Steam Frame

Steam Frame is a standalone virtual reality headset from Valve, released on September 18, 2026. It runs SteamOS. Games installed on the headset need no NixOS configuration. This page covers streaming PC VR from a NixOS host, which uses Steam and SteamVR.

The headset reaches the PC through SteamVR's Steam Link driver (vrlink), either over the home network or over the bundled 6 GHz wireless adapter. Home Wi-Fi streaming works on the NixOS default kernel. The adapter does not.

Note: Wi-Fi streaming works on the NixOS default kernel. The bundled adapter does not; it needs Linux 7.2. See #Wireless adapter.

Installation

Enable Steam. This also enables hardware.steam-hardware.enable, which loads the uinput module and installs udev rules for Valve USB and Bluetooth devices (vendor ID 28de). No extra udev rules are required for the headset, its controllers, or the wireless adapter.

❄︎ /etc/nixos/configuration.nix

programs.steam = {
  enable = true;
  remotePlay.openFirewall = true;
};

Then install SteamVR from the Steam library. It is not a Nixpkgs package.

remotePlay.openFirewall is required. Without it the headset cannot discover the PC. The option opens the ports Valve documents for Remote Play and Steam Link:

• UDP 27036, for discovery broadcasts
• TCP 27036 and 27037
• UDP 10400 and 10401, for the Steam Link video path (vrlink binds UDP 10400)
• UDP 27031–27035

The option does nothing if networking.firewall.enable is false. vrlink binds UDP 10400 on every local address, including VPN interfaces, so a hand-written ruleset has to allow that port on the interface the headset actually uses.

Pairing

Sign the headset and the PC into the same Steam account, and put them on the same LAN. The headset announces itself with a UDP broadcast to port 27036; it does not cross a router.

1. Rebuild and switch, then start Steam on the PC.
2. On the headset, open the Steam menu. The PC should appear by name.
3. Connect, and accept the authorization prompt on the PC.

A successful pair shows up in ~/.local/share/Steam/logs/remote_connections.txt as a broadcast from a client named frame, followed by k_ERemoteDeviceAuthorizationSuccess.

Flat games can be started from the headset. For VR games, start SteamVR on the PC first. See #VR game opens as a flat window.

Wireless adapter

The headset has two radios. One joins the home network. The other stands up a dedicated 6 GHz Wi-Fi 6E link. The USB adapter in the box is what the PC uses to join that link. It is optional: streaming over home Wi-Fi does not need it.

The adapter is a Realtek RTL8852CU (also called RTL8832CU) with USB ID 28de:2432. Linux drives it with the in-tree module rtw89_8852cu. Valve's USB ID was added in Linux 7.0. Linux 7.2 additionally exposes the adapter's serial number and UUID under sysfs, which Steam asked for so it can identify the device without debugfs. Reports show the link itself working on kernel 7.0, so that sysfs interface is not a hard requirement.

NixOS 26.05 defaults to Linux 6.18, which does not have this driver. Linux 7.0 and 7.1 have been removed from Nixpkgs after reaching end of life upstream. As of September 2026, the kernel to use is boot.kernelPackages pkgs.linuxPackages_latest, which is Linux 7.2:

❄︎ /etc/nixos/configuration.nix

boot.kernelPackages = pkgs.linuxPackages_latest;

A stock NixOS kernel builds drivers that are not pinned in the common config as modules, so rtw89_8852cu should be present. The driver loads rtw89/rtw8852c_fw-2.bin from linux-firmware. hardware.enableRedistributableFirmware installs that firmware and is enabled by a generated hardware-configuration.nix.

The driver installer the Steam client offers for this adapter is the Windows driver. It does not apply on Linux.

6 GHz is disabled under the world regulatory domain (country 00). hardware.wirelessRegulatoryDatabase only installs regulatory.db; it does not select a country. Without one, the phy does not list 5945–6425 MHz. cfg80211 is a module, so a kernel command-line parameter is applied too early. Set the country in modprobe config (replace DE):

❄︎ /etc/nixos/configuration.nix

boot.extraModprobeConfig = ''
  options cfg80211 ieee80211_regdom=DE
'';

After rebooting into the new kernel, plug the adapter into a USB 3 port and confirm the driver bound:

$ lsusb -d 28de:2432
$ modinfo rtw89_8852cu
$ journalctl -k -g rtw89

lsusb -d 28de:2432 should show a Realtek "802.11ax WLAN Adapter", and the kernel log should show rtw89_8852cu loading rtw89/rtw8852c_fw-2.bin. A line about 2.4 GHz preferring a USB 2 port is a stock hint about USB 3 interference on that band. It does not mean the 6 GHz link failed. With a country code set, the phy lists 6 GHz and the interface can scan.

Troubleshooting

Headset does not see the PC

• Confirm programs.steam.remotePlay.openFirewall is true and the firewall service is enabled. Discovery is a broadcast to UDP 27036. A host firewall that drops broadcasts, or a headset on another subnet, looks the same: the PC never appears.
• Steam must be running on the PC, on the same account as the headset.
• In ~/.local/share/Steam/logs/remote_connections.txt, a line Received broadcast message from client … (frame) means the packet arrived and the problem is later (authorization, SteamVR, or the stream). No such line means the broadcast never reached Steam.

Asynchronous reprojection

On first launch, SteamVR asks for elevated permissions so it can set CAP_SYS_NICE on vrcompositor-launcher. That capability is what asynchronous reprojection needs. Streaming works without it.

On NixOS the usual setcap command has no effect. Steam runs in a bubblewrap user namespace, which cannot hold file capabilities. The workarounds and their security tradeoffs are documented in VR#SteamVR. Do not copy the one-line setcap from the Steam page and expect it to stick.

VR game opens as a flat window

On a Linux host, launching a VR game from the headset does not start SteamVR. The game comes up as a flat window, the headset sits on "opening game", and Steam logs CRemoteClientJobStartStream timed out k_ERemoteClientWaitVRConnectionReady. Valve confirmed the bug on September 25, 2026, and the workaround is to start SteamVR on the PC before selecting the game in the headset.

The underlying gap is that SteamVR ships driver_vrlink.so only as a 64-bit library, so Steam's 32-bit watchdog cannot load it and never calls StartSteamVR. Proton will not start vrserver either. Flat streaming over the same link is unaffected. The report was filed on Arch Linux; the missing 32-bit driver is not specific to NixOS.

See also

• VR
• Steam
• Linux VR Adventures Wiki
• Steam Frame feature and troubleshooting guide