Opting into SteamOS Beta
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- Warning!
- About
- How to enable the OS beta
- If you require packages from brewmaster_beta during installation
- Original source
There is no easy way to opt out of the beta, you will need to either restore your system partition or wait for "brewmaster" to catch up to the brewmaster_beta! Once this has happened (which is hard to tell, unless you track changes closely), you will be once again on the "stable" OS update channel. Of the two options, restoring your system would be the easiest route, but will wipe out custom programs you have installed. For more information about performing a system restore, please see the [the relevant support article](https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?s=160a1b438fe8006d03d34607aa3626 4e&ref=8470-QSKM-049). A restore will not remove your games.
This page details how to opt into the beta channel of the SteamOS operating system. Please do not confusing "SteamOS beta" with the Steam client beta (available in Settings > System)
SteamOS currently has two different repositories, the most current being "brewmaster" and "brewmaster_beta". "brewmaster_beta" is a testing release where fixes and features will gradually accumulate on a daily or weekly basis. When the beta stabilizes, those fixes will be promoted to the "brewmaster" repository. This process is similar to the existing steam/steam_beta process. Important security updates or critical bugfixes may get pushed directly to "brewmaster" if needed. We are just starting to evaluate what the best process is and the release cadence might vary in the future.
If you want to opt your machine into brewmaster_beta, you can run this command from a terminal session on the desktop: "sudo apt install steamos-beta-repo" Now when SteamOS checks for updates, you will get the newer packages from the brewmaster_beta repository.
Some people have noticed that the installed versions of some SteamOS packages are newer than the packages in the brewmaster repository. The reason for this is some installers may be built from the "brewmaster_beta" repository in order to get everyone the latest fixes.
Some users who have purchased currently-unsupported GPUs under brewmaster (at time of writing, Nvidia GTX 1050), require newer drivers, but have no easy way to install them. After the login phase, they may see a frowny face / white screen.
To work around this:
When the screen shows the error / goes black, switch to another console tty by issuing ALT+F2
If you can get to the terminal, I would try logging in as user desktop (default password: desktop), change the password with command "passwd" then do the following terminal commands:
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt dist-upgrade
sudo apt autoremove
sudo apt autoclean
At this point you will probably need to reboot.
If it's still not working (should be the case): ctrl-alt-f2 again (user desktop with new password) and:
sudo apt install steamos-beta-repo
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt dist-upgrade
sudo apt autoremove
sudo apt autoclean
The autoremove and autoclean commands are optional, but that is my way of cleaning my system of obsolete packages.
Then reboot and with a little luck, everything will be working as expected. :)
Credit to: Mohandevir
The original page this content is based off of, can be found here
