YouTuber Modifies ASUS ROG Ally, Can Operate Like a Steam Deck

[T0@st]

Popular gaming hardware content creator, ETA PRIME, yesterday teased that his ASUS ROG Ally preview unit was seemingly running Valve's Steam Deck operating system - the short YouTube video provided a glimpse of basic UI functionality as well as in-game performance (Forza Horizon 5). He promised that a full video was incoming, thus providing a full explanation of his modification process and a more in-depth exploration of more games running on the formerly Windows 11-based example. ETA PRIME has delivered on his earlier pledge - the first look/early impressions video was released only a few hours ago (at the time of writing). He reveals that his test platform ROG Ally is not running on Valve's Steam OS.

He has resorted to installing a gaming-focused Linux distro called Chimera OS - he notes that the similar HoloISO platform was not booting up on his handheld unit. On-board audio is reported to be non-functional - the Ally is connected to an external USB-C hub that outputs sound via the in-built 3.5 mm jack. Wi-Fi performance is reported to be inconsistent, ETA PRIME says that he has to reset the system in order to re-establish online connectivity. He was largely impressed with the Ally's gaming performance in a Linux-based environment, but prefers the Steam Deck's power efficiency. He will look into lowering the Ally's TDP, but there is no sure-fire way of making optimizations within the Chimera OS test build.



ETA PRIME's description: "In this video we take a look at Linux Gaming On the All New ASUS ROG Ally! Very similar to Steam Deck OS - we are using Chimera OS based on Arch. It has all (of) the bells and whistles that Steam OS version 3 possesses!"

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[kapone32]

Between this channel, PC WOrld and Level 1 It is all the tech channels I watch on Youtube.

 

[lightofhonor]

"It has all (of) the bells and whistles that Steam OS version 3 possesses!" Except sound, working wifi, SoC power configuration, etc.

My issue with their videos is they always lean heavily positive.

 

[CyberCT]

I have a Steam Deck and really like it for games 5+ years old, and emulated games especially. They all run at either the full 60fps or at least over 50fps.

Don't have to upgrade to the Ally, but it's exciting tech to follow non the less. What a time to be a live.

 

[Space Lynx]

I have a Steam Deck and really like it for games 5+ years old, and emulated games especially. They all run at either the full 60fps or at least over 50fps.

Don't have to upgrade to the Ally, but it's exciting tech to follow non the less. What a time to be a live.

I recommend Dishonored to people who own Steam Deck, it looks and runs so great on Deck.

Any games you recommend me for my Steam Deck? I have about 200 indie games on my backlog.

 

[Nephilim666]

ETA Prime is like the userbenchmark of handhelds and mini PC's. Except instead of heavily favouring Apple and Intel he heavily favours every thing he reviews.

Running HoloISO or ChimeraOS on handhelds is nothing new, the limitations are well known and it seems like he has overcome none of those limitations here. Windows is still the highest performing option for non-Valve handhelds.

 

[wolf]

I quite like the ETA PRIME channel nice relaxing content and while it's impossible to compare different devices across different reviews, I appreciate that he chooses settings that each device can run the game well at and showcases that, which is a great way to see how the games would realistically be played.

 

[Deleted member 185088]

Maybe installing a lite version of Windows 10 could be a good idea, keep the compatibility and hopefully improve battery life, and it's an upgrade over the unfinished Windows 11.

 

[Berfs1]

But what if something stops working, will Asus give him warranty?

 

[Chrispy_]

For a battery-powered portable, power-efficiency matters more than raw performance.

As much as I think the Ally is a good bit of kit, it's not as flexible as the Steam deck and you can't really afford to run high TDPs on battery unless you want to nuke the entire battery in under an hour. That means you're paying for additional performance in the Ally only to cap it at Steam Deck performance anyway, just the stretch the battery life to a useful duration.

SteamOS is likely lighter-weight than Windows11 and will help with battery life a little, but it's absolutely custom-made for the Steam Deck, so if you're going to try and mash it onto an Ally, are you not just admitting that you bought yourself the wrong device?

Maybe installing a lite version of Windows 10 could be a good idea, keep the compatibility and hopefully improve battery life, and it's an upgrade over the unfinished Windows 11.

I'm hoping something good, and official comes of this:

Microsoft Devs Built a Basic Version of Windows Optimized for Steam Deck

Leaked video from an internal 2022 Microsoft hackathon show devs found ways to build a version of Windows to work on handheld consoles for gaming.

gizmodo.com

 

[trsttte]

SteamOS is likely lighter-weight than Windows11 and will help with battery life a little, but it's absolutely custom-made for the Steam Deck, so if you're going to try and mash it onto an Ally, are you not just admitting that you bought yourself the wrong device?

Not necessirily, Valve originally said they had plans to make a general release of Steam OS and let other handhelds use it. One of the beauties of these handhelds is that you can customize and run different things on them, changing the OS seems like a normal thing to me - I'm surprised they went with ChimeraOS instead of trying HoloISO (Steam OS recovery image customized to be used on other devices), given the shared AMD hardware might work better than Chimera from the start.

 

[Chrispy_]

Not necessirily, Valve originally said they had plans to make a general release of Steam OS and let other handhelds use it. One of the beauties of these handhelds is that you can customize and run different things on them, changing the OS seems like a normal thing to me - I'm surprised they went with ChimeraOS instead of trying HoloISO (Steam OS recovery image customized to be used on other devices), given the shared AMD hardware might work better than Chimera from the start.

They had to go ChimeraOS because the HoloISO wasn't compatible.

 

[Sandbo]

ETA Prime is like the userbenchmark of handhelds and mini PC's. Except instead of heavily favouring Apple and Intel he heavily favours every thing he reviews.

Running HoloISO or ChimeraOS on handhelds is nothing new, the limitations are well known and it seems like he has overcome none of those limitations here. Windows is still the highest performing option for non-Valve handhelds.

While I agree after watching more of his videos, frankly they are pretty entertaining if not sufficiently accurate as reviews; you just need to treat them as unboxing.

 

[erocker]

I just want to be able to install Steam OS "officially" on anything.

 

[Pixsik]

But what if something stops working, will Asus give him warranty?

When buying a PC are you limited to only use Windows as the operating system?
The warranty is for the hardware, not software which you will use on the device, you can use any operating system you want.

 

[chrcoluk]

But what if something stops working, will Asus give him warranty?

Probably if he returns it with the original OS.

 

[trsttte]

When buying a PC are you limited to only use Windows as the operating system?
The warranty is for the hardware, not software which you will use on the device, you can use any operating system you want.

That's true and the case even with hardware modifications, you only loose the warranty if what you did caused the problem. The thing is nothing stops the manufacturer from dicking you around and how much time/money are you willing to spend fighting for the warranty?

Probably if he returns it with the original OS.

Shouldn't be necessary but it's always a good idea

 

[chrcoluk]

Deffo a good idea, a unsupported OS might have some kind of kernel bug or something that could trigger a fault condition in the hardware.

Dont know what the t&c is like for these though.

 

[Berfs1]

When buying a PC are you limited to only use Windows as the operating system?
The warranty is for the hardware, not software which you will use on the device, you can use any operating system you want.

The joke was regarding Asus denying RMA when installing a beta BIOS, amongst other things.