How to install Steam on a Chromebook


Today we are looking at how to install Steam on a Chromebook.

If you have any questions, please contact us via a Rumble comment and we would be happy to assist you!

This tutorial will only work on Chromebooks with an Intel or AMD CPU (with Linux Apps Support) and not those with an ARM64 architecture CPU.

Please use the video as a visual guide, and the commands and links below to install it on your Chromebook.

Please take note that only games with a Linux client will work and your Chromebook must be powerful enough to run them.

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1) 00:05 (time stamp in the video)
We start the process by enabling two Chrome Flags in our Chromebook.  It is to increase the performance of the game, it is optional and you can always revert it back.  To do this you open the two links below in Google Chrome.

The first Chrome Flag will enable GPU acceleration for Linux Applications.  The second enables Hyper Threading for your CPU (for the whole Chrome OS).

chrome://flags/#crostini-gpu-support
chrome://flags/#scheduler-configuration

2) 00:46 Now we will enable the Linux Container on our Chromebook.  You can always remove it again in the future as well if needed.

To enable it, we go to the settings of our Chromebook, inside of it, we click on the "Advance" option in the left panel, and then the "Developers" section. Then enable Linux from there as seen in the video.

3) 01:35
Now we continue to the next phase in the tutorial and that is to run several commands in our Linux terminal, which will prepare our system to install Steam.

Some general facts about the terminal.  To paste a command into the Linux terminal, press "Ctrl Shift v" together.  After you paste a command into the Linux terminal, please press "enter" to run it.  At some commands you will see a question to press Y or n to continue.  If you see it press "enter" to continue.

3.1)  This command will add 32 bit architecture to our Linux Apps.

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386

3.2) 02:00 This command will update the repositories of our Linux container.

sudo apt update

3.3) 02:28 This command will install some packages which Steam requires.  The Y and n question will appear in this command, please press "enter" then. 

sudo apt install libgl1-mesa-dri:i386 libgl1-mesa-glx:i386 libc6:i386 libc6-i386 libnss3 python3-apt zenity

4) 02:57
Now we will continue to the next part of the installation, and that is to install download and install Steam.

4.1) Firstly, we will download Steam, the Linux Client, from their official website


4.2) 03:12 Now we will open the installer in our file manager, right click on the installer and install it.

5) 03:38 Now we will launch Steam.
* a Terminal window will open up as soon as you launch Steam, you can just minimize it.
* Steam will install many updates with the first launch.

Enjoy!

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