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Install Runescape on ChromeOS

For reasons beyond my own understanding, the knowledge was requested upon myself to assist in the installation of Runescape onto a Chromebook.

Activate Linux Virtual Machine​

Navigate to the settings menu for ChromeOS and locate the Developer Settings. Once in the Developer options there should be an option to enable a Linux Virtual Machine. This may require an update for ChromeOS before it may be installed but once installed it will launch a linux terminal.

Configure Linux VM​

Update apt:

sudo apt update

Install flatpak:

sudo apt install flatpak

Install the Runescape flatpak application:

sudo flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

More details on the application can be found at: https://flathub.org/apps/com.jagex.RuneScape

Install Runscape via flatpak:

sudo flatpak install flathub com.jagex.RuneScape

Adjust file permissions:

sudo chown root:root /usr/bin/bwrap && sudo chmod u+s /usr/bin/bwrap

Adjust ChromeOS Flags​

Once the above has been completed it will be required to enable the following flags in ChromeOS:

  • chrome://flags/#crostini-gpu-support
  • chrome://flags/#scheduler-configuration ChromeOS will need to be restarted in order to adjust for the configuration changes made by enabling the flags.

Once all the flags have been enabled the Runescape Application can be found in the application menu under the "Linux Apps" folder and will be labelled "Runescape" where the game can be launched.

It is worth noting that since the method of generating the game is a Linux VM that is using an experimental feature to allow GPU Passthrough from ChromeOS to the VM that there will be a decreased performance compared to the standard GPU & CPU performance that would be expected for the device.