Steam Deck – BTRFS to use the SD Card in Linux and Windows

BTRFS on your sd card can have some benefits:

• The sd card with BTRFS can be used in Linux and Windows and if you have dual boot on your Steam Deck, you can use the same Steam library on both systems
• BTRFS has a compression, which don´t costs much CPU performance. The sd card trasfer speed is the bottleneck and not the CPU performance. With the compression you can have faster loading times of your favorite game
• With the compression you can save up to 40% of capacity of the sd card automatically

Here you can find the information about the project: https://github.com/Trevo525/btrfdeck

At all, you have to copy two files to the Steam Deck, that the Steam Deck can format your sd card as BTRDS and mount it with BTRFS and compression.

Steam Deck – BTRFS – Installation of two files

1. At first you have to set the password of your Steam Deck user: http://chilltimes.de/2022/05/01/steam-deck-set-password-for-sudo/
2. The next step is to start the „Konsole“ and don´t change the directory

3. Now you have to download the files you need. Use this command in the „Konsole“:

git clone https://github.com/Trevo525/btrfdeck

4. The two files „format-sdcard.sh“ and „sdcard-mount.sh“ must be copied in this folder: „/usr/lib/hwsupport/“ Use this 2 commands in the „Konsole“ to copy the two files:

sudo cp /home/deck/btrfdeck/modified/format-sdcard.sh /usr/lib/hwsupport/format-sdcard.sh
sudo cp /home/deck/btrfdeck/modified/sdcard-mount.sh /usr/lib/hwsupport/sdcard-mount.sh

Steam Deck – BTRDS – Format sd card

Now you can format the sd card with BTRFS:

1. Start the gaming mode on the Steam Deck
2. Push the „Steam“ button and select „Settings“ and go to „System“
3. Here can select „format“ and you sd card would be formatted with BTRFS

Steam Deck – BTRFS – Steam Deck updates

Some Steam Deck updates overwrite these two files again. If your SD card does not load properly and the installed games are not recognized anymore, both files have to be copied again.

But if the SD Card is already formatted, it is also sufficient to copy only the file „sdcard-mount.sh“.