UPDATED: May 11, 2011
A few people have asked me how to copy Steam Games already downloaded in Windows to their Linux Steam installation. This also works for copying Steam game files from one location to another – just substitute folder locations as needed.
There are a few ways of doing this – but this way works for me everytime:
NOTE: this may not work if you did not install Steam in the same default folder for both of your installations – it doesn’t have to be c:/ on the Windows install… just at least /Steam for the main installation folder as far as I can tell. If you have any problems please post a comment on where your installed directories are on both Windows / Linux so I can update this How To. Thanks!
SOME PEOPLE ARE SKIPPING STEPS 1-5 – this works too in most cases – NOTE: do not just copy the whole STEAMAPPS FOLDER OVER! Copy each of the games one at a time to avoid problems…
1) Open Steam in Linux
2) Select the game you want to install on Linux
3) Start installing / downloading it
4) Wait until the game gets to about 1%
5) Stop the download
6) Open the location of your Steam install
WINE ONLY: /home/username/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Steam/steamapps folder in your .wine installation folder
WINETRICKS INSTALLED STEAM: /home/username/.local/share/wineprefixes/steam/drive_c/Program Files/Steam/steamapps/
You should should see your game GCF and/or NCF files there. This is why we started the download: to preload the folders and config / download files. If you skipped steps 1-5 you will not see any game files…
7) Open the /Program Files/Steam/steamapps/common folder on your Windows partition or wherever you have your game files backed up.
8) Now on your Linux installation open the /steamapps/common Folder - you should see your game folder there…. IF NOT it will be in /Steam/steamapps/YOURUSERNAME - OR if you skipped steps 1-5 you will not see any game files…
9) Find the /GAMENAME folder and copy the whole /GAMENAME folder from Windows to Linux - OVERWRITING EVERYTHING that may have already been downloaded to your Linux folder…
10) Once you have finished the copying, go ahead and unpause the game download in the Steam Client. Steam will then start parsing the “downloaded” content – give it some time as it can take a few minutes for large games. You may also have to click unpause / resume a couple to times to fully scan the folder.
11) Right click the game title – select Properties > Local Files > Verify Game Cache
You should now have a copy of the game ready to run on your Linux Box. :D
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| STATUS: playable | Steam Store Page: click here |
| Wine Version: 1.3.12 | |
| Windowed: not advised | Fullscreen:yes |
CONFIGURE WINE:
Set Wine to run in full screen = no virtual desktop. No library overrides are required.
GRAPHICS CONFIGURATION:
If you are experiencing a black screen turn off anti-aliasing on your graphics card.
RUNNING THE GAME:
Left 4 Dead 2 appears to run fine in full-screen mode. Have tested single and multiplayer games without any serious problems. A little lag – though that’s probably the servers = doesn’t happen with single player local servers.
| STATUS: playable | Steam Store Page: click here |
| Wine Version: 1.3.9 | |
| Windowed: not advised | Fullscreen: yes |
| - | - |
This game works fine with NVIDIA cards – ATI card was causing random crashes…
WINE SETUP:
No library overrides were required. Do not use a virtual desktop for best results.
RUNNING THE GAME:
Half-Life 2: Deathmatch launches and plays perfectly – no problems at all so far.
I have noticed that leaving the Steam Window open tends to interfere with other apps and causes flickering / stuttering of audio.
Minimize it or send it to the tray whenever possible!
| STATUS: playable | Steam Store Page: click here |
| Wine Version: 1.3.2 | |
| Windowed: yes | Full-screen: yes |
This legendary game is considered by many as the best FPS game ever made… for it’s time anyway. Even today this game holds its own, due to superior character development, game engine, music, action sequences and variety of game play sequences…
RUNNING THE GAME:
The game loads up without any problems and plays fine with all settings on high on my system. I do leave Vsync off.
Have not had any problems so far.
| STATUS: playable | Steam Store Page: click here |
| Wine Version: 1.3.2 | |
| Windowed: no | Full-screen: yes |
This Diablo-like RPG dungeon crawler was developed by some of the same team members who created Diablo and Diablo II.
RUNNING THE GAME:
The game launches with an error alert (Method verify Access failed) – though once closed, the program launches in full-screen mode. The opening screen did display garbled video grids – but once the game cursor appeared and the screen was clicked, it cleared up and showed the opening game lobby. The game apparently is able to update via the Steam Cloud so you won’t lose your favourite characters when playing on another machine – or OS…
Selecting a character and launching the game plays fine without any noticeable errors so far.
| STATUS: playable | Steam Store Page: click here |
| Wine Version: 1.3.2 | |
| Windowed: no | Fullscreen: yes |
This FPP (first person puzzler) is already a classic, and while we all wait eagerly for Portal II to come out – playing on Linux somehow makes it double-the-fun!
RUNNING THE GAME:
I have not run into any problems running this game under Steam + Linux + Wine. YAY!
| STATUS: playable | Steam Store Page: click here |
| Wine Version: 1.3.2 | |
| Windowed: no | Fullscreen: yes |
RUNNING THE GAME:
Half-Life: Source runs fine in fullscreen with HDR and all setting up high. I did disable V-Sync and have not yet tested if this affects anything.
KNOWN ISSUES:
Changing game resolution can leave your desktop set in wrong resolution so you have to reset this and restart Steam.
| STATUS: playable | Steam Store Page: click here |
| Windowed: yes |
INSTALLING THE GAME:
Everything went well with the steam installer. I launched the game configuration before the first run and selected “windowed, 1027×768, default refresh rate, use Direct 3D, compatibility mode”
RUNNING THE GAME:
Playing the game seems to not have any issues as far as I can tell.
KNOWN PROBLEMS:
Setting window size to 1280 x 1024 causes the displayed window to go black on launching.
Wine updated today to version 1.3.2 – I will start including the Wine version used when testing new games.
Any game not showing Wine Version will assume to be tested on Wine 1.3.1
