I have been rather unhappy with my smart TV’s functionality as I feel it isn’t smart for me but smart for the manufacturers. I just can’t use it how I want to. I would love to overwrite the existing OS from Android to Linux. I’ve recently converted from Windows and loving Mint.
I haven’t read too much regarding Linux smart tvs as my searches mostly come up with raspberry Pi and overwriting an Android box. I don’t want to connect anything and just want my tv to boot up in Linux when it’s turned on, and get some of my apps going. Is there a way to do this?
For reference I have a Sony Bravia with Android installed on it.
There are folks form KDE who are trying to implement the Plasma Bigscreen solution: https://plasma-bigscreen.org/. Seems promising to me :)
Though, I’d still recommend to use an external device to avoid breaking the TV OS up ;)
That does sound promising. I hope they get it up and running!
It was abandoned for awhile but a few months back someone has taken up working on it and made a bunch of headway. Looks significantly better than the screenshots on that website.
That said, I think the UI of choice for Linux machines is going to be Steam Big Picture Mode. I’ve been using it as my SmartTV for awhile now and I really can’t think of anything else I’d want. The excellent controller support just makes it untouchable.
How did you get it running? I’ve tried compiling it on a fresh Arch and fresh Ubuntu 22.04 install and the compiler breaks halfway through.
I only spent about 10 or so minutes each time trying to fix it and moved on.
I just use bazzite. Baked in, super easy.
Agree with op- I’ve never used it but man, big picture mode is just amazing. Simple to use and does everything I need.
Oh really? I have Bazzite on my TV laptop. Perfect way to try it. Thanks!
As the other person said, use the version of Bazzite that defaults to the SteamUI (it’s what I use on my media center). I think it’s called Bazzite-Deck
But what are you trying to compile? You just need Steam, gamescope, and pass it some parameters to boot directly to BPM: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Steam#Big_Picture_Mode_.28with_a_Display_Manager.29
See Section 5.6
I tried it out a while back it looks promising but long from usable yet really. But maybe……
The fact that they mention Mycroft AI (which stopped being properly developed over 2 years ago) on their homepage is a little worrying 😬 They do mention the situation in their FAQs, though.
There is still active development: https://espi.dev/posts/2025/07/plasma-bigscreen/
Very nice, glad to see it! I suppose actually doing dev work is more important than updating the website 😅
Mycroft was picked up by OVOS and overhauled. Last i heard they were still actively developing it. Maybe some compatibility there?
They specifically say on their FAQs page that they’re not going to work with OVOS, sadly.
Ah shit. Thanks for the info though.