Multi-platform Steam library & filesystems

[Z3R0]

I game with Steam, on Windows, Linux and Mac. For keeping an external Steam library, what filesystem works best across all three platforms? FAT32 would seem best, except for the 2GB (4GB?) file size limit. The other candidate is ExFAT, but some tools/distribution platforms (remember, some games require Steam and other platforms, like Origin or Uplay) choke on ExFAT and won't touch it.

I've also noticed that some games auto-update whenever accessed on a different platform. Is there any way to prevent this? If I loaded a native Linux game, I want the Linux executable to stay as it is, and not update to the Mac or Windows version...

[RedShadow]

tfk の投稿を引用：

Kernel 5.15 came with a reworked NTFS driver (ntfs3). Everything is ext4 on my end so I can't test but maybe Linux/Steam/Proton is a bit more stable using this new one?

It's dead. My BTRFS is completely dead. 2TB of data gone.
Tried all the things available, cannot mount the partition on Linux.
Cannot start the various tools to recover, etc. since a root block is dead or something.
Tried all the rescue mount options.
Tried the famous `check --repair` and even that cannot open the FS to attempt a repair.
Scary.
So scary that I may go back to NTFS and try to make it work while WinBTRFS gets patched for the next year lol

Before trying out BTRFS, I did use a shared NTFS, and I did use kernel 5.15 with the new NTFS3. Also I used the paragon driver for NTFS as well (Xanmod kernel) and even with these I had issues installing some proton games. The wine install script would fail and not install the prereqs in the prefix.
I think Imma investigate this instead, there's more chance that I succeed than to make WinBTRFS not explode...

[tfk]

Bummer. WinBtrfs is just an implementation of the file system. Not fully grown yet it seems.

One other route popped in my mind right now. WSL2:
https://itigic.com/use-linux-hard-drives-in-ext4-in-windows-10/

[Marlock]

it never fails to amaze me, how Linux was able to reengineer NTFS support despite it being a proprietary filesystem...

...while windows utterly lacks support for free/open filesystems even though these showed time and time again to have superior performance, superior reliability, etc

that plus whatever the f... is wrong with proton that makes Wine work and Proton fail so often over NTFS even after it's setup with proper rwx permissions and etc

[tfk]

Yeah. Real wizards those developers. The devs who are working on Proton can't see into the inner workings of ntfs either. We can only hope ntfs3 can help bridging this gab.

[Marlock]

tfk の投稿を引用：

The devs who are working on Proton can't see into the inner workings of ntfs either.

yeah, see... that's what puzzles me...

I'm no expert on the subject but as far as I know, they shouldn't need to... that's what the kernel and/or FUSE are for, right?!

I mean, a text editor shouldn't need to get X or Y filesystem structure into account when all it need is to read and write to a bunch of files... and Wine is a lot more complex than a text editor, but still doesn't hit issues like proton does, so... i just don't know why it needs to care? does it really need to, once the permissions are set properly?

[tfk]

Difficult to say. Are there any links to specific instances of problems available? Logs? I always find these kind of problems fascinating!

[RedShadow]

Hey, I just realized that I DIDN'T actually tried the newer ntfs3, either from kernel 5.15 or from paragon.
Because in my fstab, the type was "ntfs" which defaults to the old "ntfs-3g"
It's my bad, I thought with the newer kernel the defaults was changed, but it wasn't!

I had to explecitely set "ntfs3" in fstab to force the newer driver.
So I'm gonna retry everything with a shared NTFS, using this newer driver.

[Marlock]

cool, let us know how that goes!

[Z3R0]

Thought just occurred to me: Have any of you tried Windows Subsystem for Linux? IIRC it can mount ext4, though I'm not sure about btrfs.

[RedShadow]

So far works good with NTFS3 driver! This time could install and run windows games on my shared NTFS. But had 1 corruption for a linux game while installing... hmmm. But easily fixed with a chkdsk from windows. Will try to hammer more native linux games install to see.

So far so good. I'm using NTF3 in fstab + Xanmod kernel.
And a compdata folder symlink to prevent the NTFS drive to have all these reserved file names from the wine prefix. That helps on the windows side of things.

I thought of using Ext4 on Windows as well.
There are multiple solutions.

Using WSL for this creates a mount point in a weird áss folder. I don't think steam windows can work with it, but haven't tried. It doesn't have a drive letter it seems.

Then we have stuff like Ext2Fs. Opensource project which seems dead for many years on sourceforge.
But, there is a recent fork of it on github. But that fork doesn't have ACL or journaling at this point... well no thanks then, been there done that got the tshirt.
And finally there are some paid drivers from paragon but it's unclear if that's an actual driver which enables to mount on a driver letter, or if that's only inside their crappy GUI app. I'd rather use free open source in any case

If NTFS works then it's all good.

[Marlock]

don't use the NTFS partition for linux versions of games if you can avoid it...

[SeriousCCIE]

How much storage space are people generally allocating for their Linux gaming habit?

I have had to be stingy due to it just not being so easy to move stuff around or install stuff in custom locations without resorting to symbolic links or somethng else, as opposed to most products for Windows which lets me choose where to stick it (figuratively, at least)...

Steam itself is a heinous problem for me as far as its abuse of user folders go. No, I didn't install steam on a different drive because I wanted so much space taken up under the user account on the boot volume -- and that solution, too, was symobilic links.

Linux seems to be pretty good for me in presenting me with space to use on other computers than it is for making use of that same space for itself, but maybe I am just holding it wrong.

[tfk]

On my desktop I usually mount one or more whole drives to my home directory. Then I create a separate steam library which points to that mount point.

For example /home/user/games which links to the drive in question.

This way it doesn't matter where steam is installed.

[Marlock]

I had a secondary 1TB HDD on my old PC just for games (mounted like @tfk mentioned above), where I basically installed all the games I owned

Now my games library is too big and my old PC broke... the new one has only one 3,5" HDD slot and I used it for a big local network shared drive, so no more 1TB HDD

given that, I bought a new 480GB SSD on the cheap to replace the old 240GB main drive, and put all my linux stuff and the steam library there

my internet is pretty fast (100mbps) and has no bandwidth limit, so I just download the games I want when I want them, then uninstall when I'm done

it took some time to get used to the new routine, but keeping the games in the SSD does have a very noticeable performance benefit! they load faster and even some stutter and short freezing stopped happening

ps:
my main drive holds a lot more than just games (~140GB in documents, videos and whatnot), and yet is at ~190GB total usage... meaning linux itself plus all the desired software and steam with just a few games could fit very well even in a 120GB SSD (60GB would be too tight, IMHO)

[Zyro]

SeriousCCIE の投稿を引用：

How much storage space are people generally allocating for their Linux gaming habit?

I have had to be stingy due to it just not being so easy to move stuff around or install stuff in custom locations without resorting to symbolic links or somethng else, as opposed to most products for Windows which lets me choose where to stick it (figuratively, at least)...

Steam itself is a heinous problem for me as far as its abuse of user folders go. No, I didn't install steam on a different drive because I wanted so much space taken up under the user account on the boot volume -- and that solution, too, was symobilic links.

Linux seems to be pretty good for me in presenting me with space to use on other computers than it is for making use of that same space for itself, but maybe I am just holding it wrong.

You're aware that you can create new Steam "libraries" whereever you want and install your games there?

To the question how much space I use for gaming: I delete games after having played them and only keep around a hand full to a dozen. I have them on my old SSD with 120 GB capacity.