Can I use Virtualbox with Steam Deck?

Steam Deck Supports Virtualization Technology

The Steam Deck is powered by AMD's custom CPU, but it was unclear whether it supports AMD's AMD-V virtualization technology.

Although there has been no official statement from Valve on this point, actual Steam Deck machines have been in circulation since 2022, and some users have used the actual machines to install Virtualbox and run virtual machines.

Thereby, it is safe to assume that the Steam Deck is AMD CPU compatible with AMD-V.

Using it as a GUI environment is currently difficult.

Even if we say that "Virtualbox can be used" on Steam Deck, whether it can be used in a lehel that can withstand actual operation is another matter.

First of all, it is not realistic to use a virtual machine on Virtulabox as a GUI environment because there is no graphics driver that works with virtual machines. Of course, if the graphics operation is too heavy, it is impossible to play games.

Second, there is also the problem that the special keys of Steam Deck do not bind properly on the virtual machine.

When Windows is cleanly installed on the Steam Deck, the Steam Deck controller buttons are recognized as "XBOX controllers" in most cases, but there are some reported cases where they are not recognized properly.

If there are cases where the game controllers are not properly recognized after a clean install, it is doubtful that the game controller part will be properly recognized or usable in a virtual machine.

If you want to use Windows on Steam Deck, a straightforward clean install is the way to go.

Thanks to Proton, Steam Deck is able to play Windows games at a level comparable to Windows even though it is based on Linux, but some online games remain unsupported. Also, as a GUI, some users may prefer to play on Windows, which they are accustomed to.

For such users, Virtualbox is attractive because it is easy and low-risk to build a Windows environment, but at present, it is overwhelmingly more comfortable to install Windows games directly on Steam OS than to run Windows on a virtual machine on Steam Deck. However, it would be more comfortable to install Windows games directly on Steam OS than to run Windows on a virtual machine on Steam Deck.

In the future, it is possible that Steam Deck's graphics driver will work in a virtual environment as well, but since Valve is steering toward running Windows APIs on Linux rather than solving the problem with virtualization technology, the following two options will continue to be the realistic choices The following two options will continue to be the realistic choices.

1. continue to use Steam OS
2. do a clean install of Windows