On Linux, the Steam Hardware Survey appears to initialize immediately on first Steam login after a fresh install, before additional storage devices are mounted or added as Steam Library folders.
As a result, the survey only captures the primary system drive (typically the root filesystem) and does not reflect the actual total storage capacity of the system if additional drives are mounted or configured later.
Once the initial survey has run, storage information does not seem to be re-evaluated or updated, even after:
secondary/internal drives are mounted,
additional filesystems are made available under /mnt or /media,
or new Steam Library folders are added on those drives.
Example - I have 3TB of storage and Steam only ever thinks I have 1TB on every survey I have ever done. This means that I always have at least 3 times the amount of storage you think I do. If this is happening to me with my modest budget and hardware - it's seriously effecting the majority of the data you have collected on most Linux users.
Impact
This behaviour likely skews Steam Hardware Survey data for Linux users, particularly regarding total storage capacity. Given the increasing size of modern games, accurate storage reporting may be important for understanding real-world Linux user configurations and constraints.
On Linux, the Steam Hardware Survey appears to initialize immediately on first Steam login after a fresh install, before additional storage devices are mounted or added as Steam Library folders.
As a result, the survey only captures the primary system drive (typically the root filesystem) and does not reflect the actual total storage capacity of the system if additional drives are mounted or configured later.
Once the initial survey has run, storage information does not seem to be re-evaluated or updated, even after:
secondary/internal drives are mounted,
additional filesystems are made available under /mnt or /media,
or new Steam Library folders are added on those drives.
Example - I have 3TB of storage and Steam only ever thinks I have 1TB on every survey I have ever done. This means that I always have at least 3 times the amount of storage you think I do. If this is happening to me with my modest budget and hardware - it's seriously effecting the majority of the data you have collected on most Linux users.
Impact
This behaviour likely skews Steam Hardware Survey data for Linux users, particularly regarding total storage capacity. Given the increasing size of modern games, accurate storage reporting may be important for understanding real-world Linux user configurations and constraints.
Environment
Platform: Linux
Steam client: Stable (non-beta)
Distribution: Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS