NTFS drive in linux for Steam Library

awptechnologies · 2024-07-28 19:08:37

I know it is not recommended but i know its possible. I dual boot with windows 11. I have a 1tb ntfs drive that i use for a game library. I know that the better idea is to make two partitions on the drive one for linux and one for windows games. But because i dont know exactly what games are compatible out of my library i dont want to dedicate a certain amount to linux and run out of room for games in windows. I have mounted the ntfs drive with this in my fstab (UUID=CCDED256DED23882 /home/alan/BigD ntfs uid=1000,gid=1000,rw,user,exec,umask=000 0 0) i have a steam folder on that drive with 2 sub directories, Linux and Windows. I have made the windows sub folder a library for steam on windows and the linux sub folder a library for steam on linux. At first this is all i did and when trying to install a game it says disk read error. I then did some research and saw i needed to make a symlink for the compatdata directory on the linux file system to the same directory in the ntfs drive. This took forever to find the folder. Because i installed steam using flatpak the folder was deep in the .var directory in my home directory instead of the .steam directory. (im guessing the info online people had this folder becasue they installed steam without flatpak. Anyways after symlinking the compatdata directory i am still getting errors. A part of me thinks it is because of the directory the ntfs drive is mounted in. In steam it says the disk is mounted at /run/user/1000 instead of /home/alan/BigD. I decided i would try to mount it in /media but this folder doesnt seem to exist on my arch install. I dont know if i am doing the best to describe my issue so please let me know if i need to provide anything esle.

This is the guide i tried to follow
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton … g%20system.

Last edited by awptechnologies (2024-07-28 19:17:17)

seth · 2024-07-28 21:38:24

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paragraph

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/NTFS

3rd link below. Mandatory.
Disable it (it's NOT the BIOS setting!) and reboot windows and linux twice for voodo reasons.

it says disk read error… i am still getting errors … In steam it says the disk is mounted

Please don't paraphrase, https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=57855

/run/user are udisks mounts, what's the output of

mount

awptechnologies · 2024-07-29 04:45:58

proc on /proc type proc (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
sys on /sys type sysfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
dev on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,nosuid,relatime,size=16342420k,nr_inodes=4085605,mode=755,inode64)
run on /run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,mode=755,inode64)
efivarfs on /sys/firmware/efi/efivars type efivarfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
/dev/nvme0n1p5 on / type ext4 (rw,relatime)
securityfs on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,inode64)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,gid=5,mode=620,ptmxmode=000)
cgroup2 on /sys/fs/cgroup type cgroup2 (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,nsdelegate,memory_recursiveprot)
pstore on /sys/fs/pstore type pstore (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
bpf on /sys/fs/bpf type bpf (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,mode=700)
systemd-1 on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type autofs (rw,relatime,fd=39,pgrp=1,timeout=0,minproto=5,maxproto=5,direct,pipe_ino=41053)
hugetlbfs on /dev/hugepages type hugetlbfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,pagesize=2M)
mqueue on /dev/mqueue type mqueue (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
none on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
tracefs on /sys/kernel/tracing type tracefs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
tmpfs on /run/credentials/systemd-journald.service type tmpfs (ro,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,nosymfollow,size=1024k,nr_inodes=1024,mode=700,inode64,noswap)
tmpfs on /run/credentials/systemd-udev-load-credentials.service type tmpfs (ro,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,nosymfollow,size=1024k,nr_inodes=1024,mode=700,inode64,noswap)
fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
configfs on /sys/kernel/config type configfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
tmpfs on /run/credentials/systemd-sysctl.service type tmpfs (ro,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,nosymfollow,size=1024k,nr_inodes=1024,mode=700,inode64,noswap)
tmpfs on /run/credentials/systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev-early.service type tmpfs (ro,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,nosymfollow,size=1024k,nr_inodes=1024,mode=700,inode64,noswap)
tmpfs on /run/credentials/systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev.service type tmpfs (ro,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,nosymfollow,size=1024k,nr_inodes=1024,mode=700,inode64,noswap)
systemd-1 on /home/alan/DDstorage type autofs (rw,relatime,fd=54,pgrp=1,timeout=0,minproto=5,maxproto=5,direct,pipe_ino=9387)
systemd-1 on /home/alan/MEGAstorage type autofs (rw,relatime,fd=57,pgrp=1,timeout=0,minproto=5,maxproto=5,direct,pipe_ino=9393)
systemd-1 on /home/alan/ServStore type autofs (rw,relatime,fd=58,pgrp=1,timeout=0,minproto=5,maxproto=5,direct,pipe_ino=9398)
tmpfs on /run/credentials/systemd-vconsole-setup.service type tmpfs (ro,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,nosymfollow,size=1024k,nr_inodes=1024,mode=700,inode64,noswap)
tmpfs on /tmp type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,nr_inodes=1048576,inode64)
/dev/nvme0n1p2 on /boot type vfat (rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,iocharset=ascii,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro)
/dev/nvme1n1p2 on /home/alan/BigD type fuseblk (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=0,group_id=0,default_permissions,allow_other,blksize=4096,user)
binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
tmpfs on /run/credentials/systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service type tmpfs (ro,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,nosymfollow,size=1024k,nr_inodes=1024,mode=700,inode64,noswap)
tmpfs on /run/user/1000 type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,size=3272548k,nr_inodes=818137,mode=700,uid=1000,gid=1000,inode64)
gvfsd-fuse on /run/user/1000/gvfs type fuse.gvfsd-fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=1000,group_id=1000)
portal on /run/user/1000/doc type fuse.portal (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=1000,group_id=1000)
10.10.1.15:/mnt/earthHDD/MEGAstorage on /home/alan/MEGAstorage type nfs4 (rw,noatime,vers=4.2,rsize=1048576,wsize=1048576,namlen=255,acregmin=1800,acregmax=1800,acdirmin=1800,acdirmax=1800,hard,proto=tcp,timeo=600,retrans=2,sec=sys,clientaddr=10.10.1.45,local_lock=none,addr=10.10.1.15,_netdev,x-systemd.automount)
10.10.1.15:/mnt/earthHDD/ServStore on /home/alan/ServStore type nfs4 (rw,noatime,vers=4.2,rsize=1048576,wsize=1048576,namlen=255,acregmin=1800,acregmax=1800,acdirmin=1800,acdirmax=1800,hard,proto=tcp,timeo=600,retrans=2,sec=sys,clientaddr=10.10.1.45,local_lock=none,addr=10.10.1.15,_netdev,x-systemd.automount)
10.10.1.15:/mnt/earthHDD/DDstorage on /home/alan/DDstorage type nfs4 (rw,noatime,vers=4.2,rsize=1048576,wsize=1048576,namlen=255,acregmin=1800,acregmax=1800,acdirmin=1800,acdirmax=1800,hard,proto=tcp,timeo=600,retrans=2,sec=sys,clientaddr=10.10.1.45,local_lock=none,addr=10.10.1.15,_netdev,x-systemd.automount)

cryptearth · 2024-07-29 06:02:01

don't use neither steam flatpak nor ntfs on linux - both are error prone and flatpak require additional permission management
use the regular multilib/steam package and a linux FS like ext4, xfs, btrfs or zfs

seth · 2024-07-29 06:26:47

There's a gvfs mount

gvfsd-fuse on /run/user/1000/gvfs type fuse.gvfsd-fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=1000,group_id=1000)

and

/dev/nvme1n1p2 on /home/alan/BigD type fuseblk (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=0,group_id=0,default_permissions,allow_other,blksize=4096,user)

but that's ntfs-3g and doesn't pick up the uid/gid parameters.
Please post your actual fstab as well as the literal errors you're getting.

awptechnologies · 2024-07-29 06:43:34

 Static information about the filesystems.
# See fstab(5) for details.

# <file system> <dir> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
# /dev/nvme0n1p5
UUID=6af08843-8a4e-4e2d-8fb0-2e93a8466d5c       /               ext4            rw,relatime     0 1

# /dev/nvme0n1p2
UUID=324B-8143          /boot           vfat            rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,iocharset=ascii,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro   0 2

# Big D
UUID=CCDED256DED23882   /home/alan/BigD ntfs    uid=1000,gid=1000,rw,user,exec,umask=000 0 0

# NAS
10.10.1.15:/mnt/earthHDD/ServStore      /home/alan/ServStore    nfs     x-systemd.automount,_netdev,auto,nofail,noatime,nolock,tcp,actimeo=1800 0 0
10.10.1.15:/mnt/earthHDD/MEGAstorage    /home/alan/MEGAstorage  nfs     x-systemd.automount,_netdev,auto,nofail,noatime,nolock,tcp,actimeo=1800 0 0
10.10.1.15:/mnt/earthHDD/DDstorage      /home/alan/DDstorage    nfs     x-systemd.automount,_netdev,auto,nofail,noatime,nolock,tcp,actimeo=1800 0 0

I dont get any errors when messing with actuall files. I only get the errors when trying to install a game from steam. I dont know exactly how to pull the logs from that.

seth · 2024-07-29 06:54:39

Screenshot or running steam from an interactive shell should just print to stdout and stderr there.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Steam/ … ermissions ?
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/NTFS-3 … group/user

Edit: not sure why you're using ntfs-3g, though.
Did you add some udev rule, https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/NTFS#unknown_filesystem_type_'ntfs' ?
Edit #2: try to explicitly use "ntfs3" in the fstab, not "ntfs"

Last edited by seth (2024-07-29 06:56:10)

awptechnologies · 2024-07-29 17:23:29

I wonder if its because im using the steam from flatpak? i cant run steam from the terminal.

cryptearth · 2024-07-29 18:46:33

don't use steam flatpak - use regular multilib/steam

side-note: if you try to build a shared games library: doesn't work as steam has issues with both ntfs and exfat
been there - tried it - failed hard: steamom on linux needs a linux filesystem like ext4, xfs, btrfs, zfs - ntfs and exfat cause issues both with steam itsef as well as storage for the games

network shares don't work either and using iSCSI your back to square one same as with a local drive
if you want to use steam on a dual boot system you need two partitions for game storage: ntfs/refs on windows and ext4/xfs/btrfs/zfs on linux

tldr: what you want to do just doesn't work
many have tried and all have failed

seth · 2024-07-29 20:06:54

awptechnologies wrote:

i cant run steam from the terminal.

What exactly does that mean?
You most certainly can execute the script/binary there but it's probably not in your $PATH since it's a flatpak.
Either way, we'll need to know what the actual error is - in doubt link at least a screenshot.

Other than that, yes: most certainly try the repo version.

@cryptearth, did you try to use the ntfs posix extension and/or bind mounts?

cryptearth · 2024-07-29 22:51:19

seth wrote:

@cryptearth, did you try to use the ntfs posix extension and/or bind mounts?

can't tell - but long story short: for some reason both most of the launchers (steam, uplay, etc) as well as most windows-only games have issues when trying to use ntfs or exfat on linux due to problems with upper/lower case: most common issue is file name starts with an upper case letter but in the config string its a lower case letter - or vice versa - leads to "file not found"
why does it work when using ntfs/exfat/refs on windows and ext4/xfs/btfs/zfs on linux? I don't know - but from experience I learned: the issues start when you try to mix it - and we just had several topics not so long ago when users ended up reporting corrupted ntfs file systems even chkdsk on windows only could get garbage back out
at least in its current state (and not much has been worked on this front over the past several years) sharing a game library between windows and linux either just outright doesn't work at all - or comes with a metric ton of issues

V1del · 2024-07-29 22:58:30

FWIW this works perfectly fine here, generally speaking symlinking compatdata to a linux FS is strongly recommended (proton prefixes use names and paths illegal on Windows/NTFS), but sharing actual gamedata will work just fine.

seth · 2024-07-29 23:11:33

That's not the FS, that's the win32.dll
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Wine-Stag … 0-Released

The win32 API isn't case sensitive so file access in windows programs is often all over the place.
Because the client-side case-mangling is slow af, wine switched to using filesystem features but the ntfs drivers doesn't have such.
Why the client-side folding didn't happen (for you, at least) in that case idk.

awptechnologies · 2024-07-31 04:14:01

i will install steam from repo tomorrow and get back with you guys. Do you recommend only using flatpak for programs that i cant find somewhere else? At this point i am just curious to what programs should be installed with flatpak.

cryptearth · 2024-07-31 04:19:20

none!
if you think you need flatpak for any package search for "install <package> arch" which will direct you either to the dev repo or the AUR

Arch Linux

#1 2024-07-28 19:08:37

NTFS drive in linux for Steam Library

#2 2024-07-28 21:38:24

Re: NTFS drive in linux for Steam Library

#3 2024-07-29 04:45:58

Re: NTFS drive in linux for Steam Library

#4 2024-07-29 06:02:01

Re: NTFS drive in linux for Steam Library

#5 2024-07-29 06:26:47

Re: NTFS drive in linux for Steam Library

#6 2024-07-29 06:43:34

Re: NTFS drive in linux for Steam Library

#7 2024-07-29 06:54:39

Re: NTFS drive in linux for Steam Library

#8 2024-07-29 17:23:29

Re: NTFS drive in linux for Steam Library

#9 2024-07-29 18:46:33

Re: NTFS drive in linux for Steam Library

#10 2024-07-29 20:06:54

Re: NTFS drive in linux for Steam Library

#11 2024-07-29 22:51:19

Re: NTFS drive in linux for Steam Library

#12 2024-07-29 22:58:30

Re: NTFS drive in linux for Steam Library

#13 2024-07-29 23:11:33

Re: NTFS drive in linux for Steam Library

#14 2024-07-31 04:14:01

Re: NTFS drive in linux for Steam Library

#15 2024-07-31 04:19:20

Re: NTFS drive in linux for Steam Library

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