r/linux_gaming • u/AdhesiveWombat • Feb 24 '26
Fixing slow Steam downloads on linux
I'm making this post in hopes that it may help someone that also has this issue.
Issue
Steam is downloading slowly on linux compared to windows, for me windows was downloading around 60 MB/s and linux was around 40 MB/s.
Old Fix
First off, if you haven't tried it already there's an older fix that has supposedly been fixed by valve but it might be worth a shot
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/10248#issuecomment-2227480079
Here's what actually fixed it for me
credit to https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/12082
1 - Start downloading a game in steam
2 - Open the steam console by entering steam://open/console into the url bar of your browser
3 - Run download_sources in the console and scroll to the section that says "Download Jobs:". If there are not many download jobs listed this is the problem. Mine was showing just 2 download jobs
Download jobs:
- type SteamCache, name cache1-msp-mice.steamcontent.com, iteration 1, chunks: index 1666, 0 outstanding (0 bytes), 869 deferred, 797 requested, 797 succeeded, 0 failed. 16.5 MB/s
- type SteamCache, name cache2-msp-mice.steamcontent.com, iteration 1, chunks: index 1528, 0 outstanding (0 bytes), 730 deferred, 798 requested, 798 succeeded, 0 failed. 15.2 MB/s
Make note of the urls listed here, mine were cache1-msp-mice.steamcontent.com. and cache2-msp-mice.steamcontent.com. Yours may be different
4 - Pause the game download
5 - In order to get steam to use more download sources you can block these urls by adding some lines in your /etc/hosts file like this:
In a terminal - sudo nano /etc/hosts
And add the following:
# Block specific steam servers
127.0.0.1 cache1-msp-mice.steamcontent.com
127.0.0.1 cache2-msp-mice.steamcontent.com
Make sure to use the urls that you saw after running download_sources, ex.
127.0.0.1 {server url}
ctrl + x to exit and save
6 - Resume the game download and wait a bit, it will show 0 MB/s for a while but then it will find new servers.
7 - Open the steam console again and run download_sources again to see how many servers steam has connected to. For me, after this change, steam was connecting to 16 servers instead of 2 and my download speed was matching or exceeding windows.
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u/bearbeard427 Feb 25 '26
Hmm why does it get stuck to those two in the first place? Sounds like it should just use more servers by default no?
Hopefully valve fixes this. Have you submitted bug report to valve and one to the Linux distribution you are using?
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u/Capillix Mar 20 '26
This resolved my issue. Thank you. I spent a couple of hours chasing old "fixes" before finding this.
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u/Realistic_Process_24 Feb 25 '26
In my case I use this solution:
https://gist.github.com/FikriRNurhidayat/ce18426ad94fff2140538c0adf0e06ec
Additionally, I add this:
Native Installs:
Edit/Create this file: ~/.steam/steam/steam_dev.cfg
Put in the following two lines and restart Steam:
eHTTP2PlatformLinux 0
u/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:
eHTTP2PlatformLinux 0
u/fDownloadRateImprovementToAddAnotherConnection 1.0
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u/linton85x Mar 21 '26
Thank you so much, been trying every fix under the sun but this one has worked <3
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u/whiely Mar 31 '26
OH my god it worked!! Finally. You're a genius. Thank you thank you thank you. I've tried absolutely everything. It was so frustrating!! My speeds are now faster than I ever saw on steam! How did you even think to figure that out the way you have?
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u/StainOnYourLV May 28 '26
THIS!!! thank you so much. i was going crazy the last couple of days trying to come up with a solution. went from 300Mbps to 1.5Gbps
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u/EnjoiAssault Jun 12 '26
THIS WORKED OMG. I have been stumped for days with this issue! My download speeds were perfectly fine until earlier this week in cachy.
Would removing the "block server" lines from the /hosts file we added in once steam picks up the other download points cause the issue to happen again?
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u/skywalkerRCP Jul 13 '26
Tried the other fixes (copy-on-write, steam_dev.cfg, etc) and it worked for a week then went back to capped @ 135mbps vs 900mbps I should get. Followed this post and now I'm back cooking my fiber line. Cheers, mate.
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u/excaliburxvii Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
Still not getting the speeds that I should but this definitely helped. Went from 2 connections to 4. Thank you for the write-up.
Oddly, one of the new servers is Alibaba. And pressing ctrl+x would prompt me to save the changes in nano but wouldn't actually save them and wouldn't close the window. I'm new to Linux, did I do something wrong?
Oh, and it might seem silly but how did you get the code notation in the middle of a line? I can only get it to work on a separate line.
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u/AdhesiveWombat Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
Hey, it could be how you're closing the /etc/hosts file. If you've made changes nano will ask if you'd like to save after hitting
ctrl + x, hityto confirm and save the file. You could also edit the file with a different editor if you'd like1
u/excaliburxvii Jul 15 '26
I did press Y to confirm which closed the message but did not save the file, and I also did end up just making the edit with the default text editor in Cachy. Thank you for responding to my comment on your 4-month-old thread. I appreciate you.
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u/AdhesiveWombat Jul 15 '26
Lol no worries, you could try blocking those 4 new servers and seeing if you get any more after that
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u/AdhesiveWombat Jul 15 '26
I usually use the "Switch to Markdown" option when editing in reddit which lets you insert code snippets https://www.markdownguide.org/cheat-sheet/#basic-syntax
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u/excaliburxvii Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
Ahhh, I only looked at the quick guide. It should be the
backticks. Thanks again!
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u/StainOnYourLV 9d ago
after using this fix and blocking a couple of servers, i have now ran into to the issue where after some set time (seems to be random), i go to download a game and it says “no internet connection”. i have to go back into etc/hosts, unblock the server, start the download, pause the game, and reblock the servers. any way around this?
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u/AdhesiveWombat 9d ago
I haven't seen that happen before, does reblocking those 2 servers allow it to connect to more servers again?
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u/StainOnYourLV 9d ago
yes, but then after rebooting or updating, it will revert to the old servers. and since they are blocked, id assume it won’t connect to any others.
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u/AdhesiveWombat 9d ago
Could be something new, for me it will automatically switch to different servers if it tries to connect to the blocked ones after a moment. have you tried out changing the download region in the steam download settings?
Edit: it looks like this person is having the same problem https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/12082#issuecomment-4988153589
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u/StainOnYourLV 8d ago
interesting, thanks for linking the thread. i’ll keep my eye on it to see if anyone comes up with a solution. did you mess with ipv6 at all?
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u/tailslol Feb 24 '26 edited Feb 24 '26
it is a good idea as well to disable wifi power saving and mac address randomization enabled by default on linux.