Hey guys, Nick here from Weekly Gaming Recap walking you through how to install SteamOS on an old PC (legacy hardware) that won’t boot from your USB drive using Valves instructions. Usually this means you computer doesn’t support UEFI booting or there might be some other problem going on. Right now this is all beta and the only video cards supported are NVIDIA. Comment/Questions/Thoughts? Let us know in the comments below and if you want to see more of these type of HOWTO’s speak up!
NOTE We cannot be held responsible if you lose your data, blow up your computer, etc, etc This is all very beta so don’t say we didn’t warn you. Also DO NOT TRY TO BOOT off this USB key on any computer you don’t want to be WIPED OUT. The process is automatic and there are no options to stop it once it starts, it will format your hard drive so BE CAREFUL and PROCEED WITH CAUTION.
—————————————————————————
Big shout out to FrostyCoolSlug over on Reddit for putting these instructions together:
http://www.reddit.com/r/SteamOS/comments/1su4t1/uefi_requirement_with_steamos/
Step 1: Download syslinux from Here
https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinux/syslinux-6.02.zip
Download SteamOS from Here
http://repo.steampowered.com/download/SteamOSInstaller.zip
Step 2: Download the following two Grub packages* and place them in Z:\grub (you may need to create it)
http://www.l4d3.org/grub-pc_1.99-27+deb7u1+steamos3+bsos1_amd64.deb
http://www.l4d3.org/grub-pc-bin_1.99-27+deb7u1+steamos3+bsos1_amd64.deb
Step 2: Extract the SteamOSInstaller.zip file to the root of your USB drive (substitute your USB drive letter for Z: )
Step 3: In the root of your USB drive, create a new folder called syslinux
Step 4: From the downloaded syslinux zip file, extract bios/win32 and bios/mbr into z:\syslinux\
Step 4: Open a Command Prompt as Administrator and run
MAKE SURE YOU CORRECT THE DRIVE LETTER!:
Z:\syslinux\win32\syslinux.exe –install –mbr –active Z:
Step 5: Create the file Z:\syslinux.cfg and put in the following:
DEFAULT linux
TIMEOUT 50
LABEL linux
kernel install.amd/vmlinuz
append initrd=install.amd/gtk/initrd.gz preseed/file=/cdrom/default.preseed DEBCONF_DEBUG=developer desktop=steamos auto=true priority=critical video=vesa:ywrap,mtrr vga=788 -- quiet
*** After this point ****
DO NOT BOOT OFF THIS DRIVE ON ANYTHING YOU DO NOT WANT TO TURN INTO A STEAM BOX
THE HARD IN THE MACHINE WILL BE FORMATTED (WIPED OUT) AUTOMATICALLY
PROCEED WITH CAUTION
Step 6: Insert the USB drive into the target machine and boot, the installer should run.
Step 7: The installer will FAIL when attempting to install grub, as grub-pc is missing, hold Ctrl+Alt and Hit F2 to drop into a shell, hit Enter to activate it.
Step 8: Type the following and when prompted, do not select any drives, just hit OK and then ‘Yes’:
chroot /target /bin/bash
apt-get install grub-common grub2-common
dpkg -i /media/cdrom/grub/grub-pc-bin_1.99-27+deb7u1+steamos3+bsos1_amd64.deb
dpkg -i /media/cdrom/grub/grub-pc_1.99-27+deb7u1+steamos3+bsos1_amd64.deb
Step 9: Once that’s complete, Hold Ctrl+Alt then hit F5 to return to the UI
Step 10: Hit ‘Continue’ to try grub again, this time it should run properly, say ‘Yes’ to installing to the MBR and the installation will complete.
Step 11: Once installation is complete, follow the rest of the guide Here
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamuniverse/discussions/1/648814395741989999/
* Note that the grub packages are hosted by FrostyCoolSlug, they are simply the standard debian builds with the DEBIAN/control file edited to repair dependency problems, and re-versioned to reflect their SteamOS usefulness.
** Note2
When you get to the desktop in the terminal type:
/usr/bin/steam
To launch Steam and accept the EULA and update the client
then continue following the directions on the Steam Community
