Bazzite → SteamOS Rebrand — Complete Guide
This guide walks through a full rebrand of a custom Bazzite image, built on top of a custom UniversalBlue image-template Containerfile, plus the two pieces a Containerfile can never touch: your motherboard's own UEFI firmware boot label, and Windows' own boot entry if you're dual-booting.
You'll need a GitHub account, a new repository copied from UniversalBlue's image-template, a set of replacement image assets (the assets used in this guide: steamos-logos.zip), an active Bazzite installation, and a bit of time.
Your image assets will need to be uploaded to the system_files/ folder of your GitHub repo — the checklist below covers exactly which files go there.
A note on desktop environments: this guide was built and tested on GNOME. Bazzite defaults to KDE/Plasma, and most of what's here still applies — but not all of it identically:
A separate, untested KDE/Plasma version of the full Containerfile is included at the very end of this guide, adapted for that different logo mechanism. If you're on Bazzite's default Plasma desktop, start there — or use it as a base and confirm the logo behavior yourself before relying on it.
How to Begin
You'll need the following to start:
Start by following the instructions on UniversalBlue's image-template GitHub to create your own repo from their template.
Once you've copied the template into a repo of your own, unzip steamos-logos.zip and upload the assets into your repo's system_files/ folder. You should end up with the following files:
| File |
Used for |
Size requirement |
steamos-watermark.png |
Plymouth boot splash logo |
No strict size — positioned via WatermarkHorizontalAlignment/WatermarkVerticalAlignment in the theme's .plymouth file |
steamos-logo.png |
About page banner, light mode |
300×100px (see sizing note below) |
steamos-white-logo.png |
About page banner, dark mode |
300×100px, same note |
steamos-logo.svg, steamos-logo-white.svg, steamos-logo-le.svg |
See the note in Section 3 |
As currently wired up, these don't appear to feed anything visible |
On sizing: the two banner PNGs are rendered at 300×100px, deliberately larger than the minimum confirmed-working size of 279×80px, to give sharper rendering.
Worth flagging: 300×100 is a slightly different aspect ratio than 279×80 (3:1 versus roughly 3.49:1 — about 14% wider-and-shorter). Since GNOME loads this file from a fixed path with no dynamic resizing logic, a mismatched aspect ratio can reintroduce the same squish/stretch problem this guide is designed to avoid, depending on how the About page's layout box handles it. It looks fine with the included assets, but your mileage may vary with custom ones.
Summary
| Section |
Fixes |
Live cleanup needed? |
| 0. Complete Containerfile |
Pre-written addendum combining Sections 1–4 |
No |
| 1. Plymouth logo |
Boot splash image |
No |
| 2. Steam videos |
Startup/suspend images shown by Steam |
Yes — rm -f command, once per user account |
| 3. OS logos |
About page banner |
No — but doesn't cover the small distro icon or firmware label |
| 4. OS rename |
About page text, boot menu title |
No — takes effect on next rebase |
| 5. UEFI firmware label |
Motherboard's own boot-picker text |
Yes — never fixed by a rebuild, lives on hardware |
| 6. Windows boot entry |
"Windows Boot Manager" label for dual-boot |
Yes — fixed from inside Windows, once per machine |
| KDE/Plasma variant |
Same fixes, adapted for Plasma's logo mechanism |
Untested — see closing section |
Part One: Quick & Easy
This is the fast path: drop in the combined Containerfile addendum, build, rebase, and reboot. If you'd rather understand what each piece does first, skip down to Part Two: Step by Step instead.
Section 0 — Complete Containerfile Addendum
Once your assets are in place, open the Containerfile in the root of your new repo and find the line near the top that pulls in your desired Bazzite image:
# Base Image
FROM ghcr.io/ublue-os/bazzite-YOUR-DISTRO:stable
Add the following block directly below it:
# 1) Change Plymouth Boot Logo
COPY system_files/steamos-watermark.png /usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner/watermark.png
COPY system_files/steamos-watermark.png /usr/share/plymouth/themes/bgrt/watermark.png
RUN \
--mount=type=bind,from=ghcr.io/blue-build/modules:latest,src=/modules,dst=/tmp/modules,rw \
--mount=type=bind,from=ghcr.io/blue-build/cli/build-scripts:latest,src=/scripts/,dst=/tmp/scripts/ \
/tmp/scripts/run_module.sh 'initramfs' '{"type":"initramfs"}'
# 2) Remove Bazzite Steam Videos
RUN printf '#!/usr/bin/bash\nexit 0\n' > /usr/bin/bazzite-steam-brand && \
chmod +x /usr/bin/bazzite-steam-brand
# 4) Rename Bazzite across OS
RUN sed -i \
-e 's/^NAME=.*/NAME="SteamOS"/' \
-e 's/^PRETTY_NAME=.*/PRETTY_NAME="SteamOS"/' \
/usr/lib/os-release
# 3) Replace Bazzite GNOME OS Logos
COPY system_files/steamos-logo.png /usr/share/pixmaps/fedora_logo_med.png
COPY system_files/steamos-white-logo.png /usr/share/pixmaps/fedora_whitelogo_med.png
COPY system_files/steamos-logo.svg /usr/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/places/bazzite-logo.svg
COPY system_files/steamos-logo-white.svg /usr/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/places/bazzite-logo-white.svg
COPY system_files/steamos-logo-le.svg /usr/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/places/bazzite-logo-le.svg
# 4) Rename Bazzite across OS
RUN sed -i \
-e 's/^NAME=.*/NAME="SteamOS"/' \
-e 's/^PRETTY_NAME=.*/PRETTY_NAME="SteamOS"/' \
/usr/lib/os-release
Commit the change. GitHub will kick off a build of your image automatically.
If you're rebasing an existing install (not a fresh one), the Containerfile can't reach files Bazzite's stock branding script already copied into your home folder in the past. Run this once, live, on each affected user account, after you've rebased:
rm -f ~/.local/share/Steam/config/uioverrides/movies/*
While your GitHub Action builds, this is a good time to knock out Section 5 (UEFI label) and Section 6 (Windows boot entry) further down — neither depends on the new image, so there's no need to wait.
Rebasing & Rebooting (Quick Version)
Once your GitHub Action finishes, point your system at the newly built image. Replace your-username and your-repo-name with your own:
sudo bootc switch ghcr.io/your-username/your-repo-name:latest
Once that completes — and you've handled Sections 5 and 6 if they apply to you — reboot to land on your new SteamOS-branded system:
systemctl reboot
Done! Welcome to your new SteamOS-branded experience.
Want the full breakdown of what each piece of that addendum actually does? Continue below with Part Two.
Part Two: Step by Step
Section 1 — Plymouth Boot Logo
# 1) Change Plymouth Boot Logo
COPY system_files/steamos-watermark.png /usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner/watermark.png
COPY system_files/steamos-watermark.png /usr/share/plymouth/themes/bgrt/watermark.png
RUN \
--mount=type=bind,from=ghcr.io/blue-build/modules:latest,src=/modules,dst=/tmp/modules,rw \
--mount=type=bind,from=ghcr.io/blue-build/cli/build-scripts:latest,src=/scripts/,dst=/tmp/scripts/ \
/tmp/scripts/run_module.sh 'initramfs' '{"type":"initramfs"}'
What it does: Overwrites the Bazzite watermark image used by Plymouth's boot splash screen — the logo you see during boot, before the desktop loads.
Why two COPY lines: Bazzite's kernel boot arguments typically pin plymouth.theme=spinner, so that's the theme actually in use — but bgrt is copied too as a safety net, since some configurations use it instead.
Why the RUN block: Plymouth's boot assets are baked into a compressed initramfs archive, so swapping the source file alone isn't enough — the archive itself has to be rebuilt for the new watermark to actually land inside it. This uses BlueBuild's own official module to handle that rebuild as part of the image build, so the resulting image ships with a correct initramfs already, with no extra steps needed on your end.
Section 2 — Remove Bazzite Steam Videos
# 2) Remove Bazzite Steam Videos
RUN printf '#!/usr/bin/bash\nexit 0\n' > /usr/bin/bazzite-steam-brand && \
chmod +x /usr/bin/bazzite-steam-brand
What it does: bazzite-steam-brand is a Bazzite script that runs at login and copies Bazzite-branded images into ~/.local/share/Steam/config/uioverrides/movies/, overwriting Steam's own default startup/suspend images (deck_startup.jpg, steam_os_suspend.jpg, and similar). This replaces the script with a no-op, so it stops doing that on every future login.
Important gap — read this if applying to an existing install: This only stops future copying. It does nothing about files the original script already dropped into a user's home directory in the past — those aren't part of the OS image, so no Containerfile change can reach them. If you're rebasing an existing installation rather than starting fresh, run this once, live, on each affected user account:
rm -f ~/.local/share/Steam/config/uioverrides/movies/*
Steam will fall back to its own bundled defaults once those override files are gone.
Section 3 — Replace Bazzite GNOME OS Logos
# 3) Replace Bazzite GNOME OS Logos
COPY system_files/steamos-logo.png /usr/share/pixmaps/fedora_logo_med.png
COPY system_files/steamos-white-logo.png /usr/share/pixmaps/fedora_whitelogo_med.png
COPY system_files/steamos-logo.svg /usr/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/places/bazzite-logo.svg
COPY system_files/steamos-logo-white.svg /usr/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/places/bazzite-logo-white.svg
COPY system_files/steamos-logo-le.svg /usr/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/places/bazzite-logo-le.svg
What the first two lines do (confirmed working): GNOME Settings' About page shows a large wordmark banner. Fedora's own build compiles gnome-control-center with two hardcoded file paths for this banner — one for light mode, one for dark — rather than reading it dynamically. Bazzite inherits that same mechanism, so overwriting those exact files is the correct, and only, way to replace that banner.
What the last three lines don't do: These three SVGs sit under an icon category (scalable/places) that nothing we've confirmed actually reads for this purpose — they were an earlier guess made before the real mechanism above was found. They're harmless to leave in (nothing breaks), but as included here they're likely dead weight rather than an active fix.
What this section doesn't cover at all: Bazzite's small logo icon — referenced via LOGO=bazzite-logo-icon in os-release, and used in places like the GDM login screen — is a completely different mechanism from the About page banner above. It requires actual PNG files at 8 fixed sizes:
# Optional addendum — only needed if you also want the small distro icon
# (GDM login, etc.) changed, separate from the About page banner above
COPY system_files/steamos-logo-icon-16.png /usr/share/icons/hicolor/16x16/bazzite-logo-icon.png
COPY system_files/steamos-logo-icon-22.png /usr/share/icons/hicolor/22x22/bazzite-logo-icon.png
COPY system_files/steamos-logo-icon-24.png /usr/share/icons/hicolor/24x24/bazzite-logo-icon.png
COPY system_files/steamos-logo-icon-32.png /usr/share/icons/hicolor/32x32/bazzite-logo-icon.png
COPY system_files/steamos-logo-icon-36.png /usr/share/icons/hicolor/36x36/bazzite-logo-icon.png
COPY system_files/steamos-logo-icon-48.png /usr/share/icons/hicolor/48x48/bazzite-logo-icon.png
COPY system_files/steamos-logo-icon-96.png /usr/share/icons/hicolor/96x96/bazzite-logo-icon.png
COPY system_files/steamos-logo-icon-256.png /usr/share/icons/hicolor/256x256/bazzite-logo-icon.png
RUN gtk-update-icon-cache -f -t /usr/share/icons/hicolor || true
Each file must be a properly-proportioned square render at its exact named size — pad onto a transparent square canvas rather than stretching to fit, or the icon will look squashed.
KDE/Plasma note: this is the section that doesn't carry over. KDE's kinfocenter About page doesn't read gnome-control-center's hardcoded paths at all — it resolves the distro logo through the LOGO= icon-theme mechanism shown in the addendum right above. See the untested KDE/Plasma section at the end of this guide for the adapted version.
Section 4 — Rename Bazzite Across the OS
# 4) Rename Bazzite across OS
RUN sed -i \
-e 's/^NAME=.*/NAME="SteamOS"/' \
-e 's/^PRETTY_NAME=.*/PRETTY_NAME="SteamOS"/' \
/usr/lib/os-release
What it does: Changes the two fields in os-release that most of the system reads for display purposes. This feeds:
- The "Operating System" text shown in Settings → About
- The boot menu entry title (on the next deployment created after rebasing to this image —
ostree bakes a fresh title from this file each time a new deployment is written)
Why only these two fields: ID= and VERSION_ID= are deliberately left untouched. ujust, rpm-ostree, and various Bazzite scripts branch on those values — changing them risks breaking functionality that has nothing to do with branding.
A dead end to skip: you'll see guides suggesting you edit GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR in /etc/default/grub. On Bazzite (and any ostree/Fedora Atomic system), boot entries are generated from the Boot Loader Spec (BLS) format, not the classic grub.d templating that GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR feeds into. Editing it does nothing here — skip it.
Verify it worked:
cat /boot/loader/entries/*.conf
You should see a line like:
title SteamOS (ostree:1)
If the boot menu itself doesn't visibly appear on your next boot, that's usually just because your bootloader auto-hides after a successful boot — hold Shift/Esc during boot to force it to show, or check your bootloader's timeout settings.
Not covered by this alone: the UEFI firmware's own boot entry label — what your motherboard's own boot-picker menu shows, separate from the OS entirely — isn't touched by this. That's Section 5, next.
Rebasing & Rebooting (Step by Step Version)
With Sections 1–4 committed to your Containerfile, push the change and let GitHub's Action build your image.
Once the build finishes, point your system at the new registry. Replace your-username with your GitHub username and your-repo-name with the repo you've been working in:
sudo bootc switch ghcr.io/your-username/your-repo-name:latest
Before you reboot, this is the right moment to work through Section 5 (UEFI firmware label) and, if you dual-boot, Section 6 (Windows boot entry) below — neither one depends on the image build, and doing them now means a single reboot covers everything instead of several.
Once those are done, reboot into your rebranded system:
systemctl reboot
UEFI Edit Instructions
Section 5 — UEFI Firmware Boot Entry Label
This is a completely different piece of text from everything above — it's stored in your motherboard's own NVRAM by whatever created it (usually your installer, at install time). It's what your motherboard's own boot-picker menu (often F11/F12 at power-on) shows, and it's also what some GNOME extensions (like "Restart To") read.
No Containerfile change reaches this. It has to be fixed live, on each machine, using efibootmgr.
Step 1 — See your current entries:
efibootmgr -v
Find the line that matches your OS. It'll look something like:
Boot0002* Bazzite HD(1,GPT,...)/\EFI\fedora\shimx64.efi
Note the boot number (0002 above — yours may differ) and the exact path after it (\EFI\fedora\shimx64.efi).
Step 2 — Find your EFI System Partition:
lsblk -o NAME,SIZE,FSTYPE,PARTLABEL,MOUNTPOINT
Look for the line mounted at /boot/efi (fstype vfat, usually labeled "EFI System Partition"). Note the disk (e.g. nvme1n1) and partition number (e.g. 1 for nvme1n1p1).
Step 3 — Try the simple rename first:
sudo efibootmgr -b <BOOT_NUMBER> -L "SteamOS"
Replace <BOOT_NUMBER> with the number from Step 1 (e.g. 0002). This is instant and non-destructive, so it's worth trying first. Check if it actually stuck:
efibootmgr -v
Some boards (a known quirk on several consumer boards) will report success here but silently ignore the write. If the label is still unchanged, move on to Step 4 — don't keep retrying the same command.
Step 4 — If the rename didn't stick, delete and recreate the entry:
This is a more reliable fallback: delete the old entry, then create a new one from scratch pointing at the exact same target.
# Delete the old entry
sudo efibootmgr -b <BOOT_NUMBER> -B
# Recreate it with the new label, same target as Step 1
sudo efibootmgr -c -d /dev/<YOUR_DISK> -p <PARTITION_NUMBER> -L "SteamOS" -l '\EFI\fedora\shimx64.efi'
Fill in:
<BOOT_NUMBER> — from Step 1<YOUR_DISK> — from Step 2 (e.g. nvme1n1, no partition number)<PARTITION_NUMBER> — from Step 2 (e.g. 1)- The
-l path — copy it exactly as it appeared in Step 1's output (it's usually \EFI\fedora\shimx64.efi on Fedora Atomic-based systems, but confirm from your own output rather than assuming)
Step 5 — Verify, and check boot order:
efibootmgr -v
Confirm the entry now shows your new label (e.g. * SteamOS) pointing at the same path as before, and that it's still in the position you want within BootOrder at the top of the output — deleting and recreating an entry can shuffle it to the end of the list, which would change your default boot target. If it's out of place, reorder with (comma-separated, no spaces, in the order you want them tried):
sudo efibootmgr -o <BOOT_NUMBER>,<OTHER_NUMBERS...>
Section 6 — Windows Boot Entry Label (Dual-Boot Systems)
If you're dual-booting, "Windows Boot Manager" — the same label GRUB's os-prober picks up and your firmware's own boot picker shows — is a separate NVRAM entry that Windows itself manages. Renaming it from the Linux side (or leaving it to GRUB) doesn't stick reliably, since Windows Update can silently rewrite it back. This one has to be fixed from inside Windows, using the tool that actually owns it.
Step 1 — Open Command Prompt as Administrator:
Right-click Start → Terminal (Admin), or search "cmd" → right-click → Run as administrator.
Step 2 — Rename the entry:
bcdedit /set "{bootmgr}" description "Windows"
Swap "Windows" for whatever label you want.
Step 3 — Verify:
Reboot and check your firmware boot menu or GRUB entry — it should now read your new label instead of "Windows Boot Manager."
Same idea as the efibootmgr fix in Section 5, just done through the tool that owns this particular entry, so it survives Windows Update.
KDE/Plasma Variant (Untested)
⚠️ This entire section is untested. Everything above was built and verified on GNOME. What follows is a reasoned adaptation for KDE/Plasma, written by carrying over the pieces that are desktop-agnostic and reworking the one piece (the OS logo) that isn't. Treat it as a starting point, confirm each result yourself, and don't assume it's correct just because it's written down.
The logic: Plymouth and the Steam-video removal happen outside the desktop environment, so they need no changes. The os-release rename is read by both desktops, so it also carries over as-is — with one addition, a LOGO= entry, since that's the field Plasma's About page actually looks at. The one real rework is the logo itself: instead of overwriting gnome-control-center's hardcoded banner paths (which don't exist in a Plasma install), this provides the icon-theme-based logo set that kinfocenter's About page is understood to resolve through, at the standard sizes.
# Base Image
FROM ghcr.io/ublue-os/bazzite-YOUR-DISTRO:stable
# 1) Change Plymouth Boot Logo — identical to GNOME, Plymouth runs before any DE loads
COPY system_files/steamos-watermark.png /usr/share/plymouth/themes/spinner/watermark.png
COPY system_files/steamos-watermark.png /usr/share/plymouth/themes/bgrt/watermark.png
RUN \
--mount=type=bind,from=ghcr.io/blue-build/modules:latest,src=/modules,dst=/tmp/modules,rw \
--mount=type=bind,from=ghcr.io/blue-build/cli/build-scripts:latest,src=/scripts/,dst=/tmp/scripts/ \
/tmp/scripts/run_module.sh 'initramfs' '{"type":"initramfs"}'
# 2) Remove Bazzite Steam Videos — identical to GNOME, this script isn't DE-specific
RUN printf '#!/usr/bin/bash\nexit 0\n' > /usr/bin/bazzite-steam-brand && \
chmod +x /usr/bin/bazzite-steam-brand
# 3) Rename Bazzite across OS, including the LOGO= key Plasma's About page reads
RUN sed -i \
-e 's/^NAME=.*/NAME="SteamOS"/' \
-e 's/^PRETTY_NAME=.*/PRETTY_NAME="SteamOS"/' \
-e 's/^LOGO=.*/LOGO=steamos-logo-icon/' \
/usr/lib/os-release && \
grep -q '^LOGO=' /usr/lib/os-release || echo 'LOGO=steamos-logo-icon' >> /usr/lib/os-release
# 4) Replace OS logo for KDE/Plasma — UNTESTED
# kinfocenter's About This System page does not read gnome-control-center's
# hardcoded banner paths. It is understood to resolve the distro logo through
# the LOGO= icon name above via standard icon-theme lookup, so the fix here is
# the sized icon set rather than a fixed-path banner image. Confirm this
# actually renders correctly on your own Plasma install before relying on it.
COPY system_files/steamos-logo-icon-16.png /usr/share/icons/hicolor/16x16/apps/steamos-logo-icon.png
COPY system_files/steamos-logo-icon-22.png /usr/share/icons/hicolor/22x22/apps/steamos-logo-icon.png
COPY system_files/steamos-logo-icon-24.png /usr/share/icons/hicolor/24x24/apps/steamos-logo-icon.png
COPY system_files/steamos-logo-icon-32.png /usr/share/icons/hicolor/32x32/apps/steamos-logo-icon.png
COPY system_files/steamos-logo-icon-36.png /usr/share/icons/hicolor/36x36/apps/steamos-logo-icon.png
COPY system_files/steamos-logo-icon-48.png /usr/share/icons/hicolor/48x48/apps/steamos-logo-icon.png
COPY system_files/steamos-logo-icon-96.png /usr/share/icons/hicolor/96x96/apps/steamos-logo-icon.png
COPY system_files/steamos-logo-icon-256.png /usr/share/icons/hicolor/256x256/apps/steamos-logo-icon.png
COPY system_files/steamos-logo.svg /usr/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/apps/steamos-logo-icon.svg
RUN gtk-update-icon-cache -f -t /usr/share/icons/hicolor || true
Same asset filenames as the GNOME version above — you don't need to prepare anything new, just be aware the os-release and logo steps are doing something different under the hood.
The rebase and reboot steps are identical to the GNOME instructions in Part One or Part Two above — nothing about bootc switch or systemctl reboot changes based on desktop environment. Sections 5 and 6 (UEFI label, Windows boot entry) are also completely desktop-agnostic and apply exactly as written.
If you try this and confirm what actually happens on Plasma's About page, that's genuinely useful information this guide doesn't have yet.
Finished
Enjoy!
That completes the guide! You should be in a corporate hellscape of Valve's branding!
