protonscr

Steam does not download the base files of the game

steamclosed
ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux#12442 · opened 2025-11-13 by Fycin · updated 2025-11-14 · 2 comments · github
FFycin 2025-11-13 github

Your system information

  • Steam client version: 1759461205
  • Distribution: Nobara Linux 42 (64 bit) GNOME
  • Opted into Steam client beta?: No
  • Have you checked for system updates?: Yes
  • Steam Logs:

steam-logs.tar.gz

  • GPU: AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT

Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:

Hello, my problem is that when I download the game Squad, Steam only downloads 15.29 KB of files, and then it just downloads another 800 MB. As a result, the game folder has the following structure: Squad/SquadGame/Plugins/Mods/CanadianArmedForses. So, there are just 4 nested folders, and at the end there's a Readme file and the game icon. So Steam doesn't download the game's core files, just some crap related to the latest update . If I select the Squad - public testing version, it says that the download size is 56.66 GB. If you run Squad, it will give you an error: Missing game executable.

Steps for reproducing this issue:

  1. Select Squad from library
  2. Click on install
  3. When it's installed, click the play button and get an error:
Image
  1. Go to the game folder and see that the main files are not there
Image
Jjn64 2025-11-14 github

If you select Squad in your Library and click the "Show game details" ⓘ icon, does it say a Proton version is selected? E.g. a line like "Runs on this computer via Steam Play. Proton 9.0 selected by you for this title."

Don't change compatibility settings yet, find out what it says here first.

It looks like the game has an empty Linux depot.

The 2 files you got are for the Canadian Armed Forces DLC (which seems to be a dummy/placeholder depot, looks like the content was moved into the base game download years ago).

Interesting line from your logs:

$ rg 393380 | rg depot
console_log.txt:[2025-11-12 19:39:30] AppID 393380 does not advertise linux as a supported platform, but a linux specific depot is present.

Probably it can be fixed by selecting a compatibility tool (right-click game in library > Properties > Compatibility). Try Proton 9 according to ProtonDB reports.

FFycin 2025-11-14 github

Thank you very much. For some reason, it was set to native Linux compatibility, even though I had Proton installed on all my games. I selected Proton again, and it worked. I'll keep this in mind.

Proton versions