SteamOS 3.9.0 Preview brings major updates to desktop mode, Linux kernel, WiFi

What the report says

29 Aug 2026 at 8:51 am UTC | Last updated: 29 Aug 2026 at 9:26 am UTC By Liam Squires-HandHot on the heels of the SteamOS 3.8.26 Beta, Valve released SteamOS 3.9.0 Preview bringing some really massive changes to the system.
 This is much more of a here be dragons type of release, because a fair amount of the software behind the scenes has seen major version changes. The Linux kernel has been bumped up to version 7.2 (SteamOS stable is on 6.16) which brings support for new hardware and improvements to existing hardware, and desktop mode will see quite a lot of general improvements too with KDE Plasma 6.7.3.
 You can opt into this in Settings > System > System Update Channel.
 
 Key Features
 
 
 General
 
 Updated Arch Linux base.
 Updated Desktop Mode from Plasma 6.4.3 to Plasma 6.7.3
 
 For more information, seehttps://kde.org/announcements/plasma/6/6.7.0/https://kde.org/announcements/plasma/6/6.6.0/https://kde.org/announcements/plasma/6/6.5.0/
 
 
 
 Misc
 
 Updated the bootloader to improve compatibility with certain motherboards.
 The Desktop Mode lockscreen is no longer prevented from being explicitly enabled in settings (but remains off by default).
 
 Developer
 
 Switched WiFi backend to wpa_supplicant by default for new installations, improving compatibility with various WiFi networks.
 
 Enhanced wpa_supplicant to support fast WiFi reconnect on resume from sleep, previously only available in the iwd backend.
 Known issue: Existing installations will continue to use iwd unless manually enabled in Developer Settings.
 
 
 Linux kernel rebased on Linux 7.2.
 Added preliminary support for hibernation, not yet exposed in Game Mode UI
 
 Enhanced Linux kernel hibernation support to enable interrupting hibernate requests and fixed various driver issues.
 
 
 Various scripts and packages have been renamed from `steamos-` to `holo-`, with aliases to the former names where appropriate.
 Improved support for running SteamOS as a VM guest with accelerated graphics (virtio-gpu, venus).
 
 
 
 
 
 If you do encounter bugs in SteamOS - you can file a report on the official GitHub. 🌐 External Sources: store.steampowered.com, github.com Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.

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