The author reimagines an old Steam Link device as a low-power Arm server by installing NixOS on it. The main challenge was bypassing Valve's bootloader restriction using kexec, which required crafting a custom kernel module since the stock kernel lacked CONFIG_KEXEC. This demonstrates creative hardware repurposing combined with advanced Linux customization techniques.
Background
The Steam Link is a small media streaming device based on an Arm processor originally designed for streaming PC games to TVs. Custom firmware enthusiasts have repurposed it as a general-purpose lightweight server, building on prior work by community member fijam.
- Source
- Lobsters
- Published
- Sep 26, 2026 at 09:45 PM
- Score
- 6.0 / 10