PS5 Bazzite Deck

Turn your PS5 into a Steam console: this is Bazzite in Steam Deck mode, adapted for the PlayStation 5. It boots straight into Steam Gaming Mode (the Steam Deck interface), and a full KDE desktop is one click away.

It runs from a USB drive, started by rmux's PS5 Linux loader. Your PS5 itself is not modified. Linux only starts when you run the loader; restart or power off and the PS5 starts its own system again, with the drive still plugged in.

Official wiki: wiki.ps5-linux.eu covers PS5 Linux in general (loaders, hardware, other images) and is the place to check first for anything not specific to this image.

Which version: use the release marked Latest on the releases page. Releases marked Pre-release are test builds for testers, even when their number is higher. What changed in which version is in the changelog; this README describes the current release.

Download: Releases · Help & testing: Discord · Support the project: Ko-fi

One image runs on every supported PS5. What differs is decided by three parts of the console:

What differs by HDMI chip

Both chips: 1080p60, 1080p120, 1440p60 and 4K60, when the TV/monitor can do them. Other resolutions (ultrawide, other refresh rates) aren't offered: the HDMI chip only has setups for these.

What differs by Wi-Fi/Bluetooth chip

PS5 Pro: a first version (GPU with 60 compute units and its own firmware, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth; see Features and your hardware for the exact split). It needs a loader that dumps the Pro's GPU firmware to the boot partition: the official ps5-linux-loader from 2 November 2026 or later, on system software 13.20, 13.60 or 11.60 (earlier releases and rmux's fork, v3.5 and older, don't dump it). Without the dump the GPU runs as a base PS5 (36 CUs), and journalctl -u ps5-stage-viola-fw says so. After the first start, start Linux with the loader once more: that one uses the Pro's GPU firmware (journalctl -u ps5-stage-viola-fw says whether it was found and added). Not yet supported on the Pro: the 40-CU unlock (see below) and the Linux-only Bluetooth address. The same drive works in a Slim or original PS5 too; the Pro's firmware files on it are ignored there. Reports welcome in #bazzite-ps5-pro-tests either way.

Switching between Game Mode and the desktop: the usual way is Steam's own Switch to Desktop / Return to Gaming Mode. From a terminal or over SSH, the same thing is steamos-session-select plasma (desktop) or steamos-session-select gamescope (Game Mode).

• A PS5 on a firmware rmux's PS5 Linux loader supports (see its releases). Tested on firmware 13.60.
• An original PS5, a PS5 Slim or a PS5 Pro (see Features and your hardware).
• etaHEN and kstuff off: they don't work with the Linux loader (freezes, especially when going to sleep).
• A USB drive of 32 GB or more, ideally an external SSD (much faster than a stick).
• A PC to download and flash the image, and for the first setup a USB keyboard is handy.
• PS5 settings, in the normal PS5 menu, before the first start (set them again after a PS5 reset or firmware update):
  • Settings → System → Power Saving → Features Available in Rest Mode → Supply Power to USB Ports: Always.
  • Settings → HDMI → Enable HDMI Device Link: off. If it's on, you'll typically get a black screen.

1. Download all ps5-bazzite-deck-vX.Y.Z.img.7z.00* files from the latest release into one folder.

2. Extract the .001 file with 7-Zip (Windows), Keka (macOS) or 7z x (Linux). You get ps5-bazzite-deck.img.

3. Flash it to the USB drive with Rufus: select the drive, select the .img, click Start. This erases the drive.

4. Plug the drive into a fast USB port. Every PS5 has fast ports (SuperSpeed, 10 Gbit/s) and one slow port (Hi-Speed, the older USB 2.0 speed of 480 Mbit/s). A slow port works, but booting, loading and installing games become much slower.

   • Original PS5: the two rear USB-A ports or the front USB-C port. The front USB-A port is the slow one.
   • PS5 Slim: the two rear USB-A ports. One of the two front USB-C ports is the slow one, so the rear ports are the safe choice.

   Use the slow port for a controller or keyboard.

5. Run the jailbreak and the loader as described in the loader's instructions. The PS5 goes into rest mode; wait until the orange light stops blinking, then press the power button. A white light means Linux is booting.

6. First boot is slow. The screen can stay black for a few minutes. Let it be.

Already installed? Each release's notes say how to update.

• The default password is ps5 (asked for anything that needs admin rights). SSH is on: ssh ps5@<your PS5's IP>. Change the password with passwd, since anyone on your network can try ps5.
• After joining Wi-Fi, Steam updates itself in the background, often behind a blank screen with a blinking cursor that looks frozen, for several minutes. Don't power off then: that's the most common reason for a broken first start.
• The first start is at 1080p60. Pick your resolution in the display settings (Game Mode: Settings → Display); it's remembered.
• Set RGB range to Full, in both Game Mode and the desktop.

cmdline.txt is on the USB drive's small FAT32 partition and must stay one single line: add an option at the end with a space in front of it, or delete it again to undo. Leave the entries that are already there as they are.

To switch off VRR, use Steam's setting (Settings → Display); to keep the TV from following the console at boot, switch off HDMI-CEC in the TV's settings (SIMPLINK, Anynet+, BRAVIA Sync…).

The GPU reserves 512 MB of RAM for itself and can borrow up to half of the rest on top (so about 8.25 GB total on a 16 GB console). A memory-hungry game can hit that ceiling: stutter, or a game crashing with something like "not enough memory for command submission". Raise the ceiling, rather than fix a bigger reserved amount (that locks the memory away even when you're not gaming):

E=$(for d in /boot/efi /efi; do sudo test -f $d/cmdline.txt && echo $d && break; done); sudo sed -i 's/ *ttm\.pages_limit=[0-9]*//; s/[[:space:]]*$/ ttm.pages_limit=2621440/' $E/cmdline.txt && sudo cat $E/cmdline.txt

That sets a 10 GB ceiling (2621440 = GB × 262144); remove the option to go back to the default. Check: sudo dmesg | grep -iE 'VRAM|GTT' after rebooting.

Original PS5 and Slim only. The PS5 Pro's 60 compute units are all active already; don't use this on a Pro.

The PS5's GPU has 40 compute units (CUs); Sony ships it with 36 active. The other 4 were switched off at the factory, partly because on some chips one of them is faulty. That's the silicon lottery: on many consoles all 40 work and you get more GPU power, on others the extra units cause green dots and other artifacts, a purple tint, or crashes. Try it, and switch it back off if you see any of that.

Switch on (in a terminal or over SSH), then reboot and run the loader:

E=$(for d in /boot/efi /efi; do sudo test -f $d/cmdline.txt && echo $d && break; done); sudo sed -i -e 's/amdgpu\.ps5_cu_unlock=[0-9]*/amdgpu.ps5_cu_unlock=3/' -e '/ps5_cu_unlock/!s/[[:space:]]*$/ amdgpu.ps5_cu_unlock=3/' $E/cmdline.txt && sudo cat $E/cmdline.txt

Check: dmesg | grep active_cu_number shows 40 (36 without it).

Switch off again:

E=$(for d in /boot/efi /efi; do sudo test -f $d/cmdline.txt && echo $d && break; done); sudo sed -i 's/ *amdgpu\.ps5_cu_unlock=[0-9]*//' $E/cmdline.txt && sudo cat $E/cmdline.txt

The setting stays as it is across updates.

Wider PS5-Linux questions (loaders, other hardware, general background): wiki.ps5-linux.eu.

Ask in Discord (#bazzite-problems) or open a GitHub issue, and attach the report from ps5-report (in a terminal or over SSH). It only reads, and saves one file with your hardware, display (EDID, modes, VRR state) and the relevant logs. For specific problems:

Without network, copy the files to the drive's FAT32 partition and take them from there on your PC: E=$(for d in /boot/efi /efi; do sudo test -f $d/cmdline.txt && echo $d && break; done); sudo cp ~/ps5-report-*.txt $E/. Commands: ps5-perf (CPU boost, fan; status shows the fan mode), ps5-warm-reboot (restart straight into Linux, experimental), ps5-bt-address (one DualSense for the PS5 and Linux, on by default).

• Console running, no picture (wrong mode, a mode the TV doesn't take): get in with SSH or a TTY and change the mode by command, see docs/display-recovery.md. To report a display problem (VRR, a mode, blinking): docs/display-logs.md says what to send.
• White light but black screen: HDMI Device Link off (see Prerequisites), another HDMI port or TV, HDCP on/off in the PS5 settings; last resort amdgpu.force_1080p=1 (boot options).
• Black screen, but the PS5 is running: Ctrl+Alt+F2, wait 2–3 seconds, then Ctrl+Alt+F1 (over SSH: sudo chvt 2; sleep 3; sudo chvt 1).
• Boots back into the PS5 menu: you pressed the power button before the orange light stopped blinking, or USB power in rest mode isn't set to Always.
• Artifacts, green dots or crashes: switch the 40 compute units off again; for glitches in one game, launch options RADV_DEBUG=nohiz %command%.
• VRR: no "Enable VRR" means a VERDE console, a display without HDMI VRR (FreeSync-only monitors), or VRR off for that input in the TV. The screen going dark for 2 seconds in menus: use VRR per game (quick access menu → Performance). OLED flicker on the desktop: Adaptive Sync on Automatic, not Always.
• HEVC video with broken colours or a red screen (recording, streaming with Sunshine, Moonlight): the PS5's video engine gets HEVC P-frames wrong. Use H.264, or for encoding HEVC with I-frames only (ffmpeg: -g 1 -bf 0; much higher bitrate). As a Moonlight client: H.264, or "Force software decoding" for HEVC.
• Won't boot from an SSD in a USB enclosure: some enclosures don't work with the loader; try another one.

The USB drive stays required: the PS5 loader always starts the kernel from its small FAT32 partition. The M.2 holds the system. Install the same version on the M.2 as on the USB. If a step doesn't work for you, tell us in Discord.

All steps run on the PS5, booted from the USB, in a terminal (password ps5).

1. Get the tools (ps5-linux-tools; Bazzite has everything needed to build them). If the M.2 isn't prepared for Linux yet, follow their README (m2_init) first.

   git clone https://github.com/ps5-linux/ps5-linux-tools ~/ps5-linux-tools && make -C ~/ps5-linux-tools
   

2. Install. m2_install.sh looks for the boot partition at /boot/efi; Bazzite has it at /efi, so mount it there too:

   sudo mkdir -p /boot/efi && (mountpoint -q /boot/efi || sudo mount LABEL=boot /boot/efi)
   cd ~/ps5-linux-tools && sudo ./m2_install.sh --install /path/to/ps5-bazzite-deck.img
   

   • Use the extracted .img, not the .7z files.
   • Keep the .img on the USB system (e.g. in ~/Downloads), not on the M.2: the M.2 is wiped during the install.
   • Tip: type the command up to --install (with the space), then drag the .img from the file manager into the terminal to insert its path.
   • What you'll see: Formatting /dev/nvme0n1p1 …, then Copying files to M.2..., and then nothing for 10–30 minutes while it copies the system (there's no progress bar). Wait until it prints Installation complete.
   • It asks for the password and then ends without printing anything: /boot/efi isn't mounted, or it's mounted several times (from running a plain mount line more than once). Reset it to one mount, then run the install again: while mountpoint -q /boot/efi; do sudo umount /boot/efi; done; sudo mount LABEL=boot /boot/efi
   • /dev/nvme0n1p1 not found: the M.2 isn't prepared for Linux yet, see step 1 (m2_init).

3. Boot from the M.2 from now on: point cmdline.txt at the M.2:

   E=$(for d in /boot/efi /efi; do sudo test -f $d/cmdline.txt && echo $d && break; done); sudo sed -i 's/root=LABEL=bazzite-deck /root=LABEL=bazzite-deck-m2 /' $E/cmdline.txt && sudo cat $E/cmdline.txt
   

4. Start it: reboot (sudo reboot) and run the loader as usual; it now starts the system on the M.2. cd ~/ps5-linux-tools && sudo ./m2_exec.sh switches right away without a reboot; if it says kexec isn't found, just reboot instead.

To go back to the USB system, change bazzite-deck-m2 back to bazzite-deck in cmdline.txt.

Notes:

• The first start from the M.2 can show a grey or black screen: reboot once and run the loader again.
• The USB drive afterwards: keep its small FAT32 partition (label boot): the loader always starts Linux from there, and updates put the new kernel there. The big Linux partition on the USB is only a fallback now. You can reformat that one for storage (only that partition, not the whole drive), but then you can no longer switch back to the USB system via cmdline.txt.
• Updating: run the in-place update while booted from the M.2, with the USB drive plugged in. The update script finds the USB drive's boot partition by itself: on an M.2 install it is often mounted at /boot/efi instead of /efi, or not at all.
• The commands in this README find cmdline.txt themselves (/boot/efi or /efi). If neither has it, the boot partition isn't mounted: edit cmdline.txt from your PC instead.
• Stuck in emergency mode when booting the M.2: its /etc/fstab may contain a boot-partition line with an empty UUID=. Replace that line with LABEL=boot /efi vfat defaults,nofail 0 2 (mount the M.2 from the USB system with sudo mount LABEL=bazzite-deck-m2 /mnt to edit it).

Community-made, not part of the image:

This is a hobby project, built and tested in my free time. If it's useful to you, you can support it on Ko-fi. Thank you!

• ps5-linux (theflow, c0w, resulknad, rmuxnet and contributors) – the PS5 Linux loader, kernel patches and image builder this is built on.
• rmuxnet – 7.3 PS5 kernel patches, video decoding, the PS5 Linux Guide.
• soniciso1 – loader with firmware 13.60 support.
• ps5-linux-mwifiex contributors – PS5 Wi-Fi driver patches.
• WizGery – MediaTek Bluetooth patches.
• etawen – PS5 package repo and documentation.
• Universal Blue / Bazzite – Bazzite itself.
• Lawson – the VRR fix and 4K120 over HDMI 2.1 FRL; hsgodd – captures and research on the stock system's HDMI setup; Slip – HDR, SCDC, CEC and hotplug patches; Tertium – USB-C display output; Dasloh – sleep.
• Gilles (@VivaLaVent) – developer of this image.

Not affiliated with Sony, Valve or Universal Blue. Use at your own risk. Scripts and docs: MIT; patches: GPL-2.0.