First boot
What happens the first time CouchPotatOS starts: graphics driver, Steam update and sign-in.
The first start takes a little longer than later ones. CouchPotatOS grows its partitions to fill the drive and applies your network and region settings. Then, before Steam opens, it may ask you a couple of things.
NVIDIA cards: choose a driver
If the PC has an NVIDIA card, you choose between:
- NVIDIA’s driver, which is faster in games. It comes from NVIDIA under NVIDIA’s license, which is shown in full. Scroll to the end to accept it. The driver is installed and the PC restarts once.
- The open driver (nouveau with Mesa’s NVK), which is already installed. Nothing to download.
CouchPotatOS picks the right NVIDIA package for your card. Cards from the GTX 900 to the Titan V generations need NVIDIA’s older closed driver, which can’t load while Secure Boot is on. The page explains this, and asks again at the next start once Secure Boot is off.
AMD and Intel graphics skip this page.
Steam updates itself
Steam downloads its latest version, about 500 MB, while a progress screen shows how far it is. Without a network you can open the network settings or skip; Steam then updates after it starts, behind a black screen.
Sign in and play
Steam opens in its controller interface. Sign in to your Steam account, and your library is there.
From now on, CouchPotatOS goes straight into Steam every time you turn it on.