How To: Enable hardware decode on chrome OS in crouton

[Xan Todaryan]

First I want to say a big thanks to slouken for getting hardware decode through vaapi on intel working on linux.

The following worked for me on an Acer C720. Obviously this only works on intel machines and may work for other chromebooks.

First you'll need to enable developer mode on your chromebook. I'm not going to cover this as it is well documented on the internet.

The next step can be performed at any time, however I put it first as it is easy to forget and the auto discovery won't work without it.

You must open the discovery ports in chrome OS for steam streaming.

Open shell (Press "Ctrl + alt + t", then type "shell") type or paste in the following commands, one line at a time:

sudo iptables -I INPUT -p udp --dport 27031 -j ACCEPT
sudo iptables -I INPUT -p udp --dport 27036 -j ACCEPT
sudo iptables -I INPUT -p tcp --dport 27036 -j ACCEPT
sudo iptables -I INPUT -p tcp --dport 27037 -j ACCEPT

Next you'll need to grab the crouton script from here[github.com].

You absolutely have to install your crouton as 32-bit. I could not get the 32-bit vaapi driver to work on a 64-bit crouton.

Open a shell (Press "Ctrl + alt + t", then type "shell") type or paste in the following command to install a trusty based XFCE crouton:

sudo sh ~/Downloads/crouton -r trusty -t xfce -a i686

This will go through the process of installing your CHROOT environment. Once it has finished you need to enter it by entering "sudo startxfce4" in a shell.

Inside xfce you'll have to do a couple things.

The first is installing the tools so you can add a PPA to get the latest vaapi driver.
Out of the box add-apt-repository will not be included so you must first install it:

sudo apt-get install software-properties-common

Then add the repository for the vaapi driver:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:wsnipex/vaapi

Then you can install the vaapi drivers:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install libva1 vainfo i965-va-driver libva-glx1 libva-dev

Lastly you'll need to logout of xfce and then start it again from the shell. Once that is finished verify that vaapi is working, type the following on the command line in xfce:

vainfo

The output should contain:

libva info: VA-API version 0.35.2
libva info: va_getDriverName() returns 0
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/dri/i965_drv_video.so
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_0_35
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0
vainfo: VA-API version: 0.35 (libva 1.3.2.pre1)
vainfo: Driver version: Intel i965 driver for Intel(R) Haswell Mobile - 1.3.3.pre1

Once you install steam inside the CHROOT you can enable hardware decode under streaming and verify with the debug overlay or the streaming log that hardware decode is working.

Hope this helps.

[Xan Todaryan]

If anybody figures out how to get an Xbox 360 controller working with crouton that would be great. I tried everything and couldn't get steam to detect it.

For the time being I've been dual booting my chromebook until I can get controller support.

[Xan Todaryan]

Got the the controller working, however it is a bit shady.

It appears without root steam can't detect the controller. I have a feeling this is due to the xpad driver being used by Chrome OS.

You'll need to edit the steam launcher script in /usr/bin/steam and comment out the following lines:

# Don't allow running as root
if [ "$(id -u)" == "0" ]; then
    show_message --error $"Cannot run as root user"
    exit 1
fi

Then run steam from the command line using "gksu steam".

[Gordon Freeman]

Does this work with the wireless xbox controller as well?

[Gordon Freeman]

Originally posted by Death Stalker:

Got the the controller working, however it is a bit shady.

It appears without root steam can't detect the controller. I have a feeling this is due to the xpad driver being used by Chrome OS.

You'll need to edit the steam launcher script in /usr/bin/steam and comment out the following lines:

# Don't allow running as root
if [ "$(id -u)" == "0" ]; then
    show_message --error $"Cannot run as root user"
    exit 1
fi

Then run steam from the command line using "gksu steam".

How do you comment out that line? is it by erasing the } symbol on top of it?

[Xan Todaryan]

@Gordon Freeman

It should work just as well with a wireless controller, but I haven't tested it. To comment out those lines you put a # at the beginning of the line. You could also delete that if block, I chose to comment it out in case I found another way and didn't want to run it as root.

[Gordon Freeman]

@Death Stalker

It wont let me modify files in the root directory, do you have crouton installed on an SD card or in your chromebooks SSD?

Ive resorted to installung Chrubuntu and wireless xbox controller works just fine

[Xan Todaryan]

@Gordon Freeman

I've got it installed to the SSD. You'll have to edit it as root. If you have installed the xfce environment you can use the command "gksu mousepad /usr/bin/steam" to acomplish this.

Chrubuntu should work as well since it is natively running ubuntu. I didn't opt for this route as my chromebook has a very small SSD. Don't forget to install the intel vaapi drivers in chrubuntu for hardware decode support.

[Gordon Freeman]

@Death Stalker

Thanks a lot for your help. I also prefer crouton, only need to use linux for vlc and steam streaming. Will give that command a go.

[hardran3]

@ Death Stalker

I have my 360 wired controller working in crouton chroot, xfce 14.04, although i haven't tested in Steam, but it does now work in retroarch, ppsspp, and xbmc, so it should work in steam as well.

I had to add my user to the "input" group in my chroot, then the controllers become readable.

$ usermod -a -G input $username

[the-kokiri-kid]

Originally posted by hardran3:

@ Death Stalker

I have my 360 wired controller working in crouton chroot, xfce 14.04, although i haven't tested in Steam, but it does now work in retroarch, ppsspp, and xbmc, so it should work in steam as well.

I had to add my user to the "input" group in my chroot, then the controllers become readable.

$ usermod -a -G input $username

This worked for me too. I've been looking for this for a while and couldn't figure it out. Thanks for posting here!

For anyone else: I'm on a HP chromebook 14, crouton, Ubuntu 14.04, xboxdrv installed (though I don't know if that was necessary), running latest version of steam. Gamestop Xbox 360 tested and confirmed working with Braid.

[Gordon Freeman]

Originally posted by hardran3:

@ Death Stalker

I have my 360 wired controller working in crouton chroot, xfce 14.04, although i haven't tested in Steam, but it does now work in retroarch, ppsspp, and xbmc, so it should work in steam as well.

I had to add my user to the "input" group in my chroot, then the controllers become readable.

$ usermod -a -G input $username

Sorry guys Im not good with linux could you explain as to where Im supposed to add $ usermod -a -G input $username. Ive got the toshiba chromebook2 and streaming seems to be working fine @ 1080p, I just need to get the controller working so I can fully test it out.

Thanks

[Xan Todaryan]

You need to enter your chroot, usually its enter chroot "rootname" from the shell. you need to replace $username with the username for your chromebook, usually its like chronos or something.

[Gordon Freeman]

I got it, enter xfce4 then on terminal type

sudo usermod -a -G input "username"

thanks guys