I was able to install battle.net through Steam Beta on ChomeOS (ASUS CM3401). We even get working GPU acceleration (AMD Radeon VirtIO) through GE Proton out of the box. This is a short guide on how it was done.
A little video of it in action
starcraft2_chromeos.mov
We need to get the latest version of GE Proton loaded into steam. Proton is the emulation layer that allows us to launch windows apps (like battle.net). I didn't have any luck with Proton stable or Proton Experimental. Only worked with GE Proton.
- You have already installed Steam Beta on a supported Chromebook. There are lots of guides out there.
- You have decent command line skills. This guide isn't for beginners.
Log into your Chromebook
Open Chrome browser and save these two files into your Downloads folder:
- The latest version of battle.net.
- The latest version of GE Proton. Download the
.tar.gz. Make note of the file name.
Launch Steam. This starts the borealis virtual environment. Don't close Steam.
Click back to your desktop and launch a Crosh Terminal ctrl+alt+t
We'll share our Downloads folder with borealis (Steam), then open a borealis shell. After that we'll copy our files over.
# Share downloads folder
vmc share borealis Downloads
# make note of the path in the console output
# Open a borealis shell
vsh borealis
# Copy the battle.net installer and GE Proton from the Downloads folder into our home directory
cp /mnt/shared/MyFiles/Downloads/Battle.net-Setup.exe .
cp /mnt/shared/MyFiles/Downloads/GE-Proton9-7.tar.gz .
# Create directory in Steam folder and untar GE Proton into that directory
mkdir ~/.steam/root/compatibilitytools.d
tar -xf GE-Proton9-7.tar.gz -C ~/.steam/root/compatibilitytools.d/
Now we can quit Steam and re-launch it. This will give us the GE Proton compatibility option.
Inside steam, add a "non steam game" and browse to your home directory. Select Battle.net-Setup.exe.
After adding battle.net setup, change the options to force GE Proton compatibility
Launch battle.net through steam and go through the install, accepting defaults. Don't log into battle.net, just close it out.
Now we need to open crosh terminal and borealis shell like we did before so we can go find our newly installed battle.net
find -name "*Battle.net.exe"
# my install was here
./.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/2424918753/pfx/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/Battle.net/Battle.net.exe
Back in steam we want to add another "non-steam game" to our library. Force compatibility like we did before on the installer.
Now we can launch battle.net and install Starcraft 2. I had to pause and restart the download because it slowed way down.
After this point you are set. You can launch Starcraft 2 from inside battle.net. Adjust graphics settings to low and 1920 x 1080. I had to do a reboot because things were a little slow and buggy at first, but after that it runs pretty great.
Can't log into battle.net with a google account. Need to figure out how to fix that auth flow.