"Not enough disk space" when using symlinks

[oakwhiz]

My Linux partition is extremely small and does not have enough space for games.
I tried adding a new Steam Library folder on another drive in /media/, but Steam doesn't seem to want to use it, and only sees my Linux partition.
I also tried symlinking my ~/.local/share/Steam/SteamApps folder to an empty folder on my other drive, but that doesn't work either.

What would be handy is a force-install workaround that disables the free space check.

[james_neko]

Go to Steam->Settings->Downloads and Cloud, there is a button at the bottom labelled "Steam Library Folders", I believe this will allow you to add extra locations for steam to store games, or change the default location.

[JumpnSpin]

It won't store games into any directory but the default from when I tried it. Currently my steam folder is sitting over a network share cuz of that, so slow :(

[ethan.c2h6]

On the newest version of steam on windows it asks you which library to install to when you first install a game. The UI for adding libraries is present in steam settings as previously said, but it looks as if the UI for actually setting which library to use per install has not made its way to the Linux build yet.

[Tele42]

have you tried rm the symlink, chown -r the target directory, then mkdir ~/.local/share/Steam && sudo mount -o bind /media/fluffybunnydrive/Steam /home/oakwhiz/.local/share/Steam

if that works, then you should add a line to fstab, which I don't remember the syntax off hand because it's late and I'm calling it a night. Good luck!

[Kano]

You can use a symlink - even pointing to a ntfs drive - but that must be ~/.local/share/Steam and NOT the SteamApps folder inside.

[mannerov]

I have a similar issue:
Steam is installed in my home directory, but on a very small partition of my hard drive. I changed /Steam/SteamApps by a symlink to a directory of an other hard drive.
When installing a game, Steam detects the wrong hard drive space. It will download it right in the good directory if there is enough space, but won't download it if it doesn't detect enough space.

Apparently (when reading previous messages), I should better symlink the whole Steam directory instead of SteamApps. Maybe it should be written somewhere for new users, because I think it is more natural to symlink a empty directory (SteamApps) than an already filled directory (Steam)

[biohazara]

@mannerov
That works for me apparently. I don't have ~/.local/share/Steam, instead I have ~/Steam.
So I moved the Steam folder to the partition I wanted (mine is NTFS) and then created a symlink back to ~/Steam. Now I have the correct space available. Let's see if I can play TF2. It's currently downloading.

[Mikolaj]

Originally posted by mannerov:

I have a similar issue:
Steam is installed in my home directory, but on a very small partition of my hard drive. I changed /Steam/SteamApps by a symlink to a directory of an other hard drive.
When installing a game, Steam detects the wrong hard drive space. It will download it right in the good directory if there is enough space, but won't download it if it doesn't detect enough space.

Apparently (when reading previous messages), I should better symlink the whole Steam directory instead of SteamApps. Maybe it should be written somewhere for new users, because I think it is more natural to symlink a empty directory (SteamApps) than an already filled directory (Steam)

Still, it's strange... on windows symlinking Steamapps directory to a different drive doesn't pose any problems when it comes to free space detection... I don't see why it is different here...

[undead_rattler]

It may use the steam binary to determine how much space there is in the directory steam resides in, so it needs the steam binary to be on the larger hard drive to detect it's space.

[noctiswhole ʘ‿ʘ]

I have the steamapps directory symlinked to a folder on an ntfs drive without issue:
http://i.imgur.com/v0WZh.png

[Kano]

That only shows that you have got enough free space in your home - not more not less.

[oakwhiz]

Originally posted by Kano:

You can use a symlink - even pointing to a ntfs drive - but that must be ~/.local/share/Steam and NOT the SteamApps folder inside.

going to try this next

[Jordison]

I got the same problem, i tried to move all the Steam folder to my other partition, but Steam won't work when I tried to locate the new place. The symlink didn't work for me either.

[kento]

I wonder why there are so few posts in this thread.. same problem here. Tried linking /home/.local/share/Steam /home/.Steam and the SteamApps folder only to another drive. The link itself works fine... but the steam client not. Linking the Steam folder itself produces this error in terminal (sorry, german OS):

basename: zusätzlicher Operand ».sh“
„basename --help“ gibt weitere Informationen.
/media/Expansion Drive/Steam/steam.sh: Zeile 286: /media/Expansion Drive/Steam/ubuntu12_32/: Ist ein Verzeichnis
basename: zusätzlicher Operand ».sh“
„basename --help“ gibt weitere Informationen.

he says missing operand, /ubuntu12_32/: Is a directory.

Not quite a noob but i dont get it. Anyway, Steam should lookup the SteamApps folder for diskspace. Thats bad.

edit: found this:

http://steamcommunity.com/app/221410/discussions/0/846939071234296101/?l=german

[miguel.l5862u]

i actually made a workaround that worked for me and i post the steps at this thread http://steamcommunity.com/app/221410/discussions/0/846939854078934188/#p2 in the comment 17 hope it works for you luck