Hello, this may not be a question to ask on this forum, but I don’t know where to ask it elsewhere.
Truenas version, 25.04.2.5 running smb service with ADS disabled.
I migrated my steam game library to the NAS, and since then am unable to launch any game.
“Failed to start to process for this game: “Toegang geweigerd” (0x5)”
This happens with every executable I have stored on the nas.
My question: Is this due to MS win11, or a setting elsewhere?
Thankyou.
I just tried with darksiders warmastered edition and it started fine, but i remember that some games i tried to store on my nas simply wouldn’t launch via smb…
I have checked to see if the executable flag is set, it is, but win11 just plainly refuses to execute anything without ownership (that it is aware of), or so it seems.
I wonder who’s protecting who.
what’s one of the games that would not launch? if i have it in my library i’ll try moving it to my nas
SOTTR
Note though, I have configured the nas not to store any ownership data (ADS, ACL &c.)
yeah doesn’t work for me either
Seems weird, doesn’t it?
I mean, securitywise it makes sense, but not at this level.
That’s why so many use iscsi for game libraries, it’s more resource heavy but at least it works…
That may be true, but was not what I was trying to accomplish.
As already mentioned, some games work with smb others don’t. It may not be possible to achive what you want using smb… good luck on your adventures…
Yes, well I already fathomed that.
I would like to know why though.
I mean, if I can accept the reasoning, I can accept the hindrance.
Otherwise, it seems just plainly stupid and weird.
As far as my google foo got me, the most common answers were missing execute permissions and steam simply doesn’t like smb.
So we are gathered in the philosophical domain …
If steam can’t assure ownership, yet the data I produce is exact, this data does not belong to me?
I don’t know exactly what, but something is really really wrong here.
The solution is quite simple though.
Either EIDOS or steam includes the disclaimer that the/this game only works on local drives.
The question remains, why?
The answer to your question is a bit of a rabbit-hole around file systems, network file systems, protocols, performance, developer decisions in writing the game code, and Operating System complexities (such as how the kernel treats what we see as ‘drives’ - mapped drives, versus SMB paths, versus iSCSI LUNs, etc. - how the OS sees a drive, how Windows Defender features behave across these different storage types, and the list goes one)
So while I cannot answer your question in detail, I have had the same experience with SMB, and the short answer is: SMB just isn’t compatible or performant enough for some games, and Windows as an OS has also changed a lot in how SMB is user (mostly secure protocol changes, etc.).
My suggestion: create an iSCSI LUN on your TrueNAS, connect your Windows PC to this, and install the games here. Assuming you have fast enough network, it will be quick, and in the event your gaming PC dies, you simply connect a new OS to the iSCSI LUN and your games are all there.
Agreeing with ClanMudhorn3. Devs will limit the scope of the installation to “local” drives for various reasons, like anti-cheat or maximizing performance. SMB is generally not considered high performance when comparing to iSCSI or NVMe-oF where the allocated blocks are raw and latency protocol is lower. The only negative is these are pre-allocated spaces set aside for the OS to use as local storage.
As an alternative, you can use symlinks to redirect the installs, and it shouldn’t notice where the files are being stored. This will make better use of your NAS storage if you prefer not to setup iSCSI or NVMe-oF.
Additionally, you will want to use 2.5GbE or faster as 1GbE will only yield a theoretical 125 MB/s. Expect less with TCP/IP overhead.
I wanted to follow up and give an update using SMB + symlinks for Steam games, and it works. Aside from games that have compatibility issues, open elevated command prompt:
mklink /D original destination
ie
mklink /D c:\steam \\10.0.0.3\smb_share
Tested games:
Android Cactus
Bard’s Tale
Bastion
Batman Arkham GOTy
Borderlands 2
Brawlhalla
Castle Crashers
Devil May Cry 5
Divinity 1/2
Elder Scrolls V
Gauntlet
and a bunch more
I have just resolved the problem.
It would seem the executable flag is not set.
You do need to access your nas via a terminal …
Then: chmod +x *.exe and chmod +x *.dll in the directory where the SOTTR files are stored makes it run.
Better than on local drives, I might note, due to excellent (and off site) caching.
Note though:
I have 2x 2.5Gb connection to my (true)nas
On the nas one is ipv4 DHCP and the other is ipv6 DHCP.
On my win11 pc I did not have to change a thing.
On the nas I enabled smb multichannel.
Depending on the credentials you setup and the ACL permissions, yes you may have to elevate the permissions on the folder for execution. If ACL has full permissions, all sub-folders should inherit the permissions and if the authenticated ID has the ACL set all related folders should follow.
