Honestly the Linux experience on Handheld PCs like this is just fantastic. The suspend-resume feature is awesome, and pretty much every game works (excepting kernel mode anticheat and gamepass) I ended up going full Linux on my Desktop too and it's been a great experience, since I don't use gamepass or really play many online games, but the few I do play have worked without issue
I ordered a Steam Deck because I was tired of bringing a gaming laptop with on work trips. However, after seeing this tutorial, and some others, I've canceled my Steam Deck order and order an Ally X... picking it up today :) I used to this kind of thing when creating HTPC/PC Consoles was a thing, and I'm excited now to finally get back to tweaking... Thank you!
I don't normally leave comments, but this was the best walkthrough for dual booting. The inclusion of the SSD upgrade was also a nice touch! Thank you!
26:41 For the majority of the games you can actually skip this without any performance issues since the mesa (and amdgpu) render pipeline got reworked late last year which removed the really bad stuttering from live compiling the shaders, this is also in SteamOS :) if you do however notice any stutters then you can go back and let it compile the shaders before playing (1 time thing unless there is a shader update through steam). Also we do co-operation with ChimeraOS quite often and we contribute back and forth between the projects, in the end everyone benefits which means everyone wins! 😄
@@joshs5909 shader cache is OS and hardware specific so that might need to be updated, also if the game is linux native the windows and linux files might also not be the same so they will partially replace each other when you boot into a different system. There is probably more, but i dont work at valve so i have no more info than what i have spotted myself.
I was wondering about this, because it does take a long time to compile shaders, and its not a one and done for a game - every little update forces recompiling. I have been tempted to start skipping it.
Brilliance, as always, Russ! You remain the DEFINITIVE voice in how to level up gaming experiences on PCs, handhelds, and PC handhelds! While I recently tried dual booting on my GPD Win Max (2024), I ended up nixing the Windows partition altogether and sticking strictly to Bazzite. I always watch your guides, regardless, as I always learn something separate but related in the process, so thank you for your work!
@@EthanG45 in my humble opinion-pretty solid! Do checkout Bazzite’s handheld wiki for specific steps after installation to ensure a smooth experience, but once you take those steps, it’s pretty flawless on the software side. My Steam Deck (original model LCD) has been collecting dust, in fact, ha! Just be aware that the advertised 7500 MT/s RAM speeds on the 2024 model are hit and miss, mine was a miss and stuck at 6400 MT/s. The unit still screams, but it’s a buzzkill to see the advertised speeds out of reach. This is apparently a widespread issue according to DroiX (the vendor I got mine from), your mileage may vary, of course. Happy to answer any questions-just reply and I’ll do my best!
@@EthanG45 DOH. My comments keep disappearing! Long story short-follow the Bazzite wiki (including the Win Max 2-specific post-install directions) and you should find the experience pretty flawless. Good enough for me to ditch Windows entirely!
@@EthanG45 my biggest caution on the Win Max 2-the advertised RAM spec is 7500 MT/s, but the ability to actually run the RAM at those speeds is a matter of silicon lottery per device, apparently. Mine (ordered from DroiX) can only reach 6400 MT/s, and DroiX support has acknowledged that the issue is widespread, so buyer beware on that front. The device is still snappy and excellent, just disappointing to not get what was advertised.
I actually splitted my drive into 3 all my games are installed in that third partition so linux and windows can share all the games installed on that drive.
Thank you, that's exactly the kind of commentary I was looking for ! Wanted to make sure that it's possible before I start doing it :) You can even give only like 100Gb for win, 100Gb for Linux, and all the rest for the 3rd partition where you're going to install all your games
@P0p4y that's what I did, 100gb for each I for my experience, Don't do it! I went cheap on it and now I have like 30gb free on my linux partition and altho I haven't really touch windows, I know that I'm gonna fall short of storage soon once I start installing apps, go for 200 or 250gb for each (assuming that you can) so you can be on se safe. I also made the partition during the windows installation, I found it to be easier to eliminate and create the partiton this way and the windows installation was WAAAY faster than the cloud recovery, only thing was that I had to manually install armoury crate etc
Wait noob here how do I go about doing this if I’m thinking right it’s partitioning the ssd into 3 with the desired memory installing windows and bazzite into two of them and then the 3rd one does it need to be formatted in any specific way ? For both windows and bazzite to see it as extra storage ?
What is specific format for the 3rd partition so it can be read for both OS? Can we add manually non steam games in that 3rd partition on Bazzite? Thanks man
Russ you just blew my mind with this one. I have a Steam Deck OLED and after watching this I want to buy an Ally X and follow this guide. I have a lot of Windows games outside of Steam and it would be nice to have the option to be able to have it all in one handheld. Thanks for the guide.
@@Setzer777 weird. I cane from the massive legion go. Screen is great. Vrr is a a game changer. And i dont miss the legos real estate as much as i thought i would. .4 inches aint shit. I also have a steam deck oled snd its oled displsy is nice but i think the ally x display is pretty damn good. There was never a time when ive been like damn i wish this was oled.
@@MrAxelStone because it's still Linux. It's not steamos that doesn't allow it. It's compatibility issues between proton and the anti cheat software used by those games.
Russ thank you so much for this video/guide. This really is a best of both worlds situation. Just did this with my ally x this afternoon and your guide was perfect and made this super easy. So happy to have the conveniences and user friendly steamOS paired with a more powerful device that can switch to windows when needed. Perfect! Also, I’ve gotta say, no matter how many times i hear you say “yea man, i wanna do it” regarding warning that pop up…it still makes me laugh every damn time. Thanks for all the great content. Everyone loves this channel!
I just got my Ally X and I thought the Windows experience would be ok, but boy, I was SO wrong. It's awful. I'm so glad Bazzite exists! It is a night and day difference. I chose to keep my Windows partition at only 90GB. I only intend to use it for firmware updates via the ASUS update software. It is basically a firmware update slave - I do not intend on actually using Windows for anything else. Thank you for this guide!!
I had been thinking about buying a Steam Deck OLED for a while (I have the LCD Deck but am selling it to a friend.) Your reviews are awesome and seeing how well Bazzite already works on it, and hearing that Steam is going to soon be offering native SteamOS support for the ROG Ally, I have decided to buy the Rog Ally X tomorrow instead of ordering the OLED Deck. I can't wait to start playing with it.
@@mravg79 Yup, patch notes for SteamOS beta have support for the ROG Ally buttons and when asked Valve confirmed they are working towards releasing SteamOS for other devices, though it apparently might be a little while before it's on the main public release.
It's worth noting that ChimeraOS v46 is integrating TDP controls in the Steam overlay just like the Steam Deck, so TDP controls are available though your mileage may vary. They also have a more or less equivalent of Handheld Daemon called OpenGamepadUI.
I’ve been running Bazzite on a GPD Win mini 2024. It’s great and feature complete. You can even get the trackpad working like a native steamOS trackpad if you use HD’s dualsense option.
Been dual booting my legion go and Ally 2023 since March. It’s truly the best of both worlds. Bazzite has come a long way. Can’t wait to do this on my Ally x. Thanks Russ for a great video. See you on the nerd nest podcast
@@MegaOverclocked Windows is a very heavy operating system compared to any version of Linux, more processing power for gaming and also should be better battery life.
What's the benefit to dual booting Windows and Bazzite as opposed to just using Bazzite all the time? Is it just for those games with anti-cheats? I don't play them anyways.
While booting you can press volume up. This opens up boot menu so you can select the usb stick. Saves for having to go into bios and change order. Thank you for making such a comphrehensive and easy to follow guide. The documentation is solid for Bazzite, but it is easier to follow a video! 😊
Bazzite's documentation being so thorough and professional convinces me that they will be in it for the long haul. And I'm almost certain that the next time I wipe my Steam Deck to fulfill my tinkering craving, Bazzite's going in instead of SteamOS. As always great stuff Russ! So glad you covered this OS and looking forward to seeing a follow-up video down the line on your overall experience and maybe even some of the flaws of Bazzite.
Thanks for the great tutorial, I followed start to finish without a hitch. The only minor issue I'm having is that rumble in SteamOS is always dialed up to 11, which makes it buzz loudly non-stop. I have to spend some time in controller settings but first impression is that this is pretty amazing! Thanks again Edit: I fixed this by limiting the vibration intensity in Handheld Daemon > Controller > Hardware Limits > Vibration Intensity (40% or 60% seems good for me)
Quick update... I followed this and was able to dual boot my Legion Go. Super easy. Only thing was Windows wouldn't let me split the hard drive halfsies. So I had to hunt down a full featured app that actually did the job. I finally found and used Paragon Partition Manager Community Edition. It's free, so yeah, this isn't an ad. haha. Thanks for this walkthrough! My Go is so snappy and easy to use now.
Man you made this look easy. considering doing this to my ally, i usually only buy games on the steam and games that are under great on deck, i can care less about my game pass and windows only games.
This is perfect, I’ve been thinking of doing exactly this. I love the steam deck UI but the fact I can’t play cod, Fortnite, destiny etc is a massive draw back. 100 percent doing this Just gotta grab that 4tb drive
Have the same setup on my Legion GO - it's great. Prior to that I would go a few months with Linux then a few months after reinstalling Windows then rinse and repeat. A nice big SSD and a dual boot works like a charm
The Windows on handheld experience is still really lacking, so I'm glad to hear this works well. I think the Steam Deck track pads are pretty amazing and I don't think I could do without them, but setting up the Ally with Bazzite and dual booting to share files with Windows on the same device seems like a good match. Competition will only continue push innovation and not everyone has the same preferences when it comes to controls. Thanks, Russ!
I will definitely be doing this, I purchased the 4TB ssd and loaded my HDD with a ton of games for Windows but I do enjoy the SteamOS experience so this video came at the perfect time. I still use Windows for some older games like Fable 3 which is only available from the Windows Live Client that's offline now.
Rog Ally X is a freaking game changer. Bingo, think I found my ultimate handheld Ally X, 4tb ssd, dual boot windows and bazzite 2tb each partition, 1.5tb sd card, 2-14 hours of battery life. VRR. 1080p 120hz. Bright colorful screen. Perfect.
Thanks for the guide Russ! I did install Bazzite on my GPD Win 4 a couple days ago and I love how snappy and easy to use it is! Your guide helps me understand it better since it is my first handheld PC. Like I didn't know you could share the same steam games using the microsd card so I'll have to get that set up. Thank you!
@@giogames13 Yes! I've only used it for the last 2 days but so far, I like the interface a lot more and the pause/resume is really helpful since I am often running around doing errands. I also found the TDP plugins to be better as well (HHC for Windows was a bit of a nightmare for me to use). Also I can always switch back to windows whenever I need to do some work my machine. Personally I love it. The only thing I have noticed is in the game mode of bazzite (desktop mode is OK though), I haven't been able to get my Win 4 to display on another monitor. I have it set up on a dock in my office but I haven't been able to get it working yet. Not sure if it's a bug or I missed something in the set up. I'll have to play around with it a little bit more.
@@matheuspimentel9666 Russ starts talking about it at timestamp 26:53. Basically if you have games that work on both Windows and Linux, you can install the games on a microsd card. That way, as long as you point Windows Steam and Bazzite Steam to the right folders on the microsd card, you can play the games on both OS, without having to reinstall them. That's pretty handy since I have Palworld downloaded and installed on both OS on the ssd instead of installing it a single time on the micro sd. Sorry maybe my comment confused you but that's what I meant by "shared".
@@TheDinoflagellate oh that's nice!! But since he installed Bazzite to have all the advantages of the Steam Deck OS, why having steam games inside the Micro SD and not just inside the Steam OS partition? I don't intend to play Steam games inside Windows when I get my Rog Ally X
Valve has literally gone to sleep on updating the windows drivers for the Steam Deck OLED, somewhat regret buying it now. Considering the Ally X. For any windows handheld users, add the steamOS, totally worth it.
If you had told me just 5 years ago that gamers would be setting up dual boot Linux on their Windows handhelds for a better experience, I would've told you you were nuts. But, here we are! 😮
Currently doing this now. Last PC I hand built myself was when the 1080ti came out. I’m currently doing asus cloud recovery. Same crucial 4tb drive. Man I was so apprehensive cracking this thing open but it was easy and once I was in it felt like old times. Mildly exhilarating with that “still got it” feeling 🤣 Great guide. Hope the bazzite setup goes well. I realized I don’t have a usb to c adapter for my keyboard dongle just now. Let’s pray I can make this work somehow 💀
Thanks for the video as always, it will be interesting to see some performance testing from you, ive seen a video or two that suggests performance is down in general using bazzite and then one or two that also say it varies on a game by game. Its almost worth doing just for the reliable sleep function alone.
It's actually recommended by the Bazzite devs to do manual. Manual partitioning lets you create a separate EFI partition for Bazzite, that way Windows can't "accidentally" wipe your Linux boot entires after a Windows update, etc. Automatic, unfortunately, doesn't create a separate EFI partition
@@tidyjii7348 Windows updates occasionally wipe the Linux boot entries in a shared EFI partition, leading to basically making your bazzite install unaccessible until you manually fix it. A separate EFI helps prevent that
the timing wtf! literally been looking for something like this. debating on switching from oled deck and dual booting bazzite and how easy it is or isnt is a big factor
I would love to jump on this, but before I get another handheld I'm waiting to see what a steam deck 2 and an rog ally 2 look like. Hell even a legion go 2 might convince me if the ergonomics are better
Very good and entertaining guide as always! I can see another option for those who want to tinker with Bazzite and don't want to partition a single drive is to use an external SSD (especially since both ports are USB4). Might be a little annoying having the external SSD sticking up or even dangling but I can see it being an easier option to boot into. SSD plugged in, boots into Bazzite. SSD not plugged in, boots into Windows. Then the option to partition can come later or even fully commit to Bazzite.
Yo any chance you can do a battery comparison between windows ally x and bazzite ally x! I think a lot of us would want to see that before making the jump!! 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
The problem of dual booting from the same drive is that windows updates have a nasty tendency to break grub and lock you out of both OS, the best way to prevent that is installing bazzite straight into the internal drive and then creating a windows to go micro SD card (you can create a tiny11 ISO which will be much better for hanhelds), Sure windows will not be as fas as if it was in the internal storage but that does not impact the game performance, aside from a little bit longer loading time
Man Russ, you just made my month.. heck, maybe even year! I had an OG Steam Deck, that I loved, but kept having hardware issues that prompted me to roll the dice and get an Ally instead (shockingly had ZERO hardware issues here), and while was good with Windows, I missed some Deck features, mainly suspend. This video just inspired me to do this setup myself and I have to say.. OMG, this is it! It has everything I loved about the Deck and the flexibility of windows. Thank you SO MUCH for taking the time to make this. ❤❤.
Alright if you want to easily double boot after intalling Bazzite, when restarting mash the volume up button when the rog shows up and then you can select which OS do you want to boot in. There is no need to jump all the way into the Bios every time you want to boot to another OS
Now all the rog ally x needs is an oled screen and I would switch from my steam deck oled. Being able to have windows as well but mainly use steam OS is awesome, no game left inaccessible. Awesome guide Russ.
Do you notice the max brightness in Bazzite being lower than the max brightness using Windows? My Ally has this same setup and it seems like Bazzite's max brightness is around 80% of Windows.
Have a legion go I picked up dead cheap open box and definitely dual booting bazzite is the way to go I went for a 2tb SSD and its perfect for me. I cannot recommend doing this enough
To be honest for myself, what i would do for the 4 TB drive is make 3 partitions for each OS and then have 2.5 TB or 3 TB (depending on how you partition the drive) so that all the games would be on that drive and for certain games like Destiny 2, i would mainly keep that on a SD card instead Also, League of Legends runs fine off of a SD card/Pen drive, as I have done that on my mini PC, which is running both Windows 11 and Bazzite. Note that the mini PC I have running it is using a R9 6900 HX with the 680M, which performance-wise is a little bit better than the Steam deck, but not by much from my experience since the majority of the games I am playing are a little more GPU- demanding than CPU- demanding.
So Linux uses a bootloader called GRUB. There is a way to enable it to show on startup instead of booting directly to Linux. You can configure it in such a way that the GRUB menu that appears would ask you first if you wanna boot into Linux or Windows. I used to do this for dual-booting, but that was before these immutable Linux distros became a thing so I have no idea what the process would be for Bazzite.
Hi, Thank you for this detailed tutorial. I got Bazzite running on my Ally Extreme without any issues. But the user experience was far from usable. The major issue I faced was with Steam Server disconnection. I'm back to Windows 11.
Game changer is right. Ive had a love-hate relationship with my aya neo air for over a year because while its the perfect form factor with the absolute worst user experience ever. Could never get gyro or hotkeys to work across games. This fixed everything
Asus may say a heatsink doesn't matter, but don't fall for that potential failure down the line. Depending on the SSD you choose, they can run very hot. Pick carefully, there are certain models with controllers better suited for this application. There's a significant difference between something like a SK hynix P31 and some of the latest drives.
it might actually be smarter to partition the drive into 3 partitions. im upgrading my handheld to 4tb next week and i plan to have a 512gb partition each for windows and bazzite, then a 3tb partition for games. point steam at the 3tb partition in each of the OSes and you can have games move with you from OS to OS without using an external drive or micro sd card.
Can you please tell me how you do 3 partitions??? I'm new to this what are the steps??? I'm planning to trade my og ally for a ally x and do a 4tb ssd upgrade too
Just out of intrest I had the thought that you could do this on the Steam Deck. Windows can be installed on the Steam Deck and then follow this guide. That'd be pretty cool, and you'd get the OLED screen.
I installed Bazzite dual boot on my new 4tb SSD for my Ally X and I gotta say between the two times dual booting windows on my Steam Deck and Deck OLED, dual booting Bazzite on my Ally was waaay easier
Hey Russ! Big fan of the channel. It was this video that won me over and convinced me to get an Ally X 😅. I'm dual Booting using a 4tb SSD and am super happy. Just thought I'd let you know. I had a steam deck OLED and pulling my 1tb micro SD card and putting it in the Ally x with bazzite, I was surprised to find all my Files,games and even my emulators saved games were all still there. It was great not having to restart my games over. But I did have to move my emudeck install onto my hard drive and then format the card over on windows to a NTFS format for me to use the SD card in both OS. 1 thing I'm having trouble with is Cemu recognizing the gamepad over on bazzite, any ideas on how to fix this?
Question: for sharing storage setup. Do I need to format SD card ins an specific format (exFAT, NTFS, etc) or do I need to do that from SteamOS SD card format option? I already have both OS in same Handheld (OneXPlayer) and Micro SD shared storage is the only thing I need to do. Greetings from Mexico City, by the way!!
I had finally decided that when the time comes and I can no longer resist buying a handheld gaming PC I would buy a steam deck. Now, after seeing this video, I'm not so sure anymore...
The fact that you mention you did not pick up your Steamdeck in a week shows, for me, that SteamOS more so than the Steamdeck is THE game changer. They made it so good that they can take their time refining the Steamdeck 2 hardware because they will always have the edge compared to those other handhelds and in a way they still win when it ends up custom made by the community because its still Steam.
I haven't decided to buy the Ally X or even install Bazzite on it yet. But still watch this video from start to end lol
Thanks for watching either way!
@@RetroGameCorpscan you sleep mode just fine?
@@aldelmontealdm I do not have an Ally X with Bazzite but I did research on YT and it works (on steam OS)
Thanks for letting us know? Dumb comment.
@@kennymccormick8295 That's a compliment, of course not for you. If you can't understand it, just move along instead of leaving a dumber comment 😘
Thats another "Last Year i made a Guide for it and it still works" video. Saved for my youtube library. Thx!
Honestly the Linux experience on Handheld PCs like this is just fantastic. The suspend-resume feature is awesome, and pretty much every game works (excepting kernel mode anticheat and gamepass)
I ended up going full Linux on my Desktop too and it's been a great experience, since I don't use gamepass or really play many online games, but the few I do play have worked without issue
I ordered a Steam Deck because I was tired of bringing a gaming laptop with on work trips. However, after seeing this tutorial, and some others, I've canceled my Steam Deck order and order an Ally X... picking it up today :) I used to this kind of thing when creating HTPC/PC Consoles was a thing, and I'm excited now to finally get back to tweaking... Thank you!
I don't normally leave comments, but this was the best walkthrough for dual booting. The inclusion of the SSD upgrade was also a nice touch! Thank you!
Perfect timing. Just setting up my new Ally X right now! Thanks Russ 😊❤
Now that’s unexpected!
You think I should use my Steam Deck instead of my triples?
I think there’s no Linux support for my SC2 haha
@@rolux4853 haha probably not recommended!
26:41 For the majority of the games you can actually skip this without any performance issues since the mesa (and amdgpu) render pipeline got reworked late last year which removed the really bad stuttering from live compiling the shaders, this is also in SteamOS :) if you do however notice any stutters then you can go back and let it compile the shaders before playing (1 time thing unless there is a shader update through steam).
Also we do co-operation with ChimeraOS quite often and we contribute back and forth between the projects, in the end everyone benefits which means everyone wins! 😄
That's good to know, thank you for the clarification!
@@RetroGameCorps no problem! it was worth mentioning since it can take a while for some games to have their shaders compiled. 😄
Why do my games keep updating when switching between linux and windows?
@@joshs5909 shader cache is OS and hardware specific so that might need to be updated, also if the game is linux native the windows and linux files might also not be the same so they will partially replace each other when you boot into a different system.
There is probably more, but i dont work at valve so i have no more info than what i have spotted myself.
I was wondering about this, because it does take a long time to compile shaders, and its not a one and done for a game - every little update forces recompiling. I have been tempted to start skipping it.
I also just installed Bazzite onto my Legion GO. Now I just installed it onto my Ally X so it'll be very nice to have a proper sleep/wake function
Is the battery life better on the Lenovo Legion GO after installing Bazzite on it?
@@Lawrence39350 no
Brilliance, as always, Russ! You remain the DEFINITIVE voice in how to level up gaming experiences on PCs, handhelds, and PC handhelds! While I recently tried dual booting on my GPD Win Max (2024), I ended up nixing the Windows partition altogether and sticking strictly to Bazzite. I always watch your guides, regardless, as I always learn something separate but related in the process, so thank you for your work!
How well does it work on your Win Max? I'm considering a Win Max just because of Bazzite and being able to use Linux with sleep/resume.
@@EthanG45 in my humble opinion-pretty solid! Do checkout Bazzite’s handheld wiki for specific steps after installation to ensure a smooth experience, but once you take those steps, it’s pretty flawless on the software side. My Steam Deck (original model LCD) has been collecting dust, in fact, ha! Just be aware that the advertised 7500 MT/s RAM speeds on the 2024 model are hit and miss, mine was a miss and stuck at 6400 MT/s. The unit still screams, but it’s a buzzkill to see the advertised speeds out of reach. This is apparently a widespread issue according to DroiX (the vendor I got mine from), your mileage may vary, of course. Happy to answer any questions-just reply and I’ll do my best!
That sounds like a nice setup with the Win Max!
@@EthanG45 DOH. My comments keep disappearing! Long story short-follow the Bazzite wiki (including the Win Max 2-specific post-install directions) and you should find the experience pretty flawless. Good enough for me to ditch Windows entirely!
@@EthanG45 my biggest caution on the Win Max 2-the advertised RAM spec is 7500 MT/s, but the ability to actually run the RAM at those speeds is a matter of silicon lottery per device, apparently. Mine (ordered from DroiX) can only reach 6400 MT/s, and DroiX support has acknowledged that the issue is widespread, so buyer beware on that front. The device is still snappy and excellent, just disappointing to not get what was advertised.
I actually splitted my drive into 3 all my games are installed in that third partition so linux and windows can share all the games installed on that drive.
this is clever. might do later on on my legion go.
Thank you, that's exactly the kind of commentary I was looking for ! Wanted to make sure that it's possible before I start doing it :) You can even give only like 100Gb for win, 100Gb for Linux, and all the rest for the 3rd partition where you're going to install all your games
@P0p4y that's what I did, 100gb for each I for my experience, Don't do it! I went cheap on it and now I have like 30gb free on my linux partition and altho I haven't really touch windows, I know that I'm gonna fall short of storage soon once I start installing apps, go for 200 or 250gb for each (assuming that you can) so you can be on se safe.
I also made the partition during the windows installation, I found it to be easier to eliminate and create the partiton this way and the windows installation was WAAAY faster than the cloud recovery, only thing was that I had to manually install armoury crate etc
Wait noob here how do I go about doing this if I’m thinking right it’s partitioning the ssd into 3 with the desired memory installing windows and bazzite into two of them and then the 3rd one does it need to be formatted in any specific way ? For both windows and bazzite to see it as extra storage ?
What is specific format for the 3rd partition so it can be read for both OS?
Can we add manually non steam games in that 3rd partition on Bazzite?
Thanks man
This might be the thing that pushes me to upgrade my original steam deck to the ally x
Russ you just blew my mind with this one. I have a Steam Deck OLED and after watching this I want to buy an Ally X and follow this guide.
I have a lot of Windows games outside of Steam and it would be nice to have the option to be able to have it all in one handheld.
Thanks for the guide.
You're gonna be disappointed in the screen on the Ally X coming from the larger OLED on the SD. Trust me. It's the reason I returned the Ally X.
@@Setzer777 weird. I cane from the massive legion go. Screen is great. Vrr is a a game changer. And i dont miss the legos real estate as much as i thought i would. .4 inches aint shit.
I also have a steam deck oled snd its oled displsy is nice but i think the ally x display is pretty damn good. There was never a time when ive been like damn i wish this was oled.
Since its not 100% Steam OS, why can't it play those games Steam doesn't allow like the latest CoD or BF game?
@@MrAxelStone because it's still Linux. It's not steamos that doesn't allow it. It's compatibility issues between proton and the anti cheat software used by those games.
Russ thank you so much for this video/guide. This really is a best of both worlds situation. Just did this with my ally x this afternoon and your guide was perfect and made this super easy. So happy to have the conveniences and user friendly steamOS paired with a more powerful device that can switch to windows when needed. Perfect!
Also, I’ve gotta say, no matter how many times i hear you say “yea man, i wanna do it” regarding warning that pop up…it still makes me laugh every damn time. Thanks for all the great content.
Everyone loves this channel!
I just got my Ally X and I thought the Windows experience would be ok, but boy, I was SO wrong. It's awful. I'm so glad Bazzite exists! It is a night and day difference. I chose to keep my Windows partition at only 90GB. I only intend to use it for firmware updates via the ASUS update software. It is basically a firmware update slave - I do not intend on actually using Windows for anything else. Thank you for this guide!!
I’m going to do the same
I had been thinking about buying a Steam Deck OLED for a while (I have the LCD Deck but am selling it to a friend.) Your reviews are awesome and seeing how well Bazzite already works on it, and hearing that Steam is going to soon be offering native SteamOS support for the ROG Ally, I have decided to buy the Rog Ally X tomorrow instead of ordering the OLED Deck. I can't wait to start playing with it.
Same here but keeping my SD lcd
Valve will order native SteamOS on other devices? I must have missed this news.
@@mravg79 Yup, patch notes for SteamOS beta have support for the ROG Ally buttons and when asked Valve confirmed they are working towards releasing SteamOS for other devices, though it apparently might be a little while before it's on the main public release.
that's right babyy #teamAlly here 😀😀 Enjoy it meng!
It's worth noting that ChimeraOS v46 is integrating TDP controls in the Steam overlay just like the Steam Deck, so TDP controls are available though your mileage may vary.
They also have a more or less equivalent of Handheld Daemon called OpenGamepadUI.
Oh nice, that's awesome to hear!
I’ve been running Bazzite on a GPD Win mini 2024. It’s great and feature complete. You can even get the trackpad working like a native steamOS trackpad if you use HD’s dualsense option.
i’ve notice in my gpd win mini 2024 there is so many stattering and can i ask how do you open the tdp menu?
Been dual booting my legion go and Ally 2023 since March. It’s truly the best of both worlds. Bazzite has come a long way. Can’t wait to do this on my Ally x. Thanks Russ for a great video. See you on the nerd nest podcast
What is the need to have all of these handhelds? I never understood why people feel the need to have all these devices that do the same thing.
What's the benefit to dual booting Windows and Bazzite as oppose to just using Windows and sticking to generic big picture for steam?
@@MegaOverclocked Windows is a very heavy operating system compared to any version of Linux, more processing power for gaming and also should be better battery life.
@@MegaOverclocked the main major benefit, in my opinion, is quick suspend-resume. but the console-like UI experience is also great.
What's the benefit to dual booting Windows and Bazzite as opposed to just using Bazzite all the time? Is it just for those games with anti-cheats? I don't play them anyways.
While booting you can press volume up. This opens up boot menu so you can select the usb stick. Saves for having to go into bios and change order.
Thank you for making such a comphrehensive and easy to follow guide. The documentation is solid for Bazzite, but it is easier to follow a video! 😊
Bazzite's documentation being so thorough and professional convinces me that they will be in it for the long haul. And I'm almost certain that the next time I wipe my Steam Deck to fulfill my tinkering craving, Bazzite's going in instead of SteamOS.
As always great stuff Russ! So glad you covered this OS and looking forward to seeing a follow-up video down the line on your overall experience and maybe even some of the flaws of Bazzite.
Will be interesting to see what happens now that Valve has confirmed they are working on the Ally / X version of SteamOs.
Thanks for the great tutorial, I followed start to finish without a hitch. The only minor issue I'm having is that rumble in SteamOS is always dialed up to 11, which makes it buzz loudly non-stop. I have to spend some time in controller settings but first impression is that this is pretty amazing! Thanks again
Edit: I fixed this by limiting the vibration intensity in Handheld Daemon > Controller > Hardware Limits > Vibration Intensity (40% or 60% seems good for me)
Quick update... I followed this and was able to dual boot my Legion Go. Super easy. Only thing was Windows wouldn't let me split the hard drive halfsies. So I had to hunt down a full featured app that actually did the job. I finally found and used Paragon Partition Manager Community Edition. It's free, so yeah, this isn't an ad. haha.
Thanks for this walkthrough! My Go is so snappy and easy to use now.
Man you made this look easy. considering doing this to my ally, i usually only buy games on the steam and games that are under great on deck, i can care less about my game pass and windows only games.
It’s been a minute since I last heard “ yeah man, I wanna do it “ CLSSIC 😆
This is perfect, I’ve been thinking of doing exactly this.
I love the steam deck UI but the fact I can’t play cod, Fortnite, destiny etc is a massive draw back.
100 percent doing this
Just gotta grab that 4tb drive
Have the same setup on my Legion GO - it's great. Prior to that I would go a few months with Linux then a few months after reinstalling Windows then rinse and repeat. A nice big SSD and a dual boot works like a charm
The Windows on handheld experience is still really lacking, so I'm glad to hear this works well. I think the Steam Deck track pads are pretty amazing and I don't think I could do without them, but setting up the Ally with Bazzite and dual booting to share files with Windows on the same device seems like a good match. Competition will only continue push innovation and not everyone has the same preferences when it comes to controls. Thanks, Russ!
I will definitely be doing this, I purchased the 4TB ssd and loaded my HDD with a ton of games for Windows but I do enjoy the SteamOS experience so this video came at the perfect time. I still use Windows for some older games like Fable 3 which is only available from the Windows Live Client that's offline now.
Nice! for me Ally X its the best option for handled pc, no doubt!
Looks really cool! This is for sure the best way to use the Ally X.
Rog Ally X is a freaking game changer. Bingo, think I found my ultimate handheld
Ally X, 4tb ssd, dual boot windows and bazzite 2tb each partition, 1.5tb sd card, 2-14 hours of battery life. VRR. 1080p 120hz. Bright colorful screen. Perfect.
Wow. That’s pretty awesome. It probably would sway me to buy the Ally X if it had an OLED screen.
Ally's screen is better since it's 120Hz and VRR. It's more important, than deep blacks, at least for me.
Loved this video. I forgot how good steamOS is, definitely a lot more better usage for gaming only
Thanks for the guide Russ! I did install Bazzite on my GPD Win 4 a couple days ago and I love how snappy and easy to use it is! Your guide helps me understand it better since it is my first handheld PC. Like I didn't know you could share the same steam games using the microsd card so I'll have to get that set up. Thank you!
I have a win 4 too, would you say it's worth installing ?
@@giogames13 Yes! I've only used it for the last 2 days but so far, I like the interface a lot more and the pause/resume is really helpful since I am often running around doing errands. I also found the TDP plugins to be better as well (HHC for Windows was a bit of a nightmare for me to use). Also I can always switch back to windows whenever I need to do some work my machine. Personally I love it.
The only thing I have noticed is in the game mode of bazzite (desktop mode is OK though), I haven't been able to get my Win 4 to display on another monitor. I have it set up on a dock in my office but I haven't been able to get it working yet. Not sure if it's a bug or I missed something in the set up. I'll have to play around with it a little bit more.
I didn't get the part where we can share the same steam games using the microsd card, can you talk more about it?
@@matheuspimentel9666 Russ starts talking about it at timestamp 26:53. Basically if you have games that work on both Windows and Linux, you can install the games on a microsd card. That way, as long as you point Windows Steam and Bazzite Steam to the right folders on the microsd card, you can play the games on both OS, without having to reinstall them. That's pretty handy since I have Palworld downloaded and installed on both OS on the ssd instead of installing it a single time on the micro sd.
Sorry maybe my comment confused you but that's what I meant by "shared".
@@TheDinoflagellate oh that's nice!! But since he installed Bazzite to have all the advantages of the Steam Deck OS, why having steam games inside the Micro SD and not just inside the Steam OS partition? I don't intend to play Steam games inside Windows when I get my Rog Ally X
Bazzite is the best, I have it dual boot on my GPD Win Max 2 8840u!!!!
thank you so much for your step by step guide. The install went smoothly and I now have my steam deck again but with 1080p and 2 USB Cs 💪
If you keep pressing the + button on startup, u can choose the system boot without the need to go to bios
what + button ? theres no such button on the ally x
@@Captain-Chats Does he mean Volume Up?
Valve has literally gone to sleep on updating the windows drivers for the Steam Deck OLED, somewhat regret buying it now. Considering the Ally X. For any windows handheld users, add the steamOS, totally worth it.
I literally just upgraded my Ally x with a 4tb ssd last night. Perfect timing!
If you had told me just 5 years ago that gamers would be setting up dual boot Linux on their Windows handhelds for a better experience, I would've told you you were nuts. But, here we are! 😮
Currently doing this now. Last PC I hand built myself was when the 1080ti came out. I’m currently doing asus cloud recovery. Same crucial 4tb drive.
Man I was so apprehensive cracking this thing open but it was easy and once I was in it felt like old times. Mildly exhilarating with that “still got it” feeling 🤣
Great guide. Hope the bazzite setup goes well.
I realized I don’t have a usb to c adapter for my keyboard dongle just now. Let’s pray I can make this work somehow 💀
Just got done with install of Bazzite on ally and what a complete game changer.. just need to make sure tdp is able to tweak
Thanks for the video as always, it will be interesting to see some performance testing from you, ive seen a video or two that suggests performance is down in general using bazzite and then one or two that also say it varies on a game by game. Its almost worth doing just for the reliable sleep function alone.
Best setup guide out there for duel boot.....youre the first to show we can use the automatic configuration which save alot of time.
It's actually recommended by the Bazzite devs to do manual. Manual partitioning lets you create a separate EFI partition for Bazzite, that way Windows can't "accidentally" wipe your Linux boot entires after a Windows update, etc. Automatic, unfortunately, doesn't create a separate EFI partition
why is EFI partition needed again?
@@tidyjii7348 Windows updates occasionally wipe the Linux boot entries in a shared EFI partition, leading to basically making your bazzite install unaccessible until you manually fix it. A separate EFI helps prevent that
ohhh I see, got it aru3
thank for explaining! more power to you!
@@aru3Can you please explain how you do that??? What are the steps???
Awesome Tutorial ! A big thanks from France Russ ! Can't wait to receive my Rog Ally Z1 to do it and have the best from both worlds !
the timing wtf! literally been looking for something like this. debating on switching from oled deck and dual booting bazzite and how easy it is or isnt is a big factor
Great walkthrough Russ! Will be dual booting my Legion Go with the help of your video.
I would love to jump on this, but before I get another handheld I'm waiting to see what a steam deck 2 and an rog ally 2 look like. Hell even a legion go 2 might convince me if the ergonomics are better
You can totally install dualboot Windows on your Steam Deck though, no need to switch to Ally for this one.
Thank you sir for another excellent video. I was deciding between an Ally X and Steam Deck OLED and this sold me on the X.
Very good and entertaining guide as always!
I can see another option for those who want to tinker with Bazzite and don't want to partition a single drive is to use an external SSD (especially since both ports are USB4). Might be a little annoying having the external SSD sticking up or even dangling but I can see it being an easier option to boot into. SSD plugged in, boots into Bazzite. SSD not plugged in, boots into Windows.
Then the option to partition can come later or even fully commit to Bazzite.
I will be following this guide soon, thanks Russ, this is amazing!
Does it is the same process for the original ally ?
Come for the cool handheld stuff, stay for the return of "Yeah man I wanna do it!"
Thanks for the excellent content, as always!
Thanks for doing this video. I followed along and everything worked perfectly for me!
I missed Russ' guides!
Incredible video. Thanks! It’s so Cool having the dual booting option. I love Steam OS but, also want native Gamepass support in Windows.
Yo any chance you can do a battery comparison between windows ally x and bazzite ally x! I think a lot of us would want to see that before making the jump!! 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
I need a battery life comparison between 2 OS!
I think it should be the same on same TDPs, except Linux doesn't drain as much in the sleep mode.
I'm already familiar with Bazzite installation but I'm still going to watch your guide in case I missed anything.
Man Russ!!!! I just returned the X and it seems like your twisting my arm and are forcing me to buy it again!!!🤣🤣🤣
Bringus studios needs to watch this
The problem of dual booting from the same drive is that windows updates have a nasty tendency to break grub and lock you out of both OS, the best way to prevent that is installing bazzite straight into the internal drive and then creating a windows to go micro SD card (you can create a tiny11 ISO which will be much better for hanhelds), Sure windows will not be as fas as if it was in the internal storage but that does not impact the game performance, aside from a little bit longer loading time
The Ally/Ally X Can’t boot from the sd card
You are very thorough. Very good video.
Thanks for the guide!!
Man Russ, you just made my month.. heck, maybe even year! I had an OG Steam Deck, that I loved, but kept having hardware issues that prompted me to roll the dice and get an Ally instead (shockingly had ZERO hardware issues here), and while was good with Windows, I missed some Deck features, mainly suspend. This video just inspired me to do this setup myself and I have to say.. OMG, this is it! It has everything I loved about the Deck and the flexibility of windows. Thank you SO MUCH for taking the time to make this. ❤❤.
Alright if you want to easily double boot after intalling Bazzite, when restarting mash the volume up button when the rog shows up and then you can select which OS do you want to boot in. There is no need to jump all the way into the Bios every time you want to boot to another OS
Now all the rog ally x needs is an oled screen and I would switch from my steam deck oled. Being able to have windows as well but mainly use steam OS is awesome, no game left inaccessible. Awesome guide Russ.
Do you notice the max brightness in Bazzite being lower than the max brightness using Windows? My Ally has this same setup and it seems like Bazzite's max brightness is around 80% of Windows.
I don't miss the lower performance of my OG Deck but I sure miss the resume!
Just unboxed my unit waiting on ssd, this looks easy enough someone like me can do it.
Bazzite is also a great desktop OS. I'm a long time linux user and it's one of the best out of the box experiences.
Man I want a ally x 😢
Have a legion go I picked up dead cheap open box and definitely dual booting bazzite is the way to go I went for a 2tb SSD and its perfect for me. I cannot recommend doing this enough
Been rocking the NobaraOS on my original Ally, also with dualboot and it also a worthy contender. Good TDP support and gyro control as well
To be honest for myself, what i would do for the 4 TB drive is make 3 partitions for each OS and then have 2.5 TB or 3 TB (depending on how you partition the drive) so that all the games would be on that drive and for certain games like Destiny 2, i would mainly keep that on a SD card instead Also, League of Legends runs fine off of a SD card/Pen drive, as I have done that on my mini PC, which is running both Windows 11 and Bazzite.
Note that the mini PC I have running it is using a R9 6900 HX with the 680M, which performance-wise is a little bit better than the Steam deck, but not by much from my experience since the majority of the games I am playing are a little more GPU- demanding than CPU- demanding.
okay done :p , hopefully soon a setup guide for retrogaming on the bazzite,I only use your setup guides :$ :D thx man
Fantastic video. You give me more reason to choose over steam deck. I love steam oled, but also i love gear of war, fifa.
Finally, I love it when someone does a bazzite video
So Linux uses a bootloader called GRUB. There is a way to enable it to show on startup instead of booting directly to Linux. You can configure it in such a way that the GRUB menu that appears would ask you first if you wanna boot into Linux or Windows. I used to do this for dual-booting, but that was before these immutable Linux distros became a thing so I have no idea what the process would be for Bazzite.
Hi,
Thank you for this detailed tutorial. I got Bazzite running on my Ally Extreme without any issues. But the user experience was far from usable. The major issue I faced was with Steam Server disconnection. I'm back to Windows 11.
Great video. I have Bazzite installed on my Legion Go. When there is new video driver for Windows, I will do dual boot with a 4TB drive. Thanks.
Does the Legion Go also have a recovery/cloud download for windows if you install a new SSD like Asus does?
I keep getting error checking storage configuration and can't go any further. any clue why this is ?
Me too..😢
Game changer is right. Ive had a love-hate relationship with my aya neo air for over a year because while its the perfect form factor with the absolute worst user experience ever. Could never get gyro or hotkeys to work across games. This fixed everything
Asus may say a heatsink doesn't matter, but don't fall for that potential failure down the line. Depending on the SSD you choose, they can run very hot. Pick carefully, there are certain models with controllers better suited for this application. There's a significant difference between something like a SK hynix P31 and some of the latest drives.
It would be great if Windows and Bazzite can share a library.
it might actually be smarter to partition the drive into 3 partitions. im upgrading my handheld to 4tb next week and i plan to have a 512gb partition each for windows and bazzite, then a 3tb partition for games. point steam at the 3tb partition in each of the OSes and you can have games move with you from OS to OS without using an external drive or micro sd card.
Can you please tell me how you do 3 partitions??? I'm new to this what are the steps??? I'm planning to trade my og ally for a ally x and do a 4tb ssd upgrade too
In assuming the same way you originally do one but just once more and then adjust steam settings
now i feel silly for buying an oled steam deck just recently! oh well haha.
Yeah me too😢
Just out of intrest I had the thought that you could do this on the Steam Deck. Windows can be installed on the Steam Deck and then follow this guide. That'd be pretty cool, and you'd get the OLED screen.
Gonna give this a shot on my Steam console box I keep plugged into the big screen. HoloISO and ChimeraOS left a bit to be desired.
I installed Bazzite dual boot on my new 4tb SSD for my Ally X and I gotta say between the two times dual booting windows on my Steam Deck and Deck OLED, dual booting Bazzite on my Ally was waaay easier
What ssd did you go for and did you use a heat sink, I hear 4tb drives run hot
Hey Russ! Big fan of the channel. It was this video that won me over and convinced me to get an Ally X 😅. I'm dual Booting using a 4tb SSD and am super happy. Just thought I'd let you know. I had a steam deck OLED and pulling my 1tb micro SD card and putting it in the Ally x with bazzite, I was surprised to find all my Files,games and even my emulators saved games were all still there. It was great not having to restart my games over. But I did have to move my emudeck install onto my hard drive and then format the card over on windows to a NTFS format for me to use the SD card in both OS. 1 thing I'm having trouble with is Cemu recognizing the gamepad over on bazzite, any ideas on how to fix this?
This is perfect, thanks Russ!
Thanks for your great videos Russ..
Question: for sharing storage setup. Do I need to format SD card ins an specific format (exFAT, NTFS, etc) or do I need to do that from SteamOS SD card format option? I already have both OS in same Handheld (OneXPlayer) and Micro SD shared storage is the only thing I need to do.
Greetings from Mexico City, by the way!!
Love your videos, Russ!
damn I should do this to my OG Ally, windows with XGM for big games and bazzite on the go
why wouldn't it work with an OG Ally?
@@joelwill6021 I did not say that, in fact I want to try it
@@joelwill6021 he didn't say it wouldn't
I had finally decided that when the time comes and I can no longer resist buying a handheld gaming PC I would buy a steam deck. Now, after seeing this video, I'm not so sure anymore...
The fact that you mention you did not pick up your Steamdeck in a week shows, for me, that SteamOS more so than the Steamdeck is THE game changer. They made it so good that they can take their time refining the Steamdeck 2 hardware because they will always have the edge compared to those other handhelds and in a way they still win when it ends up custom made by the community because its still Steam.
Old news. Catch up.
@@kennymccormick8295 Cranky old geezer. Chill out.
thanks for the tutorial!!