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As I speculated previously when Steam Deck OS 3.4.9 went into Preview, Valve has now released it as a Stable update for all Steam Deck owners for Starfield.

When the update launched into Preview, Valve only noted the GPU fix was for "an upcoming game". Now Steam Deck OS 3.4.9 is Stable with the changelog noted as:

  • Fixed a GPU driver crash with Starfield
  • Fixed hangs on reboot when switching from upcoming Beta OS releases.

I will have a very rough quick first-look as soon as Starfield is installed and ready on my Steam Deck. Stay tuned on that one (follow on YouTube), I'm not expecting performance to be particularly good though for now. As we've seen with many AAA launches, they generally work better (and in many cases fully Steam Deck Verified) a few weeks after release.

Nice to see Valve get ahead of this one though, good to see such prompt updates for the Steam Deck!

Pictured - Starfield

For players who pre-purchased the special deluxe edition, early access for Starfield has now begun, with the full release on September 6th.

Update: Valve developer Pierre-Loup Griffais mentioned:

There is a known issue with Starfield where the initial window waits on a black screen. You can tap it with the touchscreen to progress past it, and we are releasing another OS update with a fix within the next hour.

Update #2: Steam Deck OS 3.4.10 has rolled out for the extra fix "where Starfield could become stuck on a black screen while launching, waiting for touchscreen interaction."

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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27 comments
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rustigsmed Sep 1, 2023
Any fix for linux desktop yet?
AlphaObeisance Sep 1, 2023
Any fix for linux desktop yet?

I'm wondering quite the same. I get to main menu without issues, but upon launching new game; it freezes up and I have to killall steam to get out.
tevinlewis Sep 1, 2023
Same here the game starts and then when you click new game it just crashes and you are sent back to your desktop
Soup123 Sep 1, 2023
Anyone found anything yet? Or even a way of contact to try find a solution. On Fedora 38 Desktop same issues as above
Liam Dawe Sep 1, 2023
People in Discord said it worked for them, are you trying Proton Experimental?
dudenashty Sep 1, 2023
Same here, seems to be shared by a few folks from the issue on github. Early thoughts from looking over is it might have something to do with vkd3d?
Liam Dawe Sep 1, 2023
Article updated, see the bottom.
drlamb Sep 1, 2023
Game has been rock solid stable for me on my desktop thus far and I've really enjoyed it. Fedora 38 + rawhide kernel (6.5) + mesa-git + Proton Experimental.

Maxed 1440P (no FSR) 75-130 FPS.

Edit: Does dip a bit in cities to the mid 40s, hopefully some performance patches fix this.


Last edited by drlamb on 4 September 2023 at 6:03 pm UTC
Mountain Man Sep 1, 2023
Wait, how are you guys playing Starfield already? The Steam store page says it doesn't release until September 5.
drlamb Sep 1, 2023
The premium edition of the game allows for "early access" starting September 1st.


Last edited by drlamb on 1 September 2023 at 3:10 am UTC
Liam Dawe Sep 1, 2023
Article updated.
dpanter Sep 1, 2023
Looking at the more sane and realistic reviews, it's an easy pass for me.
The warning signs were there with the heavyhanded hype and constant media feeding, the "critics" "reviews" pre-launch are again a crime against the gaming community. 94% Critics Recommend on opencritic.com, 88 Critic Metascore on metacritic.com. It just looks tedious and maybe good-ish, or above mediocre at least. Suppose my patience with endless exploration and too many things to do has passed with age and I can't even with these overswollen titles. I have no doubts a lot of people are going to dive deep into this and proclaim it the best thing since the previous best thing,
somebody1121 Sep 1, 2023
I've been able to play a littel and works well, regular proton crashes on starting a new game but using protonGE works well. I still need to see if there is something to note beyond the caracter creation but the intro worked ok.
Liam Dawe Sep 1, 2023
Initial Steam Deck video: https://youtu.be/zPVzHbNwnN4

Another article to come with thoughts, and an additional video.
somebody1121 Sep 1, 2023
https://github.com/HansKristian-Work/vkd3d-proton/issues/1678#issuecomment-1702489043

It seams that the nvidia situation is complicated... With AMD it appears that it needs an updated version and proton experimental to work, mesa-git for better performance.
Mountain Man Sep 1, 2023
The premium edition of the game allows for "early access" starting September 1st.
Ah, okay. Not sure it's worth an extra $40 just to play the game a few days early.
KROM Sep 1, 2023
View PC info
  • Supporter
Works perfectly with Proton Experimental here. Default Proton crashes when starting a game, but loads the Menu.
So nice to have such a game running on Linux on release Day. I remember different times...
Lofty Sep 1, 2023
[quote=Guest]
The premium edition of the game allows for "early access" starting September 1st.
Ah, okay. Not sure it's worth an extra $40 just to play the game a few days early.

it's always better to wait for these things to get patches for performance and stability + save 50% - 75% and wait a year. There are thousands of excellent games out now, current and former.

That said im not the target audience, im not swayed by the 'current thing' hype.
id like to say that was reserved for when i was a kid bragging at school about the latest overpriced imported SNES cartridge i had just obtained (who's neglectful parent threw money at them as a way to justify their non existent parenting) but I wasn't one of those either.

I always liked the oddball games, and i guess that's because im an oddball myself haha


Last edited by Lofty on 1 September 2023 at 4:50 pm UTC
Lofty Sep 1, 2023
Unfortunately it has many issues with the Nvidia Linux driver, that's probably going to take awhile to fix...


shuda waited


Last edited by Lofty on 1 September 2023 at 5:16 pm UTC
preludelinux Sep 1, 2023
on desktop seems so far to be working great playing at 4k not noticing slowdowns seems perfect so far
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