Hello, any news about this major regression that can lead to hardware damage / data loss because of overheating ?
Workaround I tried
(Reminder : games updates are allowed only 1 hour per day , when my PC is unattended. So it does not interfere with this test)
1/ On my "2ndHDD", I symlinked every folder from steamapps folder (except "common" that contains the games) to the default steam library from my main SSD :
Expected effect : minimize access to 2ndHDD.
$ ll /media/user/2ndHDD/SteamLibrary/steamapps/
[...]
compatdata -> /home/user/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/
downloading -> /home/user/.steam/steam/steamapps/downloading/
music -> /home/user/.steam/steam/steamapps/music/
shadercache -> /home/user/.steam/steam/steamapps/shadercache/
temp -> /home/user/.steam/steam/steamapps/temp/
workshop -> /home/user/.steam/steam/steamapps/workshop/
2/
T0 : I start steam with 2ndHDD mounted, its steam library is loaded.
T0+6min : 2ndHDD start to sleep as usual (thanks to gnome-disks Timeout settings)
T0+10min : 2ndHDD wakes up => workaround did not work !
3/ Finally I track which file or folder had a recent mtime
$ sudo find /media/user/2ndHDD/ -newermt '4 minutes ago'
/media/user/2ndHDD/SteamLibrary/
SteamLibrary mtime matches exactly T0+10min.
So what happens ?
Since Steam version "Oct 6 2021", every steam library is "touched" every 10min ? Why ? It worked beautifully before that.
So I found a workaround, but it's a bit convoluted. Try at your own risk !
Let's say you have 2 libraries : 1st (default) on SSD, 2nd on HDD. You want the HDD to auto stand-by / sleep when not used.
libraryfolder.vdf on the SSD by the one on your HDD. Please note the “contentid” value.~/.steam/debian-installation/config/libraryfolders.vdf : look for the “contentid" and change the "path" value to make it point to the 3rd library on your SSDsteamapps folder of your HDD to the steamapps folder of your 3rd library except the steamapps/common that must stay on the HDD.steamapps folder of your 3rd library, delete here the (empty) common folder and create a symlink ( ln -s ) to the remaining common folder on the HDD (all the games binaries are here !)Update on this bug : no real improvement since it appeared in Steam client version : Oct 6 2021
But the unnecessary (*) "Library/HDD wake up" is now more random, and can be tracked in logs with event BRefreshApplicationsInLibrary :
$ journalctl -b |grep BRefreshApplicationsInLibrary
sept. 16 14:39:55 host steam.desktop[5115]: BRefreshApplicationsInLibrary 1: 2ms
sept. 16 15:05:57 host steam.desktop[5115]: BRefreshApplicationsInLibrary 1: 2ms
sept. 16 16:50:32 host steam.desktop[5115]: BRefreshApplicationsInLibrary 1: 13ms
(*) Reminder : my auto-updates are restricted to an 1 hour slot (19:00 - 20:00).
Nothing extracted yet.
Your system information
Steam client version (build number or date): Oct 6 2021
Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): Ubuntu 21.04
Opted into Steam client beta?: No
Have you checked for system updates?: Yes
Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:
I have Steam games in 2 Libraries :
main library on SSD (/dev/sda) : Steam client + most used games
secondary library on HDD (/dev/sdb) : all other games
Games updates are allowed only 1 hour per day , when my PC is unattended (11AM to 12PM)
So : when there is no updates and I don't play games from /dev/sdb, this HDD goes to sleep, for hours.
Or I should say : "it went".
Since last update (Build Oct 6 2021), the HDD no more goes to sleep. At all.
If I manually put it to sleep, it wakes up within minutes
If I quit Steam completely, the HDD can go to sleep again, and stay in this state.
I tried to track the wakeup root cause in logs without success.
Can you please revert what you did ? I really don't expect to let my HDD overheat and produce unnecessary noise.
Quitting (and restarting) Steam after each session is also a bit painful.