content/blog/2020-01-26-steam-on-ntfs.org

 1#+date:        <2020-01-26 Sun 00:00:00>
 2#+title:       Configuring Steam on NTFS Drives under Linux Systems
 3#+description: Procedures for mounting NTFS drives using ntfs-3g to enable reliable execution of Steam gaming software on Linux environments.
 4#+slug:        steam-on-ntfs
 5#+filetags:    :steam:ntfs:linux:
 6
 7* Auto-Mount Steam Drives
 8
 9If you want to see how to install Steam on Linux, see my other post: [[../linux-software/][Linux
10Software]].
11
12Are you having trouble launching games, even though they've installed correctly?
13This may happen if you're storing your games on an NTFS-formatted drive. This
14shouldn't be an issue if you're storing your games on the same drive that Steam
15is on, but some gamers prefer to put Steam on their main drive and game files on
16another SSD or HDD.
17
18To fix this problem, you'll need to try a few things. First, you'll need to
19install the =ntfs-3g= package, which is meant for better interoperability with
20Linux.
21
22#+begin_src sh
23sudo apt install ntfs-3g
24#+end_src
25
26Next, you should set up the =/etc/fstab= file to automatically mount your drives
27on boot. To automatically mount your drives when the computer boots up, you'll
28have to create the folders you want to mount your drive to first. I store mine
29in the =/mnt= folder using names that I'll recognize, but you can create your
30folders wherever you want.
31
32#+begin_src sh
33mkdir /path/to/folder
34#+end_src
35
36For example:
37
38#+begin_src sh
39mkdir /mnt/steam_library
40#+end_src
41
42To automatically mount drives upon system boot, you will need to collect a few
43items. The UUID is the identification number connected to whichever drive you're
44using to store Steam games.
45
46Drives are usually labeled similar to =/dev/nvme0n1p1= or =/dev/sda1=, so you'll
47need to find the line in the output of the command below that correlates to your
48drive and copy the UUID over to the =/etc/fstab= file.
49
50#+begin_src sh
51sudo blkid | grep UUID=
52#+end_src
53
54Next, you'll need your =uid= and =gid=. To find these, run the following
55command:
56
57#+begin_src sh
58id -u && id -g
59#+end_src
60
61Now that you have collected the necessary information, open the =/etc/fstab=
62file:
63
64#+begin_src sh
65sudo nano /etc/fstab
66#+end_src
67
68Each drive you want to mount on boot should have its own line in the
69=/etc/fstab= file that looks similar to this:
70
71#+begin_src config
72UUID=B64E53824E5339F7 /mnt/steam_library ntfs-3g uid=1000,gid=1000 0 0
73#+end_src
74
75Now all you need to do is unmount your drive and re-mount it. You can unmount
76the drive by doing this (be sure to use the correct drive name here):
77
78#+begin_src sh
79sudo umount /dev/sdxX
80#+end_src
81
82You can re-mount all your drives by executing the following:
83
84#+begin_src sh
85sudo mount -a
86#+end_src
87
88If you don't know what your drive name is, or you're nervous about unmounting
89and re-mounting, simply reboot your computer, and it will be done for you
90automatically.