One Steam installation for multiple Linux ? Suggestions ?

[Thyriel]

Hi,

as i didnt wanted anymore to break my System by testing around with new drivers and such i decided to make a second Kubuntu Installation for testing purposes.

But as i dont want to download steam games twice im trying to get this running as best as possible with one steam folder for both systems.

As im sure here are some people that know linux way better then me i would appreciate any suggestions / improvements / whatever.

What i did was basically:
- install steam and start it once
- delete steam folder
- mount "/" from first linux in /etc/fstab as "/mnt"
- mount "/home" from first linux in /etc/fstab (its a seperate partition) as "/mnt/home"
- start steam again and choose the steam directory on the mount from first linux
- made a ton of symbolic links in home dir to share the game specific savegames with both linux ("ln -s /mnt/home/user/.WorldOfGoo/ /home/user/.WorldOfGoo" for example). Did that for every game folder i could find

[LA_MERC_MadMAX]

You can just use the same /home in both installations if you are using the same username.

[Teisei]

@Thyriel

Like LA_MERC_MadMAX said, you could've just used the same home directory in both installations.

Why do it the hard way? ;)

[Thyriel]

I didnt do that because i thought some folders like .kde or .config could cause problems with the different OS Versions (main is 12.10 while test system is 13.04), and both running different amd drivers and kernels.
But if you say that isnt a problem, would be glad if i can use the same home mount for both ;)

Btw one problem i found so far, glad if anyone has an idea where steam is saving those settings so i can seperate them. I have steamguard active, but now everytime i switch the operating system it needs a new steamguard key. Seems its overwriting each other

[Ralgo]

Originally posted by Thyriel:

I didnt do that because i thought some folders like .kde or .config could cause problems with the different OS Versions (main is 12.10 while test system is 13.04), and both running different amd drivers and kernels.
But if you say that isnt a problem, would be glad if i can use the same home mount for both ;)

In /home you store apps configuration and personal data only. So no conflict on that front =) .

[sorath]

You may use separate partition for Steam Library and the appropriate symlinks in /home/user/.steam/ will be refers to it.
I just replace /home/user/.local/share/Steam/ to separate partition and run ./steam.sh from new location (then path to library will be rewritten automatically)

[LA_MERC_MadMAX]

Nah, you'll be fine unless you want different KDE settings in the different installs. On my laptop that gets subjected to testing stuff more than my desktop I have openSUSE12.2, 12.3 and Factory (the development branch) all running from the same home partition, and I like having mt settings synced.

[Thyriel]

A small update on this:
i reinstalled both OS to have a shared /home (and corrected some other stuff).
This time i only left the SteamApps folder on the seperate steam partition and mounted that into the steam folder.

Dont ask me why, but steamguard is now working for both installations without asking every time for a new code.

Thanks for the suggestion of sharing /home, its pretty nice ;)

[Cool Chulainn]

Originally posted by Thyriel:

A small update on this:
i reinstalled both OS to have a shared /home (and corrected some other stuff).
This time i only left the SteamApps folder on the seperate steam partition and mounted that into the steam folder.

Dont ask me why, but steamguard is now working for both installations without asking every time for a new code.

Thanks for the suggestion of sharing /home, its pretty nice ;)

If you triple-boot with Windows, you can even set /home to be the user folder under Windows, if you initially format it as NTFS.

[Thyriel]

Originally posted by rudeboyskunk Linux:

If you triple-boot with Windows, you can even set /home to be the user folder under Windows, if you initially format it as NTFS.

wouldnt like a NTFS partition mounted on linux ;) doesnt feel right gg

Btw forgot to mention that before: Its necessary to mount the steamapps partition into the .local/share/steam folder and not symlink it. At least TF2 does not launch anymore if its path is within a symlink and quits with an error.

[Grayvus]

It is not a good idea to use NTFS for your home partition, because then Linux can't use its file permissions there, which are crucial for its functional and secure operation (its like installing Windows XP or later on FAT32 partitions). Always use Linux file systems for your root system (/) and /home. You can mount your Windows Steam folders into the corresponding folders in your /home though. You can mount directories (i.e. not partitions) into directories by using the "bind" option of mount.