[Solved] Steam games won't run from a separate hard disk.

xeekei · 2013-08-29 10:03:43

Hello. I have Steam installed on my SSD, but I install my games on a separate mechanical drive to save space on the smaller SSD. The games install fine, but they won't run. Most don't give any feedback at all, except L4D2 which says it can't load "filesystem_steam.so" or some such. Dota 2 at one time got all the way to the "Valve guy"-splash but then closed without any error message. The game drive is formated to XFS if that makes a difference; the SSD that Steam is installed on is Ext4.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

Last edited by xeekei (2013-08-31 22:36:56)

Awebb · 2013-08-29 10:58:49

How do you install them on the other drive? Where is this drive mounted? Does XFS lack any attributes or do you have to enable executability of binaries explicitly? Can you test another drive or partition with another file system?

xeekei · 2013-08-29 11:45:43

Awebb wrote:

How do you install them on the other drive? Where is this drive mounted? Does XFS lack any attributes or do you have to enable executability of binaries explicitly? Can you test another drive or partition with another file system?

I install them via Steam. You can pick location now, so Steam obviously has support for it. I don't know about any attributes. I've checked the binaries and they are executable by default. I only have two XFS drives and this Ext4 SSD. The games work if I install them on the SSD.

Last edited by xeekei (2013-08-29 11:46:33)

clfarron4 · 2013-08-29 11:51:49

xeekei wrote:

Awebb wrote:
How do you install them on the other drive? Where is this drive mounted? Does XFS lack any attributes or do you have to enable executability of binaries explicitly? Can you test another drive or partition with another file system?
I install them via Steam. You can pick location now, so Steam obviously has support for it. I don't know about any attributes. I've checked the binaries and they are executable by default. I only have two XFS drives and this Ext4 SSD. The games work if I install them on the SSD.

To me it does sound like a filesystem/permissions issue. I'll have to look for it but I know that it read somewhere that you needed to sort out the permissions and executability of folders containing any steam games.

Just to make things clear, did you set the location on the XFS drive manually from within Steam (as opposed to having your home folder on an XFS drive with all the Steam games inside of it)?

xeekei · 2013-08-29 11:58:16

clfarron4 wrote:

xeekei wrote:
Awebb wrote:
How do you install them on the other drive? Where is this drive mounted? Does XFS lack any attributes or do you have to enable executability of binaries explicitly? Can you test another drive or partition with another file system?
I install them via Steam. You can pick location now, so Steam obviously has support for it. I don't know about any attributes. I've checked the binaries and they are executable by default. I only have two XFS drives and this Ext4 SSD. The games work if I install them on the SSD.
To me it does sound like a filesystem/permissions issue. I'll have to look for it but I know that it read somewhere that you needed to sort out the permissions and executability of folders containing any steam games.
Just to make things clear, did you set the location on the XFS drive manually from within Steam (as opposed to having your home folder on an XFS drive with all the Steam games inside of it)?

Yes! My Home folder is on the SSD which is an Ext4 disk. I manually installed my Steam games via the Steam GUI on a separate harddisk that is using XFS. The harddisk is mounted in /media and is done so by adding it to /etc/fstab. Let me know if there's more info you need.

Beavis · 2013-08-29 14:12:17

I install and run my steam games from a seperate hard disk too and don't have permission problems anymore, I did initially.

My login user is a member of group "users" only so I fixed it by installing "acl" and then on the mount point where your steam games are installed I run

setfacl -m "g:users:rwx" /yoursteamgames/ (of course, change /yoursteamgames/ with your path in your fstab)

This was all done on a freshly formated hard disk before I had installed any games with steam and it works but it seems you've already installed some games on your hard disk so I don't know if this will work for you without reinstalling all your games again. Hope it helps.

xeekei · 2013-08-29 16:06:42

Beavis wrote:

I install and run my steam games from a seperate hard disk too and don't have permission problems anymore, I did initially.
My login user is a member of group "users" only so I fixed it by installing "acl" and then on the mount point where your steam games are installed I run
setfacl -m "g:users:rwx" /yoursteamgames/ (of course, change /yoursteamgames/ with your path in your fstab)
This was all done on a freshly formated hard disk before I had installed any games with steam and it works but it seems you've already installed some games on your hard disk so I don't know if this will work for you without reinstalling all your games again. Hope it helps.

This did not work. I'm thinking of backing up the disk and reformat it to Ext4 or something. Any quick tips before I start that I should keep in mind so I won't screw up permissions again?

EDIT: Okay. It works now that I've reformatted the drive. That's a relief.

Last edited by xeekei (2013-08-29 18:03:46)

clfarron4 · 2013-08-29 18:13:19

xeekei wrote:

This did not work. I'm thinking of backing up the disk and reformat it to Ext4 or something. Any quick tips before I start that I should keep in mind so I won't screw up permissions again?
EDIT: Okay. It works now that I've reformatted the drive. That's a relief.

Do Steam games work now?
What did you format the drive as?

xeekei · 2013-08-29 18:37:41

clfarron4 wrote:

xeekei wrote:
This did not work. I'm thinking of backing up the disk and reformat it to Ext4 or something. Any quick tips before I start that I should keep in mind so I won't screw up permissions again?
EDIT: Okay. It works now that I've reformatted the drive. That's a relief.
Do Steam games work now?
What did you format the drive as?

Ext4. I used GParted. It was root-only at first, but it was easy to give the "users" group read and write permissions this time.

clfarron4 · 2013-08-29 18:52:54

Sounds good. So it sounds like a problem with XFS, huh?

xeekei · 2013-08-29 19:04:30

clfarron4 wrote:

Sounds good. So it sounds like a problem with XFS, huh?

Could be. Or something else hidden caused by the partitions being old; used, and re-used for backing up things. I won't use XFS on regular workstation drives again though, just in case. Ext4 is fine.

gbolcer · 2014-08-15 00:21:13

I'd love to convert from XFS to ext4, but unfortunately it's not an option for me. Same situation, EXT4 SSD boot disk 12T XFS partition where the Steam folder was set manually. I just have to wait patiently for an XFS fix. I note the permissions comment, but I don't think it's a permissions issue. I will try the chmod -R u+x

Just for completeness: Ubuntu 14.04 x64.

Also, World of Goo works.
Team Fortress 2, L4D2, Portal2, Gary's Mod all DO NOT.

Any other updates to this thread would be greatly appreciated.

Last edited by gbolcer (2014-08-15 00:26:34)

Pse · 2014-08-15 04:49:39

I am not sure why you are experiencing this. I have many games on my XFS partition with no problems. In any case, I'm glad you could get it to work.

TuxThePenguin · 2014-12-08 12:36:57

The issue is most likely that your xfs partition was large.
putting the option "inode64" in the fstab would fix the issue.

see

https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Source … ssues/1685

Arch Linux

#1 2013-08-29 10:03:43

[Solved] Steam games won't run from a separate hard disk.

#2 2013-08-29 10:58:49

Re: [Solved] Steam games won't run from a separate hard disk.

#3 2013-08-29 11:45:43

Re: [Solved] Steam games won't run from a separate hard disk.

#4 2013-08-29 11:51:49

Re: [Solved] Steam games won't run from a separate hard disk.

#5 2013-08-29 11:58:16

Re: [Solved] Steam games won't run from a separate hard disk.

#6 2013-08-29 14:12:17

Re: [Solved] Steam games won't run from a separate hard disk.

#7 2013-08-29 16:06:42

Re: [Solved] Steam games won't run from a separate hard disk.

#8 2013-08-29 18:13:19

Re: [Solved] Steam games won't run from a separate hard disk.

#9 2013-08-29 18:37:41

Re: [Solved] Steam games won't run from a separate hard disk.

#10 2013-08-29 18:52:54

Re: [Solved] Steam games won't run from a separate hard disk.

#11 2013-08-29 19:04:30

Re: [Solved] Steam games won't run from a separate hard disk.

#12 2014-08-15 00:21:13

Re: [Solved] Steam games won't run from a separate hard disk.

#13 2014-08-15 04:49:39

Re: [Solved] Steam games won't run from a separate hard disk.

#14 2014-12-08 12:36:57

Re: [Solved] Steam games won't run from a separate hard disk.

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