Compilation for Chrome OS devices

[JLIT0]

Would it be possible to make a compilation target for ARM-based Chromebooks running the included Linux runtime?

[ptitSeb]

Yes, sure. What would be the CFLAGS parameters tu use (and LDFLAGS also maybe?)

[JLIT0]

About half of the Chrome OS ARM devices are using the Rockchip RK3399, which has the following cflags:

CFLAGS="--target=aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu -O3 -pipe -march=armv8-a+crc+simd+crypto -mcpu=cortex-a72+crc+simd+crypto"

Roughly the other half uses the MediaTek MT8173C, which I don't know the cflags for.

[ptitSeb]

ok, but don't forget box86 is a 32bits apps, and need a 32bits chroot/multiarch/whetever to run on aarch64 linux. That may change at least the --target no?

[JLIT0]

Yep, so we can substitute aarch64 for armhf

I've just quickly tested, and the Crostini runtime does allow you to add the armhf architecture and run packages within 64-bit Chrome OS on an RK3399, so it shouldn't be an issue.

[ptitSeb]

I have added support for RK3399 in the CMakeList now. Does the support is enough for this ticket to be closed?

[Maccraft123]

ChromeOS laptops have regular ARM CPUs that shouldn't be under one "chromeos" device I think it'd be a better idea to just add RK3288, RK3399, MT8183 options. There isn't really anything special in ARM chromebooks to not have them under same umbrella as "regular" ARM SBCs

[kaosushijin]

I'm failing to build with the MT8183. The RK3399 build appears to succeed, but the resulting binary is non-operable.

[ptitSeb]

MT8183 seems to be Cortex-A73/-A53. How the RK3399 is non-operable? What kind of error do you get?

[kaosushijin]

jinx@penguin:~/box86/build$ sudo make install
Consolidate compiler generated dependencies of target dynarec_arm
[  3%] Built target dynarec_arm
[  3%] Built target WRAPPERS
Consolidate compiler generated dependencies of target arm_pass0
[ 11%] Built target arm_pass0
Consolidate compiler generated dependencies of target arm_pass1
[ 19%] Built target arm_pass1
Consolidate compiler generated dependencies of target arm_pass2
[ 27%] Built target arm_pass2
Consolidate compiler generated dependencies of target arm_pass3
[ 35%] Built target arm_pass3
[ 36%] Built target dynarec
[ 36%] Built target PRINTER
Consolidate compiler generated dependencies of target box86
[100%] Built target box86
Install the project...
-- Install configuration: "RelWithDebInfo"
-- Installing: /usr/local/bin/box86
-- Installing: /etc/binfmt.d/box86.conf
-- Installing: /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6
-- Installing: /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.5
-- Installing: /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1
jinx@penguin:~/box86/build$ cd
jinx@penguin:~$ sudo systemctl restart systemd-binfmt
Job for systemd-binfmt.service failed because the control process exited with error code.
See "systemctl status systemd-binfmt.service" and "journalctl -xeu systemd-binfmt.service" for details.
jinx@penguin:~$ box86 -v
-bash: /usr/local/bin/box86: No such file or directory
jinx@penguin:~$ box86 --help
-bash: /usr/local/bin/box86: No such file or directory
jinx@penguin:~$ 

[ptitSeb]

Ah ok. You are missing the "armhf" multiarch. If you are on debian/armbian/ubuntu, use "sudo dpk --add-architeture armhf && sudo apt update && sudo apt install libc6:armhf" at least to have box86 running. On other OS, you need to use chroot or something similar...

[kaosushijin]

Success! Something about the compile instructions gave me the impression that multiarch wouldn't be necessary. Now to fiddle with i386 wine to see if I can get Avernum going. It would be a huge add to this Chromebook. Thanks!

[ptitSeb]

Good :)

You will need a few more armhf libs for wine, like x11 and many other. Unfortunatly, I don't have the list.

[nhobson99]

I followed similar instructions to build, but used the Snapdragon 845 target since my Chromebook uses a Snapdragon 7C (which I assume is close enough, it's all ARM64). I did indeed have to enable the armhf architecture.

However, for some reason it doesn't seem to have proper binfmt support.

pirouette@penguin:~/box86/build$ sudo update-binfmts --display
box86.conf (disabled):
     package = box86
        type = magic
      offset = 0
       magic = \x7fELF\x01\x01\x01\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x02\x00\x03\x00:\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\x00\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xfe\xff\xff\xff
        mask = 
 interpreter = /usr/local/bin/box86
    detector = 
python3.10 (enabled):
     package = python3.10
        type = magic
      offset = 0
       magic = \x6f\x0d\x0d\x0a
        mask = 
 interpreter = /usr/bin/python3.10
    detector = 

This is after manually copying the box86.conf file into /usr/share/binfmts/box86.conf as per #419 , accounting for the differing format since I'm using a Ubuntu 22.04 container on Chrome OS (the default container they give you is Debian Bullseye).

I also had to manually enable mounting namespaces in Chrome OS, which I had to search for as well. OP can be found here, but the necessary component is:

1. vmc start termina
2. From a separate shell-  vmc container termina giraffe --privileged true

Now, if I try to enable binfmt support, I'm shown the following:

pirouette@penguin:~/box86/build$ sudo update-binfmts --enable
update-binfmts: warning: unable to close /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc/register: Invalid argument
update-binfmts: exiting due to previous errors

Unfortunately I'm stuck here. Without binfmt support, anything that fork/execs doesn't want to work. Is there something I'm missing?

[nhobson99]

I was able to partially fix this issue by doing a few additional things:

From Crosh

• Enter termina (vmc launch termina)
• Inside termina:
  • lxc config set security.nesting true
  • lxc config set security.virtualization true
• Exit termina, reboot Chrome OS

After modifying lxc configs, it takes a little longer for the virtual machine to start up. Wait a few minutes to finish updating (it should give you a notification that the virtual machine is being updated), then launch Terminal as usual.

Now, back in Terminal, update /usr/share/binfmts/box86.conf to read as follows:

package box86
interpreter /usr/local/bin/box86
magic \x7fELF\x01\x01\x01\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x02\x00\x03\x00
mask \xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\x00\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xfe\xff\xff\xff

Then sudo update-binfmts --import box86.conf and sudo update-binfmts --enable should just work. Finally after all that work, I receive the following:

pirouette@penguin:~$ sudo update-binfmts --display
box86.conf (enabled):
     package = box86
        type = magic
      offset = 0
       magic = \x7fELF\x01\x01\x01\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x02\x00\x03\x00
        mask = \xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\x00\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xfe\xff\xff\xff
 interpreter = /usr/local/bin/box86
    detector = 

However, trying to actually run anything just results in box86 not working. Example:

pirouette@penguin:~$ sudo apt install hello:i386
pirouette@penguin:~$ hello
-bash: /usr/bin/hello: No such file or directory

Trying to run Box86 without binfmt does not seem to work either:

pirouette@penguin:~$ box86 /usr/bin/hello 
-bash: /usr/local/bin/box86: No such file or directory

I'll keep digging through GitHub and Chrome OS issues to see if I can find anything, but I'm definitely running out of ideas.

...

Additional (important) information: I gave up on Ubuntu 22.04 for the sole reason that it doesn't natively support side-by-side multiarch, meaning I couldn't install libc6:i386 alongside libc6:arm64. I'm now running a custom container with Debian Bookworm (arm64) installed, which is basically just a more up to date version of the default Bullseye container that Terminal sets up by default. If you want to follow along with Ubuntu, you'll need a chroot or proot setup. I'm no expert at that, but there are guides that are relatively easy to follow. You'll still need nesting and virtualization enabled for this to work, as far as I can tell.

(For those curious, I wanted a variable sized virtual machine, so I had to build the container myself anyway, and I figured I might as well update to Bookworm while I was at it.)

[nhobson99]

Ok, partial success after looking at #465 . I completely forgot to install the armhf version of libc6, which as I understand is the interpreter responsible for loading and running 32 bit arm executables (even on arm64).

I feel very close now to getting this fully working on Crostini. I can run simple text based programs now, still yet to run graphical programs. I'm surely only missing one small piece of the puzzle now.

Sorry for the... triple post at this point, but I think documenting my experience is worthwhile, and I can make a full writeup when I'm successful in my end goal of launching Steam.

[nhobson99]

After some trial and error installing various armhf graphics drivers, I've finally gotten some OpenGL apps to run, including the Linux (Steam) version of VVVVVV! It runs flawlessly, too. I just had to go through steamcmd to download it, but I knew it was one of the few Steam games I own that doesn't actively use the DRM. Others may work by installing a Steam emulator like Goldberg. Will update shortly.

UPDATE: Goldberg didn't fix games with broken symbols unfortunately.

Also, I still haven't managed to get to the Steam UI at all, it crashes in the terminal, complaining about Can't find 'steam-runtime-check-requirements', continuing anyway and libstdc++.so.6 Global Symbol __libc_single_threaded. I'll put the full terminal output at the end of this comment for posterity.

I'm fairly certain I've installed all the necessary libraries for Steam at this point, with an unhealthy mix of arm64, armhf, i386 and amd64 libs, half of which are probably unnecessary, since box86/64 mostly use native armhf libraries. I think the Global Symbol that's missing is the culprit, but not sure how to go about fixing it.

I also tried installing Steam through Wine (sudo apt install wine64:amd64 wine:i386), which fails with the following output:

Using native(wrapped) libc.so.6
Using native(wrapped) ld-linux-x86-64.so.2
Using native(wrapped) libpthread.so.0
Using native(wrapped) librt.so.1
Error loading needed lib /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/wine/../libwine.so.1
Warning: Cannot dlopen("/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/wine/../libwine.so.1"/0xa2d80190, 2)
Using emulated /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/wine/libwine.so.1
Error loading needed lib /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/wine/kernel32.so
Warning: Cannot dlopen("/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/wine/kernel32.so"/0xa2e14960, 2)
Error loading needed lib /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/wine/kernelbase.so
Warning: Cannot dlopen("/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/wine/kernelbase.so"/0xa2e29300, 2)
Box86 with Dynarec v0.2.7 4a2ff61f built on Jun 13 2022 21:07:54

I know that Wine at least partially works because I was able to successfully open notepad.exe and cmd.exe. Would installing Winetricks or PlayOnLinux (or any other Wine helper tool) help at all?

Something interesting I noticed is that running glxgears (i386 using box86 or amd64 using box64) runs much faster with the environment variable LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=1, which is odd. This behavior is not unique to box86/64, however, the armhf and arm64 versions also exhibit this weird behavior.

...

Full steam output:

pirouette@penguin:~$ steam
/home/pirouette/.local/share/Steam/steam.sh: line 124: VERSION_ID: unbound variable
/home/pirouette/.local/share/Steam/steam.sh: line 124: VERSION_ID: unbound variable
steam.sh[12861]: Running Steam on debian  64-bit
steam.sh[12861]: STEAM_RUNTIME is enabled by the user
setup.sh[12923]: Steam runtime environment up-to-date!
steam.sh[12861]: Can't find 'steam-runtime-check-requirements', continuing anyway
Box86 with Dynarec v0.2.7 4a2ff61f built on Jun 13 2022 21:07:54
Error: Global Symbol __libc_single_threaded not found, cannot apply R_386_GLOB_DAT @0xf0b9f914 ((nil)) in /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6

EDIT: Clarified on Goldberg Steam emulator, it doesn't fix games with broken Global Symbols

[ptitSeb]

I'm migrating this ticket to Discussion, that seems more appropriate.

[EntropyRiser]

Hello. I'm using Lenovo Chromebook 10e and tried to install steam on it's crosini container (debian 11,soc mt8183). I've made a lot of progress but stucked at failing to load steamui.so.
OS version 112.0.5615.134.
Firstly I met the binfmt problem, since crosini's security policy stopped me from updating binfmt. I soved this by using
1. vmc start termina 2. From a separate shell- vmc container termina <container_name> --privileged true
Then I installed the prebuild binary and it works fine.
However, I would stopped at "Fail to load steamui.so". I really need help now. I can provide more feedback if necessary.

[EntropyRiser]

More progress: I can successfully open Steam after I installed all the needed packages. But I met the problem that the login window displays nothing and becomes smaller and smaller until it turns into a line...? I don't understand.

[EntropyRiser]

After reinstallation I stucked at this:
dbus[455]: arguments to dbus_message_new_method_call() were incorrect, assertion "path != NULL" failed in file ../../../dbus/dbus-message.c line 1362.
This is normally a bug in some application using the D-Bus library.

D-Bus not built with -rdynamic so unable to print a backtrace
/home/……/.local/share/Steam/steam.sh: line 798: 455 Aborted (core dumped) "$STEAMROOT/$STEAMEXEPATH" "$@"

[ptitSeb]

I never witnessed the "smaller and smaller" issue, but the login being blank means box64 is not installed / or not trigger correctly. I you use BOX86_BASH to run steam, prefer using BOX64_BASH instead, as it will transparently use box64 and box86 for you.

[EntropyRiser]

I've installed both box86 and box64 and used the test binaries in the tests folder and passed.
test01
Both x86 and x64 binaries successfully print the message. But now I can't even see the window. I stucked at the d-bus issue.

[EntropyRiser]

Currently it ended up like this...

[EntropyRiser]

Oh god I manually added --login xxx xxx arguments and it appeared again.

The first time it displayed the account and passwd textarea but the window becomes smaller rapidly and I can't input anything. The second time it appeared gray with nothing, like the picture above. It becomes smaller and smaller to.

[ptitSeb]

When you look at box86 and box64 log, near the beggining do you see Params database has 22 entries (or some other numbers)? There are some important parameters for steam and steamwebhelper in the box86.box86rc and box64.box64rc. It should use some default sane parameters if no file is found. But if thoses files are not in /etc/, you might when to put them in your home, renamed to .box86rc and .box64rc

[EntropyRiser]

I applyed BOX86_NOVULKAN=1 and steam logo successfully displayed, but the window shrinking problem didn't solved so I still can't use it.

[nhobson99]

https://gist.github.com/nhobson99/98d1542e542d3aa25faa3c817d3f2a67

I forgot I had an entire writeup about using Box86 to run Steam on Chrome OS. I wanted to write a section about Wine but gave up on it. I hope this helps someone.

[EntropyRiser]

Thanks for your work, which is the most detailed tutorial of this topic. I'm still trying to figure out how to run steam. Here's how I fix missing libs. (Debian 11)
sudo apt install libc6:armhf libx11-6:armhf libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0:armhf libgtk2.0-0:armhf libstdc++6:armhf libsdl2-2.0-0:armhf mesa-va-drivers:armhf libsdl1.2-dev:armhf libsdl-mixer1.2:armhf libpng16-16:armhf libcal3d12v5:armhf libsdl2-net-2.0-0:armhf libopenal1:armhf libsdl2-image-2.0-0:armhf libvorbis-dev:armhf libcurl4:armhf osspd:armhf pulseaudio:armhf libjpeg62:armhf libudev1:armhf libgl1-mesa-dev:armhf libsnappy1v5:armhf libx11-dev:armhf libsmpeg0:armhf libboost-filesystem1.81.0:armhf libboost-program-options1.81.0:armhf libavcodec58:armhf libavformat58:armhf libswscale5:armhf libmyguiengine3debian1v5:armhf libboost-iostreams1.81.0:armhf libsdl2-mixer-2.0-0:armhf libnss3:armhf libnm0:armhf libdbus-glib-1-2:armhf libudev1:armhf libnspr4:armhf libgudev-1.0-0:armhf libusb-1.0-0:armhf libappindicator1:armhf

[EntropyRiser]

Finally I succeed.Here's all we have to do.
Device:Lenovo Chromebook 10e(MT8183),Chrome OS 112.0.5615.134

First we should start the linux container in privilege mode.Press ctrl+alt+T and then vmc start termina
In the termina: lxc list
If the container is running, run lxc stop <container_name>. My container's name is penguin.
Then in another crosh running vmc container termina <container_name> --privileged true
If failed run another time.
This step is to bypass the binfmt permission denied fatal.

Second install box86 through prebuild binary or build it yourself. Box64 also needed. Then run the install_steam.sh in the box86 repo to fix missing libs(don't install steam manually because there are many libs to fix).
Then run steam and wait.
(To save my disk space I reinstalled the container 10 times or more to completely cleanup unused libs which is quite a hard work)

[EntropyRiser]

In the first step we should also do this:
sudo apt install binfmt-support
then edit /usr/share/binfmts/box86.conf :
package box86
interpreter /usr/local/bin/box86
magic \x7fELF\x01\x01\x01\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x02\x00\x03\x00
mask \xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\x00\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xfe\xff\xff\xff

/usr/share/binfmts/box64.conf
package box64
interpreter /usr/local/bin/box64
magic \x7fELF\x02\x01\x01\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x02\x00\x3e\x00
mask \xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\x00\x00\x00\x00\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xfe\xff\xff\xff

Then sudo update-binfmts --import
sudo update-binfmts --display

[DarkevilPT]

Sure after adding that hack:
sudo wget https://ryanfortner.github.io/box86-debs/box86.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/box86.list && sudo wget https://ryanfortner.github.io/box64-debs/box64.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/box64.list && wget -qO- https://ryanfortner.github.io/box86-debs/KEY.gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/box86-debs-archive-keyring.gpg && wget -qO- https://ryanfortner.github.io/box64-debs/KEY.gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/box64-debs-archive-keyring.gpg && sudo aptitude install libd3dadapter9-mesa -y && sudo aptitude update && sudo aptitude upgrade -y

sudo apt install box86-generic-arm -y
sudo apt install box64-generic-arm -y

Allows you to have ~/box86/install_steam.sh working then