Steam Frame VR Headset Sees Mainline Support With Linux 7.4

The Steam Frame VR headset, developed by Valve, has been officially added to the mainline Linux 7.4 kernel. This support was upstreamed as part of the System-on-Chip (SoC) changes for the upcoming kernel release, potentially opening opportunities for other Linux distributions to support the device beyond SteamOS.

The device, codenamed 'Deckard,' was integrated into the Linux kernel on Sunday with the SoC merge. Linaro engineer Neil Armstrong authored the patches that added the necessary Device Tree support for the ARM-based hardware. The Steam Frame utilizes a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC (SM8650), requiring specific configuration for proper operation.

Initial hardware support

The initial kernel support includes several key components necessary for the Steam Frame's operation. This covers system reserved memory, regulators, GPIO keys, PMIC functions, PMIC ADC channels, UFS storage, USB gadget functionality, WCN7850 Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth capabilities, I2C with basic peripherals, and an SDCard slot.