[SOLVED] Need help storing games on a USB, the dummy-proof way.

[✪ nitro]

Just installed Ubuntu onto my chrome os, only have 6gb of free space but i've got a 32 gb usb.

I've heard people say something along the lines of;
install steam, move entire folder to usb, then syslink

1. when i move folder to USB, some files say that they cant create system link
2. how do I create a syslink?
3. the downloads folder thing on settings, when I click around to look for the USB, the "media" folder has no "+" next to it, as if it were empty and unusable. The usb is inside the media folder I thought?
Thanks in advance.

====================================================================

MASSIVE THANKS TO [420]0589651 to get me tinkering with the terminal and stuff.

WHAT I DID (that worked for me [I'm running UBUNTU XFCE on a CHROME OS])
MAKE SURE YOU TICK "ENABLE HIDDEN FILES" IN THE VIEWER
MY USB WAS FAT32

1. renamed my USB on my windows computer, so it doesn't have spaces
2. plugged it in to chromebook
3. terminal >

 sudo fdisk -l 

4. My device name was

 /dev/sdb1 

5. terminal >

 sudo mkdir /mnt/sdb1 

6. terminal >

 sudo nano /etc/fstab 

7. put in;

 /dev/sdb1 /mnt/sdb1 vfat defaults,user,exec,uid=1000,gid=100,umask=000 0 1

8. press CTRL + X, press Y, press enter
9. terminal > chown -R -v <YOURUSERNAME>:<YOURUSERNAME AGAIN> /media/removable/<YOUR USB NAME>
9. a. EXAMPLE: chown -R -v nitro:nitro /media/removable/NITRODISC
10. terminal > sudo mount -a
10. terminal > chown -R -v <YOURUSERNAME>:<YOURUSERNAME AGAIN> /mnt/sdb1
11. Open Steam
12. Make a folder on your USB
13. Steam > Settings > Downloads > Set download folder > go to /mnt/sdb1/<FOLDER NAME>
14. select the folder, press add folder
15. If it says you need writable access or whatever, feel free to contact me. I did a few things and it finally started working.
16. Go to download a game, choose the "Installation/Download Location"
17. Select the folder you chose
18. Download it.

[Ǥӷᴉᵐ]

Symlinking is a pretty bad way to get your library working in steam.

In my opinion, you should have the USB drive mounted, make sure it is writable and then create a folder (call it games or whatever you want the library to be called.)

Once you have the folder, go to steam's settings > Downloads > Steam library folders > Add Folder.

Once yuo have done that, close steam, copy/move all the games to the new folder and start steam again. Install the game you want and it should locate all the existing game files.

this method works, but can be hit and miss and NEVER Remove the USB while steam is running.

This same method is also useful when dualbooting windows and linux. Simply set your steam library folder to a folder on a mutually accessible FAT32 partition. (native steam wont work so well, however if you run stea, through any kind of application layer like WINE, then it works just peachy.)

[Moppy]

Good luck with this. I have a Chromebook myself (they're rather useful and pretty cheap).

What the poster before me said should work. (It does work with SD Cards. Never tried with USB but I see no reason why it won't).

I would ilke to add, if you get into any weird issues, realise that Ubuntu is most likely still using the Chrome OS kernel and they don't build it with a lot of the modules you'd get on an ubuntu kernel, such as windows file sharing and controller support. This confused me for a while until I fixed it.

At least on the older chromebooks this will be the case as you can't easily turn off the part of the BIOS that insists on a signed kernel.

[✪ nitro]

Originally posted by 4200589651:

Symlinking is a pretty bad way to get your library working in steam.

In my opinion, you should have the USB drive mounted, make sure it is writable and then create a folder (call it games or whatever you want the library to be called.)

Once you have the folder, go to steam's settings > Downloads > Steam library folders > Add Folder.

Once yuo have done that, close steam, copy/move all the games to the new folder and start steam again. Install the game you want and it should locate all the existing game files.

this method works, but can be hit and miss and NEVER Remove the USB while steam is running.

This same method is also useful when dualbooting windows and linux. Simply set your steam library folder to a folder on a mutually accessible FAT32 partition. (native steam wont work so well, however if you run stea, through any kind of application layer like WINE, then it works just peachy.)

I've tried that. i've tried moving the entire Steam folder to my USB, then running and selecting the folder, but it keeps saying "Error; Select a valid Steam content directory" when I do.
http://i.imgur.com/p8aRoXh.png
http://i.imgur.com/60Bdqn0.png

And, if I try going to settings > Downloads > Steam Library Folder > Add folder, I can't see my USB on it.
http://i.imgur.com/YVGSlbW.png

[Ǥӷᴉᵐ]

Originally posted by nitro:

I've tried that. i've tried moving the entire Steam folder to my USB, then running and selecting the folder, but it keeps saying "Error; Select a valid Steam content directory" when I do.
http://i.imgur.com/p8aRoXh.png
http://i.imgur.com/60Bdqn0.png

And, if I try going to settings > Downloads > Steam Library Folder > Add folder, I can't see my USB on it.
http://i.imgur.com/YVGSlbW.png

I think Chrome OS may be having issues with read/write on the folder, because it's a USB mounting in Media.

You could probably either Force mount the USB as a physical drive using fstab, Or maybe try:

Originally posted by some guy on reddit:

Make sure your default user owns the partition:

sudo chown -R <username> <pathtodrive>

For instance if my username is jeff and my SD card is mounted to /media/sdcard I'd run:

sudo chown -R jeff /media/sdcard

Let me know if it doesn't work. I'll boot up a version of Chrome OS and see if I can get i to work for you. ;-)

[Dusk of Oolacile]

Originally posted by nitro:

Originally posted by 4200589651:

Symlinking is a pretty bad way to get your library working in steam.

In my opinion, you should have the USB drive mounted, make sure it is writable and then create a folder (call it games or whatever you want the library to be called.)

Once you have the folder, go to steam's settings > Downloads > Steam library folders > Add Folder.

Once yuo have done that, close steam, copy/move all the games to the new folder and start steam again. Install the game you want and it should locate all the existing game files.

this method works, but can be hit and miss and NEVER Remove the USB while steam is running.

This same method is also useful when dualbooting windows and linux. Simply set your steam library folder to a folder on a mutually accessible FAT32 partition. (native steam wont work so well, however if you run stea, through any kind of application layer like WINE, then it works just peachy.)

I've tried that. i've tried moving the entire Steam folder to my USB, then running and selecting the folder, but it keeps saying "Error; Select a valid Steam content directory" when I do.
http://i.imgur.com/p8aRoXh.png
http://i.imgur.com/60Bdqn0.png

And, if I try going to settings > Downloads > Steam Library Folder > Add folder, I can't see my USB on it.
http://i.imgur.com/YVGSlbW.png

What's inside that directory called "Steam"? Inside that there should be another directory, called "steamapps" (all lowercase).

[✪ nitro]

Originally posted by LOLCAT:

Originally posted by nitro:

I've tried that. i've tried moving the entire Steam folder to my USB, then running and selecting the folder, but it keeps saying "Error; Select a valid Steam content directory" when I do.
http://i.imgur.com/p8aRoXh.png
http://i.imgur.com/60Bdqn0.png

And, if I try going to settings > Downloads > Steam Library Folder > Add folder, I can't see my USB on it.
http://i.imgur.com/YVGSlbW.png

What's inside that directory called "Steam"? Inside that there should be another directory, called "steamapps" (all lowercase).

Yeah, there is. It's the default location for downloaded tools/games

[✪ nitro]

Originally posted by 4200589651:

Originally posted by nitro:

I've tried that. i've tried moving the entire Steam folder to my USB, then running and selecting the folder, but it keeps saying "Error; Select a valid Steam content directory" when I do.
http://i.imgur.com/p8aRoXh.png
http://i.imgur.com/60Bdqn0.png

And, if I try going to settings > Downloads > Steam Library Folder > Add folder, I can't see my USB on it.
http://i.imgur.com/YVGSlbW.png

I think Chrome OS may be having issues with read/write on the folder, because it's a USB mounting in Media.

You could probably either Force mount the USB as a physical drive using fstab, Or maybe try:

Originally posted by some guy on reddit:

Make sure your default user owns the partition:

sudo chown -R <username> <pathtodrive>

For instance if my username is jeff and my SD card is mounted to /media/sdcard I'd run:

sudo chown -R jeff /media/sdcard

Let me know if it doesn't work. I'll boot up a version of Chrome OS and see if I can get i to work for you. ;-)

Will try the sudo chown, tried it before but didn't know what to do.

If that doesn't work ill try mounting the USB with FSTAB, is there anything I need to know how to do it?

EDIT: Tried the chown method, the terminal hung for a bit and then nothing happened. Tried again, same thing.
I'll try out the fstab method

[Ǥӷᴉᵐ]

Originally posted by nitro:

Will try the sudo chown, tried it before but didn't know what to do.

If that doesn't work ill try mounting the USB with FSTAB, is there anything I need to know how to do it?

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Fstab

Make sure you mount it to a point in /mnt NOT /media. eg: /mnt/sdb1 and it needs read/write permission

[✪ nitro]

Originally posted by 4200589651:

Originally posted by nitro:

Will try the sudo chown, tried it before but didn't know what to do.

If that doesn't work ill try mounting the USB with FSTAB, is there anything I need to know how to do it?

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Fstab

Make sure you mount it to a point in /mnt NOT /media. eg: /mnt/sdb1 and it needs read/write permission

What's the command for Fstab? I can't seem to find it, I ended up downloading some russian gui mount tool from the software center that I can't understand

[Ǥӷᴉᵐ]

sudo nano /etc/fstab

It's a text file you edit, that is part of your system configuration.

[✪ nitro]

Originally posted by 4200589651:

sudo nano /etc/fstab

It's a text file you edit, that is part of your system configuration.

Got my usb mounted, Steam says it's not writable. I did the chown thing, didn't work :/

sudo chown -R -v nitro:nitro /mnt/sdb1

[Ǥӷᴉᵐ]

Originally posted by nitro:

Originally posted by 4200589651:

sudo nano /etc/fstab

It's a text file you edit, that is part of your system configuration.

Got my usb mounted, Steam says it's not writable. I did the chown thing, didn't work :/

sudo chown -R -v nitro:nitro /mnt/sdb1

What file system type is your USB? It wont work if it's NTFS.
Did you set write permissions in Fstab? Chown won't work if fstab doesnt allow write permissions on mount.

[✪ nitro]

Originally posted by 4200589651:

Originally posted by nitro:

Got my usb mounted, Steam says it's not writable. I did the chown thing, didn't work :/

sudo chown -R -v nitro:nitro /mnt/sdb1

What file system type is your USB? It wont work if it's NTFS.
Did you set write permissions in Fstab? Chown won't work if fstab doesnt allow write permissions on mount.

How do I set the write permissions in Fstab?

Also, my USB is FAT32

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 32 63373311 31686640 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)

[Ǥӷᴉᵐ]

Originally posted by nitro:

How do I set the write permissions in Fstab?

Also, my USB is FAT32

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 32 63373311 31686640 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)

what did you put into fstab?

[✪ nitro]

Originally posted by 4200589651:

Originally posted by nitro:

How do I set the write permissions in Fstab?

Also, my USB is FAT32

what did you put into fstab?

/dev/sdb1 /mnt/sdb1 vfat defaults 0 0