Linux Gaming Tweak: Steam on NTFS Drives

::#software

Auto-Mount Steam Drives

Steam example

If you want to see how to install Steam on Linux, see my other post: The Best Linux Software.

Are you having trouble launching games, even though they've installed correctly? This may happen if you're storing your games on an nfts-formatted drive. This shouldn't be an issue if you're storing your games on the same drive that Steam is on, but some gamers prefer to put Steam on their main drive and game files on another SSD or HDD.

To fix this problem, you'll need to try a few things. First, you'll need to install the ntfs-3g package, which is meant for better interoperability with Linux.

sudo apt install ntfs-3g

Next, you should set up the /etc/fstab file to automatically mount your drives on boot. To automatically mount your drives when the computer boots up, you'll have to create the folders you want to mount your drive to first. I store mine in the /mnt folder using names that I'll recognize, but you can create your folders wherever you want.

mkdir /path/to/folder

For example:

mkdir /mnt/SteamDrive

Next, open the /etc/fstab file:

sudo nano /etc/fstab

Each drive you want to mount on boot should have its own line in the /etc/fstab file that looks similar to this:

UUID=B64E53824E5339F7 /path/to/folder ntfs-3g uid=1000,gid=1000 0 0

The UUID is the identification number connected to whichever drive you're using to store Steam games. To find your UUID, run this command:

sudo blkid | grep UUID=

Drives are usually labeled similar to /dev/nvme0n1p1 or /dev/sda1, so you'll need to find the line in the output that correlates to your drive and copy the UUID over to the /etc/fstab file. Finally, make sure you've added your uid and gid to the end of the configuration line in the /etc/fstab file. To find these, run the following command:

id -u && id -g

Now all you need to do is unmount your drive and re-mount it. You can unmount the drive by doing this (be sure to use the correct drive name here):

sudo umount /dev/sdxX

You can re-mount all your drives by executing the following:

sudo mount -a

If you don't know what your drive name is or you're nervous about unmounting and re-mounting, simply reboot your computer and it will be done for you automatically.