Run Steam Games or Virtual Machines from NTFS, EXT4, or Btrfs partitions in Ubuntu, Mint, or Fedora

How to Run Steam Games and Virtual Machines from Mounted Partitions (NTFS, EXT4, Btrfs) on Fedora, Ubuntu, and Linux Mint

By default on modern Linux distributions like Fedora Workstation, Ubuntu, and Linux Mint, storing and executing Steam games or Virtual Machines (such as Oracle VirtualBox, VMware, or KVM/QEMU) directly from secondary mounted partitions or external drives can trigger permission errors, missing executable flags, or storage block denials.

This guide walks you through configuring your system to seamlessly store and run Steam libraries and Virtual Machines from mounted partitions, regardless of whether they are formatted in NTFS or EXT4/Btrfs.

Important Note on SELinux

If you are running Fedora with SELinux enabled in enforcing mode, strict security contexts may occasionally block VMs or games running from secondary partitions. If you encounter permission denials or crashes, ensure your partition’s mount options are correctly mapped, or refer to our companion guides on managing SELinux policies or setting SELinux to permissive mode.

Step 1: Install the GNOME Disk Utility

Most modern desktop environments include the disk utility by default. If it is missing from your system, you can easily install it using your distribution’s package manager:

• For Fedora:Bashsudo dnf install gnome-disk-utility
• For Ubuntu and Linux Mint:Bashsudo apt install gnome-disk-utility

Step 2: Determine Your User ID (UID) and Group ID (GID)

To ensure mounted partitions grant full read, write, and execute permissions to your user account (rather than restricting ownership to the root user), you need to identify your system user ID and group ID.

Open your terminal and run the following commands (replace username with your actual login username):

For User ID (uid):

Bash

id -u username

For Group ID (gid):

Bash

id -g username

Note: On single-user desktop installations, both the uid and gid are typically 1000.

Step 3: Configure Mount Options via GNOME Disks

1. Launch the Disks application from your system application menu, or run it directly from the terminal:Bashgnome-disks
2. In the left-hand sidebar, select your target hard drive (HDD or SSD) and click on the specific partition where you want to store your Steam games or Virtual Machines (e.g., a secondary 1 TB NTFS partition).
3. Click the gear/menu icon beneath the partition graphic and select Edit Mount Options… as shown below.

Step 4: Apply Custom Mount Parameters

1. In the Edit Mount Options dialog window, toggle the switch to Disable “User session Defaults”.
2. Ensure that Mount at System Startup and Show in User Interface remain enabled.
3. Locate the mount options text field. Append your custom parameters separated by a comma right after x-gvfs-show. Do not delete any existing default options.

For NTFS Partitions:

Add the following parameter string:

Plaintext

uid=1000,gid=1000,user,umask=000,fmask=000,dmask=000,exec

(Make sure to replace 1000 with the actual uid and gid values you retrieved in Step 2 if they differ on your system. The exec parameter is critical as it permits running binaries and games directly from the drive).

For EXT4 or Btrfs Partitions:

Linux native filesystems natively preserve POSIX permissions, so you only need to ensure standard defaults are active:

Plaintext

defaults

4. Click OK to save your changes.

Step 5: Restart Your Computer

Reboot your system to apply the new partition mount configuration:

Bash

sudo reboot

Once the system reboots, the partition will automatically mount with the correct user permissions and execution flags, allowing you to seamlessly install, store, and launch Steam games and Virtual Machines without restrictions.