[BUG] Can't install games to other folders/libraries

[TheBombOCat]

Well, I have almost no free space on my /home, so I would like to install my games into a different directory. But there is a problem: when I added my partition for games and other stuff, Steam just doesn't see it. Nope, I can add it as another Steam library, but there is no drop-down menu to select the location of the game.

Any ideas?

Screenshot[i.imgur.com]

[apocalyptech]

It's hardly an official solution, but you could always exit Steam, move the ~/Steam folder elsewhere, and then symlink it. A la:

$ mv ~/Steam /media/Media\ and\ Games/Games/Steam
$ ln -s /media/Media\ and\ Games/Games/Steam .

Then all of Steam is contained inside the partition you want. I've got mine symlinked into /usr/local/games at the moment, which is where the rest of my gaming stuff is.

[[Linux] MJ]

is /usr/local/games writable by your user? o.0

[Norak]

I've encountered the exact same problem.
Symlink is of course a workaround, but not a very user friendly one. ;)

[Kamikaze]

Using a symlink here too.
It would be great if they would allow you to add the Windows or Mac steam library too, though I don't have high hopes of this being implemented.
Has anyone symlinked some of their Windows games in their Windows Steam library from their Linux SteamApps directory? Wondering if it would work nicely for some of the larger games like TF2 or if it tries to re-validate files every time you change OS?

[Jo]

mv ~/Steam /new/path/to/steam
/new/path/to/steam/steam.sh

that sets the necessary symlinks in ~/.steam so that it works. Others say you can just move it and run steam as usual and it will ask you for the new location, but I have not tested it.

[Kamikaze]

I actually just hit a bug just then that people are saying is related to having a symlinked SteamApps directory:
Trying to run TF2 after it finally downloaded the whole thing and the crashing line is:
Error: Material "fullscreenvideomaterial" uses unknown shader "Bik"
A bit of googling took my back to some discussions in steamcommunity saying that this seems to be related to symlinked paths... seems a bit strange:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/221410/discussions/0/882966056542788041/
Anyway I might look into it a bit more tomorrow.

[RussianNeuroMancer]

Unfortunately, this bug is still present, even with latest update.

[TritonX]

Close steam ,move your steam directory then upon restart steam will ask you where did you relocate it. Simple as that.

[TheBombOCat]

İlk olarak TritonX tarafından gönderildi:

Close steam ,move your steam directory then upon restart steam will ask you where did you relocate it. Simple as that.

It says

Please pick a valid Steam content directory

whatever directory I pick, even the valid one.

[TheBombOCat]

Well, I solved the problem. You can't do that ls/mv trick if the filesystem is different between your /home and new location. Obviously mine «Media and Games» is Windows-partition, formatted with NTFS, when my Ubuntu installation is ext4. I solved it by linking it to /host, which has 230GB of space (I installed Ubuntu from WUBI).

If you did the same, and got this problem, hope, it helps! :)

[maxxedout]

Just confirming that I've also encountered this issue. I could work around it by symlinking the standard SteamApps folder to my external hard drive, but I figure I should avoid that until the last minute and help troubleshoot any bugfixes.

[Levan]

same issue really needs to get fixed, I tied adding steam library folder in EXT4/EXT3/NTFS/FAT partitions but could not select any of them in game download menu

[mr.polmac]

I've got the same problem. I know I can make a symlink but this is annoying.

[AnuRock]

İlk olarak joe tarafından gönderildi:

mv ~/Steam /new/path/to/steam
/new/path/to/steam/steam.sh

that sets the necessary symlinks in ~/.steam so that it works. Others say you can just move it and run steam as usual and it will ask you for the new location, but I have not tested it.

That worked for me. Thanks.

[cristi2000lei]

Same problem here. Creating a symlink is annoying!