If you have been experiencing issues with the Steam Controller after the 11/22 Steam client Beta update, please follow these steps to install the latest SteamOS hotfix:

• If using the controller wirelessly, make sure to connect it to your SteamOS system using a micro-USB cable; if the controller was powered on, you might need to disconnect and reconnect the USB cable once to switch to wired operation
  
• Sign in to your Steam account
  
• Navigate to Settings -> System using the analog stick and press the "Check for SteamOS updates" button
  
• Wait until the update icon stops spinning
  
• Navigate back to the home screen with the B button
  
• Find the SteamOS update message in the Inbox envelope, and apply the update

Problems can include total loss of input (if wireless) or inability to configure the controller (if wired). The update can also be installed with a keyboard or another type of controller.

Please note: Restarting your Steam Machine does not automatically apply updates.

Valve is pleased to announce the preview of the next SteamOS release, codenamed "brewmaster" and based on the latest Debian 8.1 stable release.

Please note that this is a very early preview release and we have done only limited hardware compatibility and functional testing. We are releasing this early to get feedback from the community. You should not install brewmaster on any machine containing data you are not prepared to lose completely.

Although there are a lot of changes under the covers, the overall functionality and experience of brewmaster is the same as alchemist and most of the SteamOS FAQ applies to both releases.


Q. Where can I download the brewmaster installer?
A. ISO (for legacy systems) ZIP (for UEFI systems)

Q. How do I install brewmaster?
A. See "How do I install SteamOS?" in the SteamOS FAQ. The process is the same for both brewmaster and alchemist releases.

Q. How do I upgrade alchemist to brewmaster?
A. Upgrade is not supported. You will need to completely reinstall.

Q. How does this affect my existing SteamOS alchemist installation?
A. There is no change to alchemist support yet. For now, we will continue updating alchemist with the relevant security updates and Steam will continue to support alchemist. At some point we will drop support for alchemist and only support brewmaster.

Q. What version of the Linux kernel does brewmaster use?
A. The brewmaster kernel is based on the 3.18 LTS kernel with additional SteamOS patches. The kernel sources can be found in the steamos_kernel[github.com] repository.

Q. How do I give feedback or report bugs in brewmaster?
A. Please post on the SteamOS Discussion Forum, or file an issue in the SteamOS issue tracker[github.com].

Q. What kind of issues should I report?
A. We are especially interested in any regressions in hardware compatibility or Steam games. If it worked in alchemist and doesn't work in brewmaster, let us know!

PC gaming is all about customer choice, and it’s with that spirit in mind that we’re happy to announce that Steam Machines, the Steam Controller, and the Steam Link will not only be sold as bundles, but separately as well. This means you can buy a Steam Controller now and grab a Steam Machine later, or a Steam Link now and a Steam Controller later. As always, you choose how you want to play.

Starting today, in the US, Canada, and most of the EU, you can now pre-order the Steam Controller, Steam Link, and select Steam Machines. If you pre-order now (either on Steam or at your friendly neighborhood game store), we’ll deliver your Steam products in mid-October – weeks before our official launch.

One last thing: Until you can hold the controller in your hands and experience it for yourself, we hope you’ll have a look at our new controller demo video for more detail about everything the Steam Controller can do.

We have just updated the released alchemist repository. This is the same content that was pushed to alchemist_beta last week.

The changes include an updated NVIDIA driver, updated branding, and the latest security updates.

Note that older NVIDIA video cards (G8x, G9x, and GT2xx GPUs, and motherboard chipsets based on them) are no longer supported by this NVIDIA driver, and therefore will NOT work with SteamOS

Updated SteamOS installers and and updated image are available at http://repo.steampowered.com/download with the following MD5 signatures:
66ab128367e03e49548bb5b20f475eb2 SteamOSDVD.iso
45fd66bb1c2281fa9874bb5a32111f09 SteamOSImage.zip
722a4cafc7f3eac54ffb7523f47e9612 SteamOSInstaller.zip

This November, we're bringing everything that makes the PC great—the best games, the biggest communities, and the most exciting technologies—to new destinations.

For more information, visit http://store.steampowered.com/universe