Space missing on the Steamdeck
okay so.... i'm confused
i'm usin bazzite on the steamdeck (the gnome version) for both handheld and desktop stuff
and i just wanted to install KH in gaming mode just to realize.... there's more than 200gb of non-steam used up and... i cannot find it
but.... something generally doesn't add up
the diskuseage analyzer show's 120gb used (around 100 of those are steam so this checks out... at least for now)
steam shows 79gb used for steam and 219gb used for non-steam
and the home directory tells me basically the same as the diskanalyzer (+- a few gb) but... it also tells me that the maximum size is basically only around 325 gb which is.... not quite correct as i have the 512gb version of the LCD deck
so.... there's def an inconsistency between the disk useage analyzer and the steam storage display thing
but that's not the only confusing part
i've tried to check timeshift since that was the issue under Nobara (where i mislicked and let it backup the home-folder) but... no that wasn't the case it only freed up a couple of gb (i kept one backup)
then i tried to look in the superfolder of home and let it calculate the space taken by all the folders present there (obviously excluding the home folder and proc because kcore is shown as taking up 140,7tb for some reason)
it takes up around 80gb
and aside from the fact that i'm kinda confused why it takes up so much space... it still doesn't add up to 500gb
anyone have any idea where the storage space is taken up and how i can free some space up?
help would be greatly appreciated
Solution:Jump to solution
Also timeshift isn't as useful for a system where the main system files are readonly and are only updatable in atomic updates. Having a backup of /etc config is useful though.
47 Replies
so.... non-steam just increased to 315gb
idk why
just updated steam in game mode
it... increased to 323 now
i'm confused
i think i might just reset the deck again
There was a snapshot bug in Bazzite a few months back where it was taking snapshots when it wasn't supposed to be. Could you open btrfs-assistant and make sure that you don't have any snapshots enabled. If it's blank like this, then that's probably not the issue
looks like this
the snapper is empty
try running this in the terminal
podman system df I've had a distrobox container go crazy before let's see if anything there is using all your space
didn't start distrobox with this specific install since i figured out how to use ostree
if it might help in finding the issue: the decky loader is also not visible in gaming mode
regardless of what i'm doing (tried reinstalling, uninstalling and rven removing the homebrew folder)
maybe it's connected somehow?
Let's try use a tool called ncdu. Open the terminal and run
brew install ncdu then once it's installed run ncdu /var it will take a while to run and it's similar to app that shows space used but it's much more accurate and easier to navigate when finding out where all your space has gone
Hmm the space is getting used by something that your user doesn't have permission to see
it's like.... something is just blocking access to the storage but it's only visible by steam?
idk if that makes sense
ah yeah that makes sense
Let's try run it as the sudo user
sudo /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/bin/ncdu /varshows exactly the same just with a red header
if you run
rpm-ostree status you don't have a bunch of pinned images by any chance?
was tryin something with nemo but it didn't work...
i'll be back in a couple minutes
aaand i'm back
I might be one of the layered packages i.e. "alien blender etc" that might be contributing towards that large amount of background space used
Do you have timeshift snapshots configured?
yeah i set up timeshift but i made sure not to include the home directory
i mean since my experiment with nemo didn't work anyway i can remove nemo (and nemo-fileroller, python3-nemo, nemo-preview as well as thunar)
and i don't really need the dconf editor... was also needed for the nemo project
Try remove one of the snapshots and see how big an effect it makes on your space usage
Solution
Also timeshift isn't as useful for a system where the main system files are readonly and are only updatable in atomic updates. Having a backup of /etc config is useful though.
did that before with everything but one snapshot
gave me back a couple gbs
but gimme a sec i'll remove the last remaining two (they won't change anything anywa since they are made durin the time where this issue was already present)
also could we try ncdu again but give it the full filesystem and lets see if maybe there is a bunch of stuff in a weird location
sudo /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/bin/ncdu / this is how it comes back for me, I'm just using +-10 GB for the main system
i.... do not understand
why
okay so i removed the last two backups from timeshift and that freed up around 250Gb
we're back from 323gb non-steam to 73gb non-steam
why is it always timeshift...
i assume /run somehow links to my micro SD
gotta remove timeshift then...
i believe deployment include their own copy of /etc
if you arent backing up home you shouldnt need to backup anything
also if you want to layer that amount of software you might want to have a look into using your own template https://github.com/ublue-os/image-template like I'm playing with this https://github.com/wolfyreload/bazzite-dx
Oh yeah I forgot that each update makes a full copy of /etc then yeah no point in timeshift
gonna have to look into that, thanks
not really... knowledgeable about a ton of Linux stuff tbh
i think i'll reset it anyway once i looked at makin my own template since decky still doesn't wanna work
in any case: thanks for figuring out the issue
blender, discord, gimp, krita, kdenlive, obs, qbittorrent, vlc have flatpak
dont layer wine
wine was just something i needed for infinitefusion and i wasn't sure how to use it any other way than to install it via rpm-ostree
winezgui or lutris
tried out winezgui and it failed miserably with the .bat file
and lutris is a pain to properly set up for a single .bat file just to update the game and then use steam via proton on the exe anyways
i mean if you know what are you doing fine w/e, but most ppl are better using it through good wine manager
idk your specific problem but bat file should be straightforward
i do not at all know what i'm doin with wine
it was just the easiest solution to my issue
installed wine, right click the .bat and run via wine
was quick and worked
For deckyloader have you tried the uninstall script on their github?
curl -L https://github.com/SteamDeckHomebrew/decky-installer/releases/latest/download/uninstall.sh | sh? then just install it again with ujust setup-deckyif that worked without any winetricks then winezgui should work ootb
yeah did that before... doesn't change anything
i forgot to change the port in the syncthing plugin and after that decky just didn't show up anymore
after that:
i removed the homebrew folder
didn't work
i reinstalled decky loader
didn't work
i uninstalled decky loader via the terminal
i reinstalled it
restarted
didn't work
changed the syncthing gtk port from 21027 to 21029
didn't work
...
yeah i assumed it should have worked but for some reason it just spewed out some error
i even installed another wine gui to test that and... it just spewed a different error
it ran the script fine with wine only and... while that confused the frigg out of me i was honestly just glad that it works
but if you say i shouldn't use wine layered i'll try to find an alternative next time i set up the deck
Maybe open another tread for decky-loader there might be something useful in the service logs
the discord flatpak makes funky stuff
everything aside from obs i could technically use the flatpak for but i honestly prefer to use system packages
and for obs i am using a community plugin which... kinda works under flatpak but makes a ton of issues dependin on the system used so i rather use the system package where i know how to add and use it
it's fine, i will take a look on how to set up my own template tomorrow or later today and if i have the issue in the newly installed system as well then i can open up the thread :bcaCoolThumbs:
if you prefer layered packages, there is no point of using bazzite
the more layer you add the more risk you take
the docs and the dev clearly state that unless really needed dont layer stuff
there is some thing that need to be layered but doesnt mean you layer everything
i... do not know what layered packages are in all honesty
i am just using bazzite because Nobara has so many issues on the steamdeck that it's just straight up annoying and steamOS is way worse than bazzite
with bazzite, aside from miserably failing at installing vmware, everything works fine
and if you tell me to decrease the packages i install that aint flatpak, then i will only keep discord, vscode and obs
i... do not have the attention span for reading through tons of documentation and i know that's basically my own problem and not yours
but that's kinda the reason why i didn't know i shouldn't layer stuff (Whatever that means)
anyway the point is everything that doesnt need to be layered shouldnt be layered
you should use flatpak, brew, container, appimage instead, see here https://docs.bazzite.gg/Installing_and_Managing_Software/
the discord binary is way more broken under bazzite than the flatpak
using a distrobox for discord does kinda work but it also doesn't show the icon of it (and i'm kinda a graphic oriented person...)
i... was kinda desperate when i first started to use bazzite and tried to use anything but the discord flatpak since that kept crashing when i tried to share my screen...
anyway
i... do not know brew
and i'm quite sure that vscode and obs do not have an official appimage (and i'm also unsure how the obs plugin would interact with the unofficial appimage)
thanks for the link i'll take a look at that on my pc
gimme a few seconds
vscode layered is kinda acceptable (i used to do it before having my custom image)
discord screenshare now works (was broken)
obs have flatpak (not sure about plugin)
brew is mainly for cli apps
yeah i know that obs has a flatpak but the plugin for that is... difficult
it's kinda a gamble on whether or not you get it to work
hmmm okay i see the issue in using system packages
i will give the discord flatpak another try
i don't think there's an alternative to vscode as a system package tbh but that shouldn't give me too many issues
and... i will have to figure out if the obs plugin works under bazzite
vscode alternative is installing it inside distrobox
if you arent already using devcontainer its better to do it that way
hmmmm
alright then
i guess i could also install obs in a distrobox
okay yeah i'll have to do a lot of research for makin my own template
at least for now the issue is mostly resolved so.... you'll probably see me back once i have another issue lmao