Playing x86 Steam games on ARM Linux devices using Box86 + chroot

Table of Contents

Recently, I read Raezroth’s Linux-ARM-Gaming-Chroot guide on Github. He discussed about how to install Box86 and Steam on PinePhone/Pinephone Pro, the real Linux phone.

I do own a Pinephone. However, I choose Xiaomi Poco F1 for testing. It outperforms my PinePhone and also supports running Mobian perfectly.

I had tested this on postmarketOS, it did not work. Steam wouldn’t start in chroot on postmarketOS.

Here is my video demonstration.

1. Set up chroot environment
#

My desktop environent is GNOME Wayland.

Install following packages

sudo apt update
sudo apt install debootstrap debian-archive-keyring x11-xserver-utils dbus-x11

Create gaming directory

mkdir gaming
sudo chown root:root gaming

Install an armhf chroot Debian environment

sudo debootstrap --arch armhf --components=main,universe sid gaming http://ftp.tw.debian.org/debian/

Create a script startg.sh for starting chroot environment

cd gaming
sudo mount -t proc /proc proc/
sudo mount -t sysfs /sys sys/
sudo mount --bind /dev dev/
sudo mount --bind /dev/pts/ dev/pts/
sudo mount --bind /run run/
sudo mount --bind /run/user/1000 run/user/1000
sudo mount -t tmpfs tmpfs tmp/
sudo chroot . /bin/bash

# Auto umount everything after exiting
sudo umount proc/
sudo umount sys/
sudo umount dev/
sudo umount dev/pts
sudo umount run/
sudo umount run/user/1000
sudo umount tmp/

Chroot into Debian

chmod + startg.sh
./startg.sh

Install VIM

apt update
apt install vim

Edit /root/.bashrc. Add these environment variables:

export LC_ALL="C"
export LANGUAGE="C"
export PATH=$PATH:/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/games:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin
export STEAMOS=1
export STEAM_RUNTIME=1

chmod 1777 /dev/shm

Install packages for compling Box86

source /root/.bashrc

dpkg --add-architecture arm64

apt update

apt install sudo vim make cmake git wget gnupg libx11-dev libgl-dev libvulkan-dev libtcmalloc-minimal4 libnm0 zenity chromium alsamixergui libsdl2-dev unzip libgles-dev firefox-esr:arm64 libx11-dev:arm64 libvulkan-dev:arm64 libsdl2-dev:arm64 libgl-dev:arm64 libc6-dev:arm64 libgles-dev:arm64 libsdl2-dev zstd xz-utils

Create a new user

adduser --home /home/user user
usermod -g users user
passwd user
passwd root

Run visudo. Add the normal to sudoers

root  ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL
user  ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

Switch to normal user

su user
cd

Edit .profile and add these:

export SDL_VIDEODRIVER=wayland
export WAYLAND_DISPLAY=wayland-1
export GDK_BACKEND=wayland
export XDG_SESSION_TYPE=wayland
export XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/1000
export DISPLAY=:1
export XSOCKET=/tmp/.X11-unix/X1
export _JAVA_AWT_WM_NONREPARENTING=1

2. Install Box86 and Box64
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Install Box86 from Itai Nelken’s repository

sudo wget https://itai-nelken.github.io/weekly-box86-debs/debian/box86.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/box86.list
wget -qO- https://itai-nelken.github.io/weekly-box86-debs/debian/KEY.gpg | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt update && sudo apt install box86 -y

Install Box64 from Ryan Fortner’s repository

sudo wget https://ryanfortner.github.io/box64-debs/box64.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/box64.list
wget -O- https://ryanfortner.github.io/box64-debs/KEY.gpg | gpg --dearmor | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/box64-debs-archive-keyring.gpg
sudo apt update && sudo apt install box64 -y

Open another terminal in Mobian host. Copy infmt.d of chroot to host.

sudo cp -r ~/gaming/etc/binfmt.d/box* /etc/binfmt.d/

Restart binfmt services. Go back to chroot.

sudo systemctl restart systemd-binfmt

3. Install Steam and Steam Proton
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Install dependencies of Steam

xdg-user-dirs-update --force

cd ~/Downloads
wget http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/libi/libindicator/libindicator7_0.5.0-4_armhf.deb
wget http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/liba/libappindicator/libappindicator1_0.4.92-7_armhf.deb
sudo apt install ./lib*

Install Steam from official website

wget https://repo.steampowered.com/steam/archive/stable/steam_latest.deb
sudo apt install ./steam_latest.deb
cd

Run Steam. This should open the game list.

steam +open steam://open/minigameslist

Log into your Steam account. Then enable Steam Play in Settings so it will automatically install Proton after downloading Windows games.
Pinephone users could launch Steam in “Big Picture” mode. But usb dongle does not working on my Xiaomi Poco F1.

4. Install Wine
#

Raezroth uses wine-tkg in his tutorial, but I use Wine-GE-Proton. Wine and Wine64 are included in it.

Install Wine-GE-Proton

cd ~/Downloads
wget https://github.com/GloriousEggroll/wine-ge-custom/releases/download/GE-Proton8-26/wine-lutris-GE-Proton8-26-x86_64.tar.xz
tar -xvf wine-lutris-GE-Proton8-26-x86_64.tar.xz
mv ~/Downloads/wine-lutris-GE-Proton8-26-x86_64/* ~/wine-ge-proton

Add Wine path to .profile. When Steam is trying to run x86 games it will execute Wine first.

echo 'PATH=$PATH:/home/$USER/wine-ge-proton/bin' >> ~/.profile

source ~/.profile

5. Running Steam gmaes
#

“This is a game” (a x86 Windows game) works well. Since Poco F1’s usb dongles do not function, I use GNOME Remote desktop for keyboard inputs.
“nacrissu” (a x86 Linux game) works.
It is also possible to run other Windows programs using wine commands in terminal.