ValveSoftware
Steam client updates can't install if compatibilitytools.d is on a different filesystem (e.g. as symlink)
Your system information
- Steam client version (build number or date): 1731433018
- Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): Flatpak (on Arch)
- Opted into Steam client beta?: No
- Have you checked for system updates?: Yes (updates don't install though)
- Steam Logs: See below
- GPU: Intel
Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:
Steam fails to install client updates when compatibilitytools.d is located (e.g. using a symbolic link) on a different filesystem than the rest of the Steam root. This setup can be useful if a lot of compattools are installed or when developing custom compat tools.
Specifically, it fails to install compatibilitytools.d/LegacyRuntime/compatibilitytool.vdf with POSIX errno 18 (EXDEV), Invalid cross-device link (or in this case, rename):
INFO:root:https://github.com/flathub/com.valvesoftware.Steam/wiki
INFO:root:Will set XDG dirs prefix to /home/taeyeon/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam
DEBUG:root:Checking input devices permissions
INFO:root:Overriding TZ to Europe/Berlin
DEBUG:root:Addding /usr/lib/extensions/vulkan/gamescope/bin to PATH
DEBUG:root:Addding /usr/lib/extensions/vulkan/MangoHud/bin to PATH
steam.sh[2]: Running Steam on org.freedesktop.platform 24.08 64-bit
steam.sh[2]: STEAM_RUNTIME is enabled automatically
setup.sh[48]: Steam runtime environment up-to-date!
steam.sh[2]: Steam client's requirements are satisfied
CProcessEnvironmentManager is ready, 6 preallocated environment variables.
[2025-03-17 23:17:28] Startup - updater built Nov 12 2024 17:09:08
[2025-03-17 23:17:28] Startup - Steam Client launched with: '/home/taeyeon/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam' '-srt-logger-opened' '-no-cef-sandbox'
03/17 23:17:28 minidumps folder is set to /tmp/dumps
03/17 23:17:28 Init: Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1731433018)/tid(94)
[2025-03-17 23:17:28] Loading cached metrics from disk (/home/taeyeon/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.local/share/Steam/package/steam_client_metrics.bin)
[2025-03-17 23:17:28] Using the following download hosts for Public, Realm steamglobal
[2025-03-17 23:17:28] 1. https://client-update.fastly.steamstatic.com, /, Realm 'steamglobal', weight was 900, source = 'update_hosts_cached.vdf'
[2025-03-17 23:17:28] 2. https://client-update.akamai.steamstatic.com, /, Realm 'steamglobal', weight was 100, source = 'update_hosts_cached.vdf'
[2025-03-17 23:17:28] 3. https://client-update.steamstatic.com, /, Realm 'steamglobal', weight was 1, source = 'baked in'
[2025-03-17 23:17:28] uninstalled manifest found in /home/taeyeon/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.local/share/Steam/package/steam_client_ubuntu12 (1).
[2025-03-17 23:17:28] Found pending update
[2025-03-17 23:17:28] Installing update...
[2025-03-17 23:17:32] Extracting package... [2025-03-17 23:18:06] Installing update...
[2025-03-17 23:18:06] BCommitUpdatedFiles: failed to rename package/tmp/./compatibilitytools.d/LegacyRuntime/compatibilitytool.vdf_ -> ./compatibilitytools.d/LegacyRuntime/compatibilitytool.vdf (error 18)
[2025-03-17 23:18:06] BCommitUpdatedFiles: failed to process ./compatibilitytools.d/LegacyRuntime
[2025-03-17 23:18:06] BCommitUpdatedFiles: failed to process ./compatibilitytools.d
[2025-03-17 23:18:06] Failed to apply update, reverting...
[2025-03-17 23:18:06] Verifying installation...
[2025-03-17 23:18:07] Verification complete
I'm guessing that the LegacyRuntime compattool was included somewhere around Nov 2024, which has caused my client to stop actually applying updates since then. Removing my compatibilitytools.d symlink allowed steam to update to 1741737356. The updater should probably be able to handle EXDEV gracefully.
Steps for reproducing this issue:
- Make
~/.local/share/Steam/compatibilitytools.d(respective~/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.local/share/Steam/compatibilitytools.d) be a symlink to another filesystem - Start Steam with an update available
- Steam will try to update itself and silently (unless specifically checking terminal output) fail
Note that this also happens when using btrfs subvolumes (for example to have different backup/snapshot policies for different parts of Steam, such as making backups of savegames and compatibilitytools.d but not Steam itself).
As far as I can tell Steam is trying to somehow hard-link the files instead of actually renaming (or if you really wanna be smart use ioctl(2) with FICLONE(2const) and fall back to renaming).
same with another symlinks in steam folder, im tried to change update package location and it's cannot to rename/create/find files.
