14 DAY TRIAL // A few hours ago, Valve promoted the stable SteamOS 2.97 maintenance release to the brewmaster channel, which means that SteamOS users can finally update their gaming machines powered by the Debian-based SteamOS distribution.
SteamOS 2.97 arrives nearly four months after the previous stable release, namely SteamOS 2.87, which was pushed to the brewmaster channel on July 29, 2016, with support for Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 and 1070, as well as AMD "Bonaire" GPUs. Since then, Valve released no less than four Beta milestones that brought many changes.
As you might know, SteamOS is still being synchronized with the Debian Stable repositories, which means that it always receives the newest security fixes that are also being pushed to the Debian GNU/Linux 8 "Jessie" operating system. As such, SteamOS 2.97 adds new versions of BIND9, cURL, and GStreamer Plugins Bad 1.0.
Steam Controller should now be compatible with the latest Steam Beta clients
Moreover, SteamOS 2.97 ships with security updates for the GNU Tar, libxslt, and tzdata packages, as well as a new X.Org Server version that now ignores joystick devices under X11 to avoid controllers interfering with the mouse and keyboard input, thus addressing the recent Steam Controller compatibility with latest Steam Beta clients.
"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. 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."
Lastly, SteamOS 2.97 includes an updated firmware-nonfree component that brings back firmware-{adi,ralink} packages, making the unattended-upgrade functionality work again. We recommend that you update your SteamOS installation to version 2.97 as soon as possible. Installation images can be downloaded as well through our website.