Using a NTFS disk with Linux and Windows

Introduction

These instructions cover configuring a NTFS disk containing Steam games, that was previously used in a Windows environment, to work with Proton on Linux. This allows a user to use the same files to play games on both Windows and Linux without needing to reinstall games for each operating system.

Tested on Ubuntu 18.10

Configuring and Automounting the NTFS Partition

Create a Mount Point

Create a mount point for the NTFS game disk:

$ sudo mkdir /media/gamedisk

Find the User ID, Group ID, and attached disk partition using the following commands:

User ID

$ id -u

Group ID

$ id -g

By default, both should be 1000

Attached Disk Partition

$ sudo fdisk -l

It should be labeled similar to /dev/sda2

The trailing letter and number (a2) will depend on how many disks are attached.

Editing fstab

Edit the fstab file to mount the partition:

$ sudo nano /etc/fstab

At the bottom of the file, add the following line (changing sda2, uid, and gid to where needed):

/dev/sda2 /media/gamedisk ntfs uid=1000,gid=1000,rw,user,exec,umask=000 0 0

Reboot the computer for the changes to take affect:

$ sudo reboot

Preventing NTFS Read Errors

Due to the nature of NTFS, creating files/folders with characters Windows cannot read will cause disk errors (leading to games that don't launch), the most common issue is a ; character in filenames that Proton creates on the NTFS disk.

Fixing this is pretty simple. Create a symlink from the /compatdata folder on Linux to the mounted NTFS disk.

Creating the symlink:

$ ln -s ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata /media/gamedisk/Steam/steamapps/

If the /compatdata folder already exists on the mounted disk BEFORE the syslink, DELETE IT!