Virtualizing SteamOS with QEMU/KVM: The Steps Nobody Tells You

SteamOS is not a standard Linux distribution. It ships as a recovery image for the Steam Deck, not a generic ISO. That fact explains every strange requirement you face when you try to run it in a virtual machine. The file you download is a .bz2 archive, not an installer. The VM must present the virtual drive as NVMe . And if you let the system reboot right after installation it will launch into Gaming Mode, which cannot work without the Deck's custom AMD GPU. I have a full in-depth walkthrough o