Though you could use it as replacement, I'd advise against it if you're not already a Linux user.

 

[sekrit]

It's a bare Debian, not a full fledged Ubuntu where everything is one click away. Though you could use it as replacement, I'd advise against it if you're not already a Linux user.

Debian is pretty basic as default features go but i do prefer the "start menu" of gnome3 over unity.

 

[ashecitism]

Marlamin put up another post: http://steamdb.info/blog/36/

 

[kartu]

Yep. SteamOS isn't a performance thing. It's a hedge against Microsoft going batshit insane and declaring that Windows 9 is going to be App Store only and Steam won't be allowed to play.

No, you got it wrong.
WinStore will be there by default and Microsoft wouldn't even care about margins.
That's a good reason for Valve to get nervous.

 

[ashecitism]

SteamOS vs Ubuntu on Intel: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=steamos_intel_preview&num=1

 

[Nzyme32]

Yep. SteamOS isn't a performance thing. It's a hedge against Microsoft going batshit insane and declaring that Windows 9 is going to be App Store only and Steam won't be allowed to play.

I'd wait for the beta to be over and the optimisation of drivers and os level stuff to be sorted before ruling out that its not a performance thing. They've called steamOS out as having significant performance gains. Currently much of what gives linux great performance has actually be removed. It would be hard to believe much they say if the gains were not to exist.

 

[Nzyme32]

Marlamin put up another post: http://steamdb.info/blog/36/

What exactly is the Remote control? Is it literal, as in having a tablet or a phone control the machine?

 

[ashecitism]

They talk about it here and here. Not sure to what extent this will reach.

I'd wait for the beta to be over and the optimisation of drivers and os level stuff to be sorted before ruling out that its not a performance thing. They've called steamOS out as having significant performance gains. Currently much of what gives linux great performance has actually be removed. It would be hard to believe much they say if the gains were not to exist.

I wouldn't take that at face value What else would they say?

 

[zhorkat]

SteamOS vs Ubuntu on Intel: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=steamos_intel_preview&num=1

So pretty much identical to stock Ubuntu 13.10 for now. Curious to see if this will change once Valve releases a more final version of the OS.

 

[Jaded Alyx]

Can u play Dota with a controller?

I think it's a bit odd that Valve is focussin on this living room OS, while the #1 played game on Steam (by far) is one that absolutely requires a mouse and keyboard.

One of the reasons the Controller is the way it is, is that it emulates mouse movement. The video they released showed the Steam Controller being used to play a variety of mouse/keyboard based games.

 

[Nzyme32]

I wouldn't take that at face value What else would they say?

I decided I would take it at face value. Might be because of my science background, so whenever someone mentions significance, I think of scientific significance that usually mean "this shit is important, remember me". Apart from that if that's wrong, it would mean some of their other grandiose claims would also be bullshit.

For example regarding the controller:

This haptic capability provides a vital channel of information to the player - delivering in-game information about speed, boundaries, thresholds, textures, action confirmations, or any other events about which game designers want players to be aware. It is a higher-bandwidth haptic information channel than exists in any other consumer product that we know of. As a parlour trick they can even play audio waveforms and function as speakers.

I expect them to deliver, or I simply won't believe their blurb again

 

[Khaz]

What exactly is the Remote control? Is it literal, as in having a tablet or a phone control the machine?

I thought literal, as in using your TV remote control through HDMI-CEC.

 

[BraXzy]

There are two different install methods for SteamOS. '''WARNING: BOTH METHODS WILL ERASE EVERYTHING ON THE MACHINE'''

Nevermind :/

 

[Ysiadmihi]

I finally got into SteamOS, but can't get through this:

After installation is complete, log onto the resulting system (using the Gnome session) with the predefined "steam" account. The password is "steam". Run steam, accept the EULA, and let it bootstrap. Logoff the steam account

Trying to run Steam doesn't seem to do anything.

 

[Polari]

So pretty much identical to stock Ubuntu 13.10 for now. Curious to see if this will change once Valve releases a more final version of the OS.

Those benchmarks are on Intel hardware using open source drivers, I believe. More interesting will be the comparison later today using the Nvidia binary drivers and testing performance against Win 8.

 

[pixlexic]

I finally got into SteamOS, but can't get through this:



Trying to run Steam doesn't seem to do anything.

same thing happened with me. it doesnt seem to do anything but it does.

now you log out and sing in with the desktop/desktop account.

 

[Au{R}oN]

270 games support Linux on Steam and the numbers are rising.

yeah, 270 games, 269 are low budget shitty games.
it's not for me. I know that not every devs studios can spend gigalions of dollars to make a triple A game with super uber physics and graphics. i do not like these games, it's just me, ok, so i'll pass this OS until someone like Rockstar, Ubisoft or Activision start release linux games.

 

[Ysiadmihi]

same thing happened with me. it doesnt seem to do anything but it does.

now you log out and sing in with the desktop/desktop account.

Got it, thanks.

But now when I start up SteamOS I just see a black screen and nothing else (monitor is definitely getting a signal).

Edit: Nvm, in now

 

[TheD]

yeah, 270 games, 269 are low budget shitty games.
it's not for me. I know that not every devs studios can spend gigalions of dollars to make a triple A game with super uber physics and graphics. i do not like these games, it's just me, ok, so i'll pass this OS until someone like Rockstar, Ubisoft or Activision start release linux games.

You have no idea what a good game is then.

 

[HariKari]

yeah, 270 games, 269 are low budget shitty games.
it's not for me. I know that not every devs studios can spend gigalions of dollars to make a triple A game with super uber physics and graphics. i do not like these games, it's just me, ok, so i'll pass this OS until someone like Rockstar, Ubisoft or Activision start release linux games.

If you sort by Metascore, you'll see there are plenty of great games. An irrational hatred for indie titles ("low budget") is not something everyone has. Linux has a ways to go, but it's starting on far better ground than just a few years ago.

 

[Kvik]

269 are low budget shitty games.

Just to name a few:

Metro LL
HL2
Dota2
Gone Home
Bastion
Amnesia

All these are playable on Linux, and all are great games.

 

[rafbanaan]

Someone got it working on VM Fusion?

I fixed the .iso to the CD/DVD, but in the Shell 2.0. I can't select one of the 'drives'. I got 2 devices (blk0 and blk1), but both alias is null and when I just type 'blk0' I get 'unknown parameter, command...'.

 

[Xisiqomelir]

I would be very surprised if SteamOS performs even on par with Windows. It's still early days and the first Linux ports will probably not be all that great.

http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/linux/faster-zombies/

Faster Zombies!
394 Comments
Posted on August 1, 2012 by Valve Linux team
One factor in creating a good gaming experience is throughput. This post discusses some of what we’ve learned about the performance of our games running on Linux.
As any software developer can tell you, performance is a complicated issue. In the interests of simplicity, we’ll concern ourselves with the following high-end configuration:

Hardware

Intel Core i7 3930k
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680
32 GB RAM

Software

Windows 7 Service Pack 1 64-bit
Left 4 Dead 2
Ubuntu 12.04 32-bit

We are using a 32-bit version of Linux temporarily and will run on 64-bit Linux later.
Running Left 4 Dead 2 on Windows 7 with Direct3D drivers, we get 270.6 FPS as a baseline. The data is generated from an internal test case.

When we started with Linux, the initial version we got up and running was at 6 FPS. This is typical of an initial successful port to a new platform.

Performance improvements fall into several categories:

Modifying our game to work better with the kernel
Modifying our game to work better with OpenGL
Optimizing the graphics driver

An example of the first category would be changing our memory allocator to use more appropriate Linux functions. This was achieved by implementing the Source engine small block heap to work under Linux. The second category would include reducing overhead in calling OpenGL, and extending our renderer with new interfaces for better encapsulation of OpenGL and Direct3D.
The third category is especially interesting because it involves working with hardware manufacturers to identify issues in their drivers and, as a result, improving the public driver which benefits all games. Identifying driver stalls and adding multithreading support in the driver are two examples of changes that were the result of this teamwork.

After this work, Left 4 Dead 2 is running at 315 FPS on Linux. That the Linux version runs faster than the Windows version (270.6) seems a little counter-intuitive, given the greater amount of time we have spent on the Windows version. However, it does speak to the underlying efficiency of the kernel and OpenGL. Interestingly, in the process of working with hardware vendors we also sped up the OpenGL implementation on Windows. Left 4 Dead 2 is now running at 303.4 FPS with that configuration.

OpenGL versus Direct3D on Windows 7

This experience lead to the question: why does an OpenGL version of our game run faster than Direct3D on Windows 7? It appears that it’s not related to multitasking overhead. We have been doing some fairly close analysis and it comes down to a few additional microseconds overhead per batch in Direct3D which does not affect OpenGL on Windows. Now that we know the hardware is capable of more performance, we will go back and figure out how to mitigate this effect under Direct3D.

Working with hardware vendors

We’ve been working with NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel to improve graphic driver performance on Linux. They have all been great to work with and have been very committed to having engineers on-site working with our engineers, carefully analyzing the data we see. We have had very rapid turnaround on any bugs we find and it has been invaluable to have people who understand the game, the renderer, the driver, and the hardware working alongside us when attacking these performance issues.
This is a great example of the benefits that are the result of close coordination between software and hardware developers and should provide value to the Linux community at large.

 

[Sutanreyu]

http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/linux/faster-zombies/

That's some uber dev work right there.

 

[Vee_One]

Just to name a few:

Metro LL
HL2
Dota2
Gone Home
Bastion
Amnesia

All these are playable on Linux, and all are great games.

Those certainly are great games, however, the problem for me (and I'm sure others) is that the Linux compatible games are only a very small percentage of the quality titles that are in my steam library. Therefore, at this stage the Steambox would not represent a sensible purchase for myself. Off topic I know, but it's an important point.

Having said that I look forward to what Valve does to rapidly increase Linux compatability - I'm sure they have a plan and I'm excited to see it. There is no way they would progress down this route if they didn't have a strategy.

Also - if the Steambox controller functions as well as try claim then I will be there day 1. That thing has the potential to be a game changer.

 

[Kvik]

Those certainly are great games, however, the problem for me (and I'm sure others) is that the Linux compatible games are only a very small percentage of the quality titles that are in my steam library. Therefore, at this stage the Steambox would not represent a sensible purchase for myself. Off topic I know, but it's an important point.

Having said that I look forward to what Valve does to rapidly increase Linux compatability - I'm sure they have a plan and I'm excited to see it. There is no way they would progress down this route if they didn't have a strategy.

Also - if the Steambox controller functions as well as try claim then I will be there day 1. That thing has the potential to be a game changer.

I concur. I'm all for supporting Valve in this new venture. If the Steambox gained enough traction, I do hope more developer are considering including native Linux support in their game.

Of my 50+ Steam games (miniscule, I know), only about 11 of them are available in Linux (including the games in my previous post). If I can get games like XCOM EW, The Witcher 2, Civilization etc, running natively in the immediate future, then it's definitely looking bright indeed.

 

[hikarutilmitt]

Someone got it working on VM Fusion?

I fixed the .iso to the CD/DVD, but in the Shell 2.0. I can't select one of the 'drives'. I got 2 devices (blk0 and blk1), but both alias is null and when I just type 'blk0' I get 'unknown parameter, command...'.

When you get kicked to the EFI shell type BLK0: or BLK1: to switch to that device, then use normal shell commands like ls and cd to get to the right folder (/efi/boot) and run bootx64. Tab completion helps.

Thing is, I've gotten it running a couple of times in VirtualBox but after a hard shutdown GRUB just outright stop working as though it was never written to the EFI folder on the disk to begin with and the system has issues booting anyway.

EDIT: gave it another kick and the FS0 has the EFI boot like it should, it's just not kicking off properly.

 

[Polari]

Re: the games. Considering the Steam OS has just launched in beta and Steam Machines are still ~6 months away from retail, I'd say we're doing pretty well so far. Time will tell if bigger games make their way over. If I were Valve I'd be hiring a bunch of talented porters like Ryan Gordon and offering their services to developers of high-profile games free.

 

[Serrenn]

http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/linux/faster-zombies/

That's probably nothing more than anecdotal evidence.

They had one Linux machine and they tested the port on it. Sure it will run at its fastest. Maybe if they recompiled Windows version specifically for that PC, it would've ran better too.

 

[TouchMyBox]

That's probably nothing more than anecdotal evidence.

They had one Linux machine and they tested the port on it. Sure it will run at its fastest. Maybe if they recompiled Windows version specifically for that PC, it would've ran better too.

They did and it still ran a bit faster on Linux.

 

[hikarutilmitt]

That's probably nothing more than anecdotal evidence.

They had one Linux machine and they tested the port on it. Sure it will run at its fastest. Maybe if they recompiled Windows version specifically for that PC, it would've ran better too.

That's not really what they did. They didn't compile the game itself specifically to that machine, they optimized the game to use OpenGL and the kernel more effectively, which is hardware agnostic unless you recompile the kernel to that specific architecture, which nets little-to-no performance benefits on modern hardware.

 

[Kocolino67]

yeah, 270 games, 269 are low budget shitty games.
ok, so i'll pass this OS until someone like Rockstar, Ubisoft or Activision start release linux games.

You are right, please leave now.

 

[HariKari]

That's some uber dev work right there.

They needed a proof of concept to show other big developers that it would be faster. I'm sure most get it, but it never hurts to actually follow through and see the potential. A 15% bump is not insignificant, especially for lower end hardware.

 

[rafbanaan]

When you get kicked to the EFI shell type BLK0: or BLK1: to switch to that device, then use normal shell commands like ls and cd to get to the right folder (/efi/boot) and run bootx64. Tab completion helps.

Thing is, I've gotten it running a couple of times in VirtualBox but after a hard shutdown GRUB just outright stop working as though it was never written to the EFI folder on the disk to begin with and the system has issues booting anyway.

EDIT: gave it another kick and the FS0 has the EFI boot like it should, it's just not kicking off properly.

Thing is, when I type in BLK0 or BLK1 and get the 'error' that it's an unknown command, parameter and that I've to check my command.

And blk0-blk1 is represented like: blk0/1 :BlockDevice - Alias (null). I checked other video's and they don't have the 'Alias (null).

I've tried with a USB and used map -r to be sure, but when I do that. I get an error stating that it failed to retrieve steamOSInstaller.iso.

Will try to get some pics of it maybe.

 

[Durante]

http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/linux/faster-zombies/

With all due respect for Valve, that comparison is very misleading. They seem to be comparing DirectX 9 on Windows to (what I presume to be) modern OpenGL in Linux. DirectX 9 was released in 2002.

 

[justsomeguy]

With all due respect for Valve, that comparison is very misleading. They seem to be comparing DirectX 9 on Windows to (what I presume to be) modern OpenGL in Linux. DirectX 9 was released in 2002.

They also compare to opengl on Windows, which is 303 fps vs. 315 on linux. 4% faster. Not particularly significant.

 

[TheD]

With all due respect for Valve, that comparison is very misleading. They seem to be comparing DirectX 9 on Windows to (what I presume to be) modern OpenGL in Linux. DirectX 9 was released in 2002.

DX9c came out in 2004 (which is needed for the higher graphics settings in L4D2) and we do not know what version of OpenGL it uses on Linux (I doubt it is 4 or greater).

 

[greg400]

DX9c came out in 2004 (which is needed for the higher graphics settings in L4D2) and we do not know what version of OpenGL it uses on Linux (I doubt it is 4 or greater).

Their OS X games use OpenGL 2.1 (at least at launch), so even anything further than that is likely pushing it for L4D2 requirements.

 

[Danj]

What would happen if you installed this on an HDD on one PC and then moved that HDD to another PC?