Steam Download Speed Issue on Linux

Slow-Steam-Download-Speed-Linux.md

Steam Download Speed is so slow on Linux

Oh boi, here I give you the solution for that. This document is based on these links:

• https://steamcommunity.com/app/221410/discussions/2/616189106498372437/?l=portuguese&ctp=8
• https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/dnsmasq#NetworkManager
• ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux#3401

TLDR

My solution seems to be deprecated, there are other solution from the comment on this Gist, that actually works. So, please use that instead, it's way much simpler, and it works. https://gist.github.com/FikriRNurhidayat/ce18426ad94fff2140538c0adf0e06ec?permalink_comment_id=4806133#gistcomment-4806133

Why is it slow?

I don't know, perhaps the Steam application doesn't cache the dns locally or something hence your computer will always lookup for the domain everytime you download it on each chunks. CMIIW.

Here's how you solve it

dnsmasq

This is a binary that will act as DNS server on your local machince, so whenever your machine want to know what google.com is, we will talk to this software then, they will look it up for you and save it to the local cache.

Install dnsmasq

First you need to install dnsmasq.

Arch Linux

sudo pacman -S dnsmasq

Debian

sudo apt install dnsmasq

Configure dnsmasq

After that edit /etc/dnsmasq.conf

# Tell which address should dnsmasqd listen 
listen-address=127.0.0.1

# Tell dnsmasq to not read /etc/resolv.conf
# since it will only contain itself anyway
no-resolv 

# Which port will dnsmasq run
port=0 

# Outside world nameserver,
# so when the dnsmasq don't know what domain it is,
# it will talk to 1.1.1.1 and save the answer to locally
server=1.1.1.1 

# I believe this is Google Nameserver
server=8.8.8.8
server=8.8.4.4

Network Manager

network-manager is a service that will run on systemd, it handles everything about the networking on your local machine.

The only thing that you need to configure on this service is just the dns entry. Edit this /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf, don't forget edit it with sudo privileges. Add this following line:

[main]
dns=dnsmasq

Those line will tell network manager to use dnsmasq as dns. And it will automatically start the dnsmasq service everytime NetworkManager started.

Finally

Restart your network manager service.

sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager

Wait for a while. Then try to download it again, it may takes time to actually be on normal speed, since your local machine will lookup for a lot of address on Steam CDN/Repository.

any clues on what to do if this doesnt work?
linux mint 21.2 user

For myself it worked without any changes in NetworkManager.conf and with one change in dnsmasq.conf: listen-address=127.0.0.1.
After that I used two commands:
sudo systemctl restart dnsmasq.service
sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager
Pause-start download in steam and all fixed

Noticeable improvement on service restart

Sad to say, this did nothing at all to fix or change the speed cap I get downloading from Steam on Linux. I'm pretty sure this is not a DNS problem.

Try this...

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/steam#Disable_HTTP2_for_faster_downloads

Native Installs:
Edit/Create this file: ~/.steam/steam/steam_dev.cfg

Put in the following two lines and restart Steam:
@nClientDownloadEnableHTTP2PlatformLinux 0
@fDownloadRateImprovementToAddAnotherConnection 1.0

If you are using Flatpak use this file path:
~/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.steam/steam/steam_dev.cfg

Put in the following two lines and restart Steam:
@nClientDownloadEnableHTTP2PlatformLinux 0
@fDownloadRateImprovementToAddAnotherConnection 1.0

Before the change to the file:

After the change:

Try this...

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/steam#Disable_HTTP2_for_faster_downloads

Native Installs:
Edit/Create this file: ~/.steam/steam/steam_dev.cfg

Put in the following two lines and restart Steam:
@nClientDownloadEnableHTTP2PlatformLinux 0
@fDownloadRateImprovementToAddAnotherConnection 1.0

If you are using Flatpak use this file path:
~/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.steam/steam/steam_dev.cfg

Put in the following two lines and restart Steam:
@nClientDownloadEnableHTTP2PlatformLinux 0
@fDownloadRateImprovementToAddAnotherConnection 1.0

Before the change to the file:

After the change:

perfect! getting max speed now!

Hello,

Ive followed the steps above,

Ive now tried dnsmasq, disabling IPv6, adding the steam_dev.cfg file with the two lines mentioned above, and yet my download speeds platau around 130 Mbps

Downloading on Windows Hover it shoots up to 300Mbps.

To note, i am running a dual booted machine and my theory is that there is something going on here, but i dont know for certain.

Any more tips around this would be greatly appreciated.

Hello again,

Aparently a reboot wasnt enough, but this morning after booting up my pc, i noticed steam downloads being good.

Meaning that the solutions mentioned here work!

Try this...

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/steam#Disable_HTTP2_for_faster_downloads

Native Installs:
Edit/Create this file: ~/.steam/steam/steam_dev.cfg

Put in the following two lines and restart Steam:
@nClientDownloadEnableHTTP2PlatformLinux 0
@fDownloadRateImprovementToAddAnotherConnection 1.0

If you are using Flatpak use this file path:
~/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.steam/steam/steam_dev.cfg

Put in the following two lines and restart Steam:
@nClientDownloadEnableHTTP2PlatformLinux 0
@fDownloadRateImprovementToAddAnotherConnection 1.0

Before the change to the file:

After the change:

Awesome, it worked for me. Thank you!

@blakeridgway thanks! that actually worked for me!

@blakeridgway thanks, your comment worked for me.

Thanks, for some reason all other solutions did not work, this was the only one that worked

I have since made a repo for the fix.
Will be working on a script to be able to run that will autodetect the file path of the Steam install and place the steam_dev.cfg file in it.

https://github.com/blakeridgway/linux_steam_download_fix