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    #1

    Moving a Steam game

    I have steam and a few games downloaded, installed on one partition. I have a separate partition with a much newer version of Ubuntu (16.04) ... But use it rarely due to instability with switching between single and multi-monitor mode (My main reason for sticking to 14.04 now is this one issue)

    But these are non-issues for my steam game.

    So now i just want to save myself from having to download and install the games again. Is there a way to move them from the one partition to the other. Can I simply copy some directories, and if so, which?
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    #2
    I'll let you decide by looking at my Steam installation, which runs perfectly:
    :~$ locate steam
    /etc/apt/sources.list.d/steam.list
    /etc/apt/sources.list.d/steam.list.save
    /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/steam.gpg
    /etc/firejail/steam.profile
    /etc/gufw/app_profiles/steam.gufw
    /etc/gufw/app_profiles/steam.jhansonxi
    /home/jerry/.steam
    /home/jerry/.steampath
    /home/jerry/.steampid
    /home/jerry/steam_latest.deb
    /home/jerry/.PlayOnLinux/configurations/icones/POL_Install_steam
    /home/jerry/.local/share/Steam/bin_steam.sh
    /home/jerry/.local/share/Steam/bin_steamdeps.py
    /home/jerry/.local/share/Steam/steam
    /home/jerry/.local/share/Steam/steam.sh
    /home/jerry/.local/share/Steam/steam_install_agreement.txt
    ...
    a LOT additional files under ~/.local/share/Steam/
    ...
    /home/jerry/.local/share/vulkan/implicit_layer.d/steamoverlay_i386.json
    /home/jerry/.local/share/vulkan/implicit_layer.d/steamoverlay_x86_64.json
    /home/jerry/.steam/bin
    /home/jerry/.steam/bin32
    /home/jerry/.steam/bin64
    /home/jerry/.steam/registry.vdf
    /home/jerry/.steam/root
    /home/jerry/.steam/sdk32
    /home/jerry/.steam/sdk64
    /home/jerry/.steam/steam
    /home/jerry/.steam/steam.pid
    /home/jerry/.steam/steam.pipe
    /home/jerry/.steam/steam_install_agreement.txt
    /home/jerry/Desktop/steam.desktop
    /home/jerry/Downloads/steam_latest.deb
    /lib/udev/rules.d/99-steam-controller-perms.rules
    /usr/bin/steam
    /usr/bin/steamdeps
    /usr/lib/steam
    /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/youtube_dl/extractor/steam.py
    /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/youtube_dl/extractor/steam.pyc
    /usr/lib/steam/bootstraplinux_ubuntu12_32.tar.xz
    /usr/share/app-install/desktop/steam:steam.desktop
    /usr/share/app-install/icons/steam.png
    /usr/share/applications/steam.desktop
    /usr/share/doc/steam
    /usr/share/doc/steam-launcher
    /usr/share/doc/python-parsley/examples/337141-steamcube.json.gz
    /usr/share/doc/steam/README
    /usr/share/doc/steam/steam_install_agreement.txt.gz
    /usr/share/doc/steam-launcher/changelog.gz
    /usr/share/doc/steam-launcher/copyright
    /usr/share/icons/hicolor/16x16/apps/steam.png
    /usr/share/icons/hicolor/24x24/apps/steam.png
    /usr/share/icons/hicolor/256x256/apps/steam.png
    /usr/share/icons/hicolor/32x32/apps/steam.png
    /usr/share/icons/hicolor/48x48/apps/steam.png
    /usr/share/man/man6/steam.6.gz
    /usr/share/pixmaps/steam.png
    /usr/share/pixmaps/steam_tray_mono.png
    /usr/share/telepathy/profiles/steam.profile
    /var/lib/app-info/icons/ubuntu-xenial-multiverse/64x64/steam_steam.png
    /var/lib/apt/lists/repo.steampowered.com_steam_dists_precise_InReleas e
    /var/lib/apt/lists/repo.steampowered.com_steam_dists_precise_steam_bi nary-amd64_Packages
    /var/lib/apt/lists/repo.steampowered.com_steam_dists_precise_steam_bi nary-i386_Packages
    /var/lib/dpkg/info/steam-launcher.conffiles
    /var/lib/dpkg/info/steam-launcher.list
    /var/lib/dpkg/info/steam-launcher.md5sums
    /var/lib/dpkg/info/steam-launcher.postinst
    /var/lib/update-notifier/user.d/steam-install-notify
    :~$
    Have at it. But, after the move, unless you edit the uninstall script I doubt that you will be able to uninstall Steam unless you delete every file by hand. AND, the usual disclaimer: I have never done this and I have no clue if it will work or not. IIRC, Steam doesn't ask you where you want to install it.
    "A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
    – John F. Kennedy, February 26, 1962.
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      #3
      I wanted to do something similar when I first installed Steam on my PC.

      My system partition is on a small SSD drive. To save space (especially with the games) after installing Steam I moved all the folders in the /home/rod/.steam folder to my 2Tb drive and then soft-linked the folders back where they were. The beauty of linking stuff like this is that the app still thinks it's running where it was but it's actually elsewhere. I've never had any problem with Steam running this way. Just make sure Steam is not running prior to moving and linking the folders back to their original location.

      If you just want to move the games themselves you could probably get away with just moving the /home/<name>/.steam/steam/steamapps folder which contains the games.
      Desktop PC: Intel Core-i5-4670 3.40Ghz, 16Gb Crucial ram, Asus H97-Plus MB, 128Gb Crucial SSD + 2Tb Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 HDD running Kubuntu 18.04 LTS and Kubuntu 14.04 LTS (on SSD).
      Laptop: HP EliteBook 8460p Core-i5-2540M, 4Gb ram, Transcend 120Gb SSD, currently running Deepin 15.8 and Manjaro KDE 18.
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        #4
        Games moved - It works.

        Thank you for your replies. I arrived at the same solution after reading some other answers spread through the internet. What I ended up doing is
        - Installed Steam to the other Ubuntu (16.04) instance from Multiverse and allowed it to update itself.
        - Added a new "location" In steamapps pointing it at a "shared hard drive" (In Steam go to Settings, Downloads, Download Folders)
        - Close/Quit Steam, including the system tray icon
        - Remove the empty Steamapps directory that Steam create in this location
        - Move the steamapps directory from the old location to this location
        - Started Steam.

        The games worked right away. But it is slow, much slower than Ubuntu 14.04

        Note I am intending on soft-linking the steamapps directory in the 14.04 instance.
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          #5
          Originally posted by Rod J View Post
          I wanted to do something similar when I first installed Steam on my PC.

          My system partition is on a small SSD drive. To save space (especially with the games) after installing Steam I moved all the folders in the /home/rod/.steam folder to my 2Tb drive and then soft-linked the folders back where they were. The beauty of linking stuff like this is that the app still thinks it's running where it was but it's actually elsewhere. I've never had any problem with Steam running this way. Just make sure Steam is not running prior to moving and linking the folders back to their original location.

          If you just want to move the games themselves you could probably get away with just moving the /home/<name>/.steam/steam/steamapps folder which contains the games.
          Rod, do you soft link the Steam files in /usr and /var as well?
          "A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
          – John F. Kennedy, February 26, 1962.
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            #6
            Originally posted by GreyGeek View Post
            Rod, do you soft link the Steam files in /usr and /var as well?
            No, just the folders in the ~/.steam folder (I just left the files in ~/.steam where they were). I did find another link last night that I had forgotten about in ~/.local/share that links to the Steam folder. I did some research about moving Steam prior to doing this, so I can't claim to be the first.

            I have K14.04 /root and /home on the SSD and have symbolic links in /home to all my data on my 2Tb HDD (Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, etc are all soft links on my SSD based /home to the relevant HDD folders). Basically, I just wanted to reduce write cycles on the SSD as much as possible and have enough space for two system/home partitions on the SSD. I'm warming to K16.04 much more as I'm testing it (and btrfs) on a spare partition on the HDD and may move or copy it to the second system partition on the SSD soon. Plasma 5 seems to be much more stable now than it was in 15.10.
            Last edited by Rod J; Aug 23, 2016, 06:23 PM. Reason: Adding info
            Desktop PC: Intel Core-i5-4670 3.40Ghz, 16Gb Crucial ram, Asus H97-Plus MB, 128Gb Crucial SSD + 2Tb Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 HDD running Kubuntu 18.04 LTS and Kubuntu 14.04 LTS (on SSD).
            Laptop: HP EliteBook 8460p Core-i5-2540M, 4Gb ram, Transcend 120Gb SSD, currently running Deepin 15.8 and Manjaro KDE 18.
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              #7
              Gota love that Btrfs!
              After nearly two years of use I wouldn't use any other FS.
              "A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
              – John F. Kennedy, February 26, 1962.
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