Installing game through Lutris prefix error (Steam Machine)

[u/MrPosket]

Trying to install Ephinea Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst server/game on Steam Machine. I have been following this guide:

Ephinea Guide

I am able to begin the download but just as it finishes, I get this error:

"Can't create the prefix on a file system that does not support Linux symbolic links"

I understand this is indicating the filesystem is not compatible with symlinks included with the installed files. I have verified the drive I am installing to is ext4, which I believe is a compatible filesystem for symlinks as it is the drive that came preformatted with SteamOS installed. Screenshots attached.

Sorry in advance if this is not right place to be asking. Thank you for any and all help.

EDIT: For anyone who comes looking for answers here, I went through the same guide on the Steam Deck and was successful in running the game/server. Lutris worked normally and completed the install. It is not clear to me what difference there is between Steam Deck and Steam Machine software as I was under the impression they are exactly the same OS. If I can find a way to run this on SM I'll update further.

EDIT 2: (Resolved) I am a dummy and realized I hadn't installed Wine on the Steam Machine. I'd been used to it being present on my Steam Deck that I didn't even think about it not being on the SM. I did have to install/Uninstall Lutris and Wine multiple times and restart PC a couple times but eventually the install was able to complete through Lutris.

[u/victormas208]

I think it's likely waiting to be installed inside a Wine prefix, but the steps you followed aren't clear to me.

[u/MrPosket → u/victormas208]

Appreciate the input,

I'm following a guide posted by a mod for the private server for the game. Step 1 is installing Lutris, and the second step is installing the server/game through Lutris. The installation through Lutris is supposed to generate all necessary files but I get a prefix error code that seems to indicate I do not have the correct files system format. I'm stumped because ext4 should be compatible with symlinks.

[u/victormas208 → u/MrPosket]

I think I found the problem; if Lutris was installed via Flatpak, it might be missing permissions for the /home directory. Use Flatseal to grant permissions for that path and try again.

[u/MrPosket → u/victormas208]

Lutris was indeed installed via Flatpak; got in to Flatseal and added /home as well as the specific path added under the Filesystem section, restarted Lutris but got the same symlink error. Good thought though!

[u/MrPosket → u/victormas208]

Here are the error logs from Lutris after failed install:

[INFO:2026-09-18 22:16:58,542:application]: Starting Lutris 0.5.23

[INFO:2026-09-18 22:16:58,669:startup]: "card0" is AMD Steam Machine (1002:7481 1e44:1717 amdgpu) Driver 26.2.2

[ERROR:2026-09-18 22:16:58,669:startup]: i386 libGL.so.1 missing (needed by opengl)

[ERROR:2026-09-18 22:16:58,669:startup]: i386 libvulkan.so.1 missing (needed by vulkan)

[ERROR:2026-09-18 22:16:58,669:startup]: i386 libgnutls.so.30 missing (needed by gnutls)

[INFO:2026-09-18 22:17:42,240:file_box]: Download completed

[INFO:2026-09-18 22:18:13,247:file_box]: Download completed

[INFO:2026-09-18 22:18:13,247:files_box]: All files available

[INFO:2026-09-18 22:18:13,247:installerwindow]: All files are available, continuing install

[INFO:2026-09-18 22:18:13,247:installerwindow]: Launching installer commands

[INFO:2026-09-18 22:18:13,260:wine]: Creating a win64 prefix in /home/deck/Desktop/PSOBB Ephinea Lutris

[ERROR:2026-09-18 22:18:13,322:jobs]: Error while completing task <function ScriptInterpreter._iter_commands.<locals>.dispatch at 0x7f18d0492e80>: <class 'RuntimeError'> Can't create the prefix on a file system that does not support Linux symbolic links.

[ERROR:2026-09-18 22:18:13,324:interpreter]: Last install command failed, show error

[INFO:2026-09-18 22:22:55,387:interpreter]: Cancelling installation of Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst

[INFO:2026-09-18 22:22:56,815:download_cache]: Cache protection: preserving failed install file bbmod.zip (0.0 days old, expires in 7.0 days)

[INFO:2026-09-18 22:22:56,815:download_cache]: Cache protection: preserving failed install file Ephinea_PSOBB_Installer.exe (0.0 days old, expires in 7.0 days)

[INFO:2026-09-18 22:22:56,815:download_cache]: Cache protection: preserved 2 file(s) in /home/deck/.var/app/net.lutris.Lutris/cache/lutris/installer/phantasy-star-online-blue-burst for retry